Book Title:
Without You, There Is No Us - My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite
Without You, There Is No Us - My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite
Author Name(s):
Suki Kim
Suki Kim
Category:
History - Korea
History - Korea
Additional Details:Released: October 14th, 2014
Hardcover
304 Pages
$24.00 (USD)
I have just finished reading "Without You, There Is No Us" an account by journalist Suki Kim of her time teaching at the PUST the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. Kim was an English teacher who was actually a journalist undercover. The school surprisingly was run by Evangelical missionaries who were under the auspices of the DPRK's minders. She was teaching the sons of the elite members of the DPRK's ruling party. Sons who's lives have always lived under the dark shadow of the Great Leaders Kim Il-Sun and Kim Jong-Il. They worship them and study the great Juche.
The places she talks about in her book, I've seen pictures of. Being an avid reader of foreign trip reports on airline message boards, there are a few interesting trip reports by inquisitive travelers who go to DPRK through foreign travel agencies. Their photos show stark streets with few people, immense monuments to the two Kims, propaganda billboards that urge the people of the country to work for the good of the nation.
Kim speaks of bus trips with no other vehicles on the road, still subjected to military checkpoints, where skeleton like people walk along the side of the road like wraiths. In her opinion, the people who aren't privileged are either soldiers or slaves. The elite sons though are slaves to the blatant indoctrination that they have grown up with. Though the teachers aren't really allowed to talk about their world, Kim manages to impart truths about her life to the amazement of her students.
The places she talks about in her book, I've seen pictures of. Being an avid reader of foreign trip reports on airline message boards, there are a few interesting trip reports by inquisitive travelers who go to DPRK through foreign travel agencies. Their photos show stark streets with few people, immense monuments to the two Kims, propaganda billboards that urge the people of the country to work for the good of the nation.
Kim speaks of bus trips with no other vehicles on the road, still subjected to military checkpoints, where skeleton like people walk along the side of the road like wraiths. In her opinion, the people who aren't privileged are either soldiers or slaves. The elite sons though are slaves to the blatant indoctrination that they have grown up with. Though the teachers aren't really allowed to talk about their world, Kim manages to impart truths about her life to the amazement of her students.
I received this book for free from "Blogging for Books".
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