Felix Abt's account of his seven years in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK-North Korea) is a first on two counts. While there are a few accounts by foreign experts and diplomats, as far as I know it is the only such work by a businessman. There are plenty of photographs in it, though they are not quite as unusual as the author seems to believe. And for the RSAA's Journal, this is the first ever review of a book only available in e-book format.

The book is well worth reading for the picture it gives of a country that, unlike the conventional Western image, is not full of mad people following the instructions of mad leaders. Some issues may be avoided but Abt tells what he saw rather than what others told him was there. He is Swiss, with a long record of work in Europe, Africa and South East Asia with multi-national companies such as F. Hoffman-La Roche and ABB. He took up his appointment as ABB's representative in North Korea with enthusiasm. That enthusiasm led him to co-found the European Business Association in Pyongyang and to serve as its first chair, and to establish a short-lived Pyongyang Business School. He also created a successful pharmaceutical company, along the way selling the idea of advertising to the North Koreans. He learnt to work closely with his Korean staff and, like others, found that Korean women, whether in North or South Korea, often provide a more capable and efficient body of staff. They are as well-educated as their male counterparts but do not suffer from the same status hangups of the latter.

Abt also discovered that while his North Korean colleagues and partners were willing and eager to do business, international sanctions and restrictions, the result of the DPRK's nuclear programme, often made it difficult. He is scathing about the Western approach to North Korea and about the methods used to try to make it conform, which, he argues, hit ordinary people and legitimate business in North Korea, despite claims to the contrary. He dismisses stories about North Korean production and sales of illicit drugs and, in particular, about US claims that the country is the source of the counterfeiting of US $100 bills.