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    <p>Dear KS Subscribers: <br>
      <br>
      Below is an e-mail I received from Andre Lankov. He requested that
      I post this for him as he is not currently a KS subscriber. <br>
    </p>
    <p>Sheila Miyoshi Jager<br>
      <br>
      ********* <br>
      <br>
      Dear colleagues, the KS list members, <br>
      <br>
      The situation with Dr. Armstrong’s book looks grimmer and grimmer
      <br>
      every day. As we all can see from the now easily available data,
      the <br>
      scale and character of the problems are far more serious than
      could be <br>
      expected before. <br>
      <br>
      I checked more notes to the Soviet archival documents which are <br>
      present in the recently published table of problems, and, indeed,
      the <br>
      documents cited have no information which is mentioned in the
      book. <br>
      <br>
      I will not bother you with too many facts, but will mention one.
      On <br>
      page 68, Dr. Armstrong cites a Soviet archival document which, as
      it <br>
      is implied, mentions Pyongyang City Rehabilitation Committee
      (PCRC), <br>
      teams of the Soviet technicians and Soviet Ambassador’s personal <br>
      involvement with the city reconstruction as well as Kim Il Song’s
      <br>
      chairmanship of the PCRC. Judging by the title (“Interview with <br>
      Pyongyang City Committee Vice-Chairman Comrade Kim Song-yong”),
      the <br>
      document in question, indeed, might deal with such matters, but <br>
      actually it does not: its main topic is the rules regarding the
      party <br>
      membership, and there are no references to any of the above
      mentioned <br>
      topics. <br>
      <br>
      This is only one of many problems – and I’ve checked only part of
      the <br>
      problematic footnotes. <br>
      <br>
      However, there is still some probability that we are dealing with
      a <br>
      chain of unintentional mistakes, and, frankly, remarkably shoddy <br>
      handling of primary sources, and not with a massive case of
      foot-mining <br>
      (or, likely, something far worse). The matter should be clarified.
      From where I sit, <br>
      it seems that the only way to resolve the mounting doubts is for <br>
      Dr. Armstrong to produce the archival documents he used in <br>
      writing the book – to be more precise, the documents which contain
      <br>
      information and data presented in the book’s text. If this can be
      done, <br>
      the sooner the better. Producing these documents will dispel most
      of the suspicions <br>
      which are growing fast. But even if this is done, the mishandling
      of footnotes <br>
      and/or sources on such scale needs some clarification, I presume.
      <br>
      <br>
      Andre Lankov
    </p>
    <br>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 9/27/2016 12:55 AM, Balazs Szalontai
      wrote:<br>
    </div>
    <blockquote
      cite="mid:850208207.10006174.1474952107125@mail.yahoo.com"
      type="cite">
      <div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff;
        font-family:Helvetica Neue-Light, Helvetica Neue Light,
        Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande,
        Sans-Serif;font-size:13px">
        <div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71096"><span
            style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times
            New Roman","serif""
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71097">Dear Subscribers,<o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71098"></o:p></span></div>
        <div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71099"><span
            style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times
            New Roman","serif""
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71100"><o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71101"> </o:p></span></div>
        <div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71102"><span
            style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times
            New Roman","serif""
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71103">Let me quote a
            few sentences from my latest post of
            20 September 2016:<o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71104"></o:p></span></div>
        <div style="text-align:justify"
          id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71105"><span
            style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times
            New Roman","serif""
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71106">“</span><span
            style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; font-family:
            "Times New Roman", serif;"
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71107">When Professor
            Armstrong
            contacted me privately on 17 September, I asked him to send
            me a list of the
            inaccuracies he had identified. I also asked him to scan the
            AVPRF documents
            cited in the section of pp. 54-126. If I can see the cited
            documents, it will
            be easy to reconstruct which ones contain information
            compatible with the
            information provided in <i
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71108">Tyranny of the
              Weak</i>, and which ones do not. On 17 September,
            Professor Armstrong expressed
            his readiness to start preparing such a list of inaccuracies
            on 19 September. I
            welcomed his decision. If I receive this list and the actual
            Russian documents,
            it will be far easier for me to decide if this matter can be
            settled privately
            or not.”<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71109"></o:p></span></div>
        <div style="text-align:justify"
          id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71110"><span
            style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; font-family:
            "Times New Roman", serif;"
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71111"><o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71112"> </o:p></span></div>
        <div style="text-align:justify"
          id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71113"><span
            style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; font-family:
            "Times New Roman", serif;"
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71114">So far I have not
            received such a list, or any
            scanned documents, or further private messages, from
            Professor Armstrong.
