Korea's Place in the Sun, by Bruce Cumings

Wikipedia's bio of Cumings is instructive. After you read Cumings chapter on North Korea in this book, you might want to check out the bio which states that Cumings has a pro-North Korean stance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Cumings

Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History, by Bruce Cumings
WW Norton and Company, 1997
495 pages, plus bibliography, index and a few photos scattered throughout the text, plus 8 pages of color photos of Korean artwork
Library: 951.9 CUM

Description
Over the past one hundred fifty years Korea has traced a remarkably steep trajectory from an isolated, traditional country to a modern society with a robust, global economy and an increasingly democrat politics. But the survival of the political division between north and south shows that this path has been far from smooth and continuous.

Bruce Cumings' rich narrative focuses on Korea's fractured shattered, twentieth century history. In 1910 Korea lost its centuries-old independence, and it remained an exploited colony of Japan until 1945. Then came national division, political turmoil, a devastating war, and the death and dislocation of millions, all of which left Korea still divided and in desperate poverty. Its recovery and spectacular growth over the next generation is one of this century's most remarkable achievements. Cumings provides a compelling account of Korea's travails and triumphs in the modern period.

Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments
1. The Virtues
2. The Interests, 1860-1904
3. Eclipse, 1905-1945
4. The Passions, 1945-1948
5. Collision, 1948-1953
6. Korean Sun Rising: Industrialization, 1953-1996
7. The Virtues II: The Democratic Movement: 1960-1996
8. Nation of the Sun King: North Korea, 1956-1996
9. America's Koreans
10. Korea's Place in the World
Bibliography
Index

Maps
Map of Korea after end of Korean War
The Three Kingdoms
Korea in early 20th century, with provincial boundaries
Shifting tide of battle in the Korean war

Photos
--Unidentifiable Korean women in kimonos onn the streets of Seoul, circa 1900
--Wall near Suwon built in 1780
--The Taewon'gun
--Unidentified foreign diplomat in sedan chair with 5 unidentified Korean bearers, circa 1900
--First trolley car in Seoul
--King Kojong and his son, circa 1903
--Unnamedc Japanese governor-general, unidentified Japanese officials
--Seoul railway station
--Bank of Korea
--Port of Chongjin in the 1930s
--Korean schoolgirls (6 unidentified) sent to Nagoya as comfort woman. Also unidentified Japanese official.
--Shinto Shrine on South Mountain in Seoul
--American soldiers marching away from Government-General Building in Seoul, Sept 9, 1945. Unidentified
--Korean village circa 1952
--Syngman Rhee at Chang Tok-su's funeral in late 1947, with Francesca, Kim Song-su, and several other unidentified Korean's
--General Douglas Macarthur lighting pipe, Nov 24, 1950
--General Chang Pyong-san and 4 unidentified Chinese members of negotiating team
--Park Chung Hee, General George H Decker and an unidentified American admiral
--Chun Doo Hwan and wife visit Ronald and Nancy Reagan
--Kim Jong Il and 4 unidentified Noprth korean peasants on collective farm, circa 1970
--Unidentified children at play in North Korea in the late 1950s

Color photos
blue dragon fresco on wall of a Koguryo tob
Sakyamuni Budda
old homes along river bank in Kaesoing
Koryo celadon vase
folk painting of tiger
Hahoe masks
A screen which stood behind Korean throne
Confucian scholar Yi Chae
Looking toward Revolutionary Museum from Taedong River, present day Pyongyang