Article snippet: Blaine Harden spent decades reporting across Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia, but for the former Washington Post East Asia bureau chief, covering North Korea has been unlike any other assignment. “It was hard slogging. It still is hard slogging,” Harden told ABC News. “North Korea is, you know, the longest-lasting totalitarian state in the history of the planet. Seventy years almost. And there’s nothing like it.” Harden has not only visited and reported on the country, he has written three books focused exclusively on nonfiction narratives uncovered through his years of work there. Now, his latest book, “King of Spies,” lays out the largely unknown story of Donald Nichols, an unlikely yet effective American spymaster. Nichols arrived on the Korean peninsula in 1946, carefully constructed an intricate network of spies, and became a brutal “one-man war machine” as a young man in his 20s. For Harden, examining the barbarism and trauma of the Korean War in which Nichols played such a crucial role held important lessons about the history of U.S.-North Korean relations, particularly after the U.S. began its brutal bombing campaign. “They destroyed virtually every city, every town in North Korea. General Curtis LeMay who was head of the Strategic Air Command at the time estimated that the Americans killed 20 percent of the civilians in North Korea,” Harden said. “So that bombing was a fact. It’s a historical experience that the grandparents of the current peopl... Link to the full article to read more