This is a non-fiction work about North Koreans. The author, Barbara Demick, was living in Seoul as the correspondent for the LA Times, and she interviewed six people who had successfully escaped from North Korea and made their way to South Korea. These people did not just sneak through the DMZ and cross directly into South Korea. Rather, they fled from Chongjin, a city in the far north, across the border with China. Demick reviewed the history of the peninsula and its partition at the end of WWII as a political solution to the conflicts with China and Russia. No one in the U.S. really knew what to do with this country which had been a colony of Japan since Korea was invaded in 1910. Japan lost their colony as a part of their defeat. Then, after only five years of peace, North Korea invaded the South, starting the 3-year Korean War. Demick described how, in the beginning, even into the early 60s, it looked like the North Korean economy would do much better than the South. But, their leader, Kim Il-Sung, and his son who took control in 1994, Kim Jong-Il, were focused on things other than what would best comfort their people, for example, developing their own nuclear arsenal. She described the propaganda machine that Kim Il-Sung created and the harsh methods he used to lock up his country, so no one could get in or out. This is a riveting tale of famine and loss, survival and success. The book belongs in our blog because of the incredible stories of hardship that have been overcome, all well-told by the author. By reading this book, I have a much better understanding of the problems of dealing with this truly rogue state. It helps that I’m in South Korea at the moment, but it would be a good read anywhere. I was able to ask our guide on a day in Seoul, a 50-year-old woman who is a native of South Korea, if she perceived a threat from the North. She nearly shook as she nodded her assent that she thought Kim Jong-Il was a dangerous leader who represented an unpredictable threat with nuclear potential. After reading the book, I understand why she feels that way. This one gets my highest recommendation.