            Hopefully they will be provided later. In the meantime, let
            me provide some
            additional information in a systematized form. As it was
            correctly pointed out
            by a subscriber, it is more effective and less disconcerting
            for readers to
            collect at least some of the currently known cases of
            invalid source citations
            in a single downloadable table than to post them one by one.
            This way the list
            would not be overloaded by messages related to a single
            thread. The following
            table, to which readers may get access by clicking on the
            links below, is a
            longer and more detailed version of the list that Jiyul Kim
            posted on H-Asia on
            September 20, 2016. It includes 33 cases of invalid source
            citations in Charles
            K. Armstrong's "Tyranny of the Weak," complete with detailed
            analysis
            of each case (which can be opened by clicking on the links
            in the table, then
            clicking on the second “floating” link that appears). It
            also includes a
            statement of the problem and a call for further
            investigation.<o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71115"></o:p></span></div>
        <div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;
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          id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71116"><span
            style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New
            Roman", serif;"
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71117"><o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71118"> </o:p></span></div>
        <div style="line-height: normal; background-image: initial;
          background-position: initial; background-size: initial;
          background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial;
          background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"
          id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71119"><span
            style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New
            Roman", serif;"
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71120">Balazs Szalontai<o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71121"></o:p></span></div>
        <div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71122"><span
            style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times
            New Roman","serif""
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71123"><o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71124"> </o:p></span></div>
        <div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;
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          background-clip: initial;"
          id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71125"><b
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71126"><span
              style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New
              Roman", serif;"
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71127">LINK to SHEET</span></b><span
            style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New
            Roman", serif;"
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71128"><o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71129"></o:p></span></div>
        <div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;
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          id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71130"><span
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            sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71131"><o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71132"> </o:p></span></div>
        <div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;
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          id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71133"><span
            style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Segoe UI",
            sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71134"><a
              moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1R28ryCj8CTlgLKJqIKLe26eFlSq5SeiPODtSQUyCTs8/edit?usp=sharing"
              target="_blank" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71135"><span
                style="color:#196AD4"
                id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71136">https://docs.google.com/
                spreadsheets/d/ 1R28ryCj8CTlgLKJqIKLe26eFlSq5S
                eiPODtSQUyCTs8/edit?usp= sharing</span></a><o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71137"></o:p></span></div>
        <div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;
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          id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71138"><span
            style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Segoe UI",
            sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71139"><o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71140"> </o:p></span></div>
        <div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;
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          id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71141"><b
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71142"><span
              style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New
              Roman", serif;"
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71143">LINK to PDF</span></b><span
            style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New
            Roman", serif;"
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71144"><o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71145"></o:p></span></div>
        <div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;
          background-image: initial; background-position: initial;
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          id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71146"><span
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            sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71147"><o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71148"> </o:p></span></div>
        <div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;
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          background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial;
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          id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71149"><span
            style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Segoe UI",
            sans-serif;" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71150"><a
              moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2Ojwug7juTIdWh0ZDJWamtmZFk/view?usp=sharing"
              target="_blank" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71151"><span
                style="color:#196AD4"
                id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71152">https://drive.google.com/file/
                d/
                0B2Ojwug7juTIdWh0ZDJWamtmZFk/ view?usp=sharing</span></a><o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71153"></o:p></span></div>
        <div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71154"><span
            style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times
            New Roman","serif""
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71155"><o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71156"> </o:p></span></div>
        <div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71157"><span
            style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times
            New Roman","serif""
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71158">Best regards,<o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71159"></o:p></span></div>
        <div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71160"><span
            style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times
            New Roman","serif""
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71161">Balazs Szalontai<o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71162"></o:p></span></div>
        <div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_70737">
        </div>
        <div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71163"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Times New
            Roman","serif""
            id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71164">Korea University<o:p
              id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1474948336475_71165"></o:p></span></div>
      </div>
    </blockquote>
    <br>
    <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-- 
Sheila Miyoshi Jager
Professor of East Asian Studies
Oberlin College
</pre>
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