North Korea has been in the news a lot recently. A. LOT. And while what I have been hearing scares me, I realized that I really didn't know very much about this country. Most people may not, other than the bits we get in sound bites, news blurbs and such. Many people may have seen this image before - taken from space and providing an image of what North Korea is like - an image that most probably shocks most people in the Western world:
Yep - that's an image taken from space at night showing South Korea near the bottom, China near the top and that large virtually black area in between, that is North Korea. I must admit that that image truly blows my mind to think that in 2017 there is a place on earth where there is virtually no electricity at night. It's not like there is some environmental catastrophe that causes this to occur. On the contrary, it is an orchestrated effort by the government to keep people "in the dark" both figuratively and literally.
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea was written in 2009, and tells the
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Started: Aug 11, 2017
Finished: Sep 7, 2017
Setting: North Korea
Publication Date: Dec 29, 2009
Pages: 338 (Kindle)
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true stories of six North Koreans who made it out. They were all true followers of the current family leadership: starting with Kim IL-Sung (who ruled from 1948 to 1994), his son Kim Jong-IL (who ruled from 1994 to 2011) and his son Kim Jong-Un (who has ruled in North Korea since 2011). Three generations of one family have ruled this country and its over 25 million* people. And the ruling family has also continued its line of tyranny, oppression, censorship and apparent indifference to providing even the basic conveniences and comforts to the people whose daily lives they control with an iron fist.
This book has been on my TBR list since 2011, and I wish I had read it sooner. Barbara Demick does a very good job of fleshing out the stories of these 6 individuals, all of varying backgrounds and personalities, all living in the 3rd most populated city, Chongjing. The six main characters/interviewees** of the book (using names different than their real ones to avoid any retribution to relatives left in North Korea) are:
- Mrs. Song - a pro-regime housewife and past head of the apartment block's co-operative spying/reporting organization reporting directly to secret police
- Oak -hee - Mrs. Song's rebellious, and eventually enterprising, daughter who is critical of the regime and only performs good "socialist" activities to avoid suspicion and getting into trouble
- Mi-ran - daughter of a miner, a South Korean POW, with bad family social status which disqualifies her from advancement, but one that may be improved with work; she is accepted at a teacher's college and begins teaching kindergarten right at the start of the country's devastating economic collapse
- Jun-sang - a student from a Japanese-Korean ancestry and Mi-ran's secret boyfriend in North Korea; becomes a privileged university student in Pyongyang but still develops a critical outlook on the regime and begins listening to South Korean television and radio
- Kim Hyuck - a homeless street-boy whose father commits him to an orphanage and must struggle to survive and fend for himself
- Dr. Kim - a doctor with relatives in China who goes from privilege and prestige to starvation and helplessness in treating her starving patients
Demick does (I think) a good job of not becoming political and doesn't try to present a pro-American or overtly anti-communist slant in the book. Reading about the harsh conditions under which these people must live under, and the incredible journeys they all undertake to escape from North Korea (most involve either sneaking into China by foot or paying/bribing people to enter China) presented a testament to the ability of people to overcome obstacles that I will never have to endure.
It's a very good book and I am so glad I read it - even though it took about 6 years to do so. I wish it could be updated in some fashion, perhaps to more closely reflect daily life in 2017. But then again, maybe it still does.
*(source: http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/north-korea-population/)
** (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_to_Envy)
