The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary North Korea presents a comprehensive picture of contemporary North Korea, placed in historical context, spanning a period of significant transition and set against the overlapping fields of politics, economy, culture, society and foreign relations.

Part 1: The political perspective 2. The evolution of the North Korean Socio-Political System, 1945-1994 3. Masters of survival: North Korean leadership in a hostile world 4. Political economy and ideology under Kim Jong-un Part 2: The North Korean economy 5. The structural transformation of the North Korean economic planning system 6. Between the markets and the state: North Korea's fragile agriculture and food supply 7. North Korea's interaction with the global economy Part 3: Foreign relations 8. 'The enemies made this possible': Sino-North Korean relations after 1948 9. Nuclear weapons and North Korean foreign policy 10. North Korea's nuclear diplomacy 11. Revival of an old friendship: Contemporary North Korea-Russia Relations 12. Once more with feeling the US-DPRK dialogue 1993-2020 Part 4: Society 13. Human rights and North Korea 14. The 'market value' of people in North Korea 15. Child mass mobilization in North Korea 16. The North Korean diaspora Part 5: Culture 17. The evolution of cultural policy and practice in North Korea, seen through the journal Choson umak (Korean music) 18. Love of the lover, love of the Leader: youth romance in North Korean fiction 19. Mass culture in the Kim Jong Un era: continuities and changes