Teaching North Korea

Some of my students asked me to teach them about what life is like in North Korea. My eyes nearly popped out. I was so excited that they actually wanted to learn about something I am interested in; something I consider REAL history.

I have been reading so much about the topic lately my head is ready to cave in. This is one of the books I have been reading recently. Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick.

It's based on a journalist's research and interviews with defectors from North Korea. While it tells the story of multiple people, I have really been drawn into the story about one girl who fled North Korea with her family leaving behind her boyfriend. She came from a poor, lower ranking family due to her father's status and the boyfriend came from a Japanese-Korean family who was very well off. He was being groomed to become a highly respected member of the party who would go to the best university in Pyongyang. It was such a contrast to read about his university life in Pyongyang where they had heated dorms, plenty of blankets and clothing as well as lighting until late in the night. her university had a high drop out rate. She found out by first hand experience that it was becaused people were malnourished, having not been fed enough, they had no heating so in winter they were often freezing in their beds. Many dropped out to stay alive and return home. So many more shocking stories are told within this book.

Anyway, of course, I had to skip to the end of the book to find out what happened to this couple. It was quite interesting that in North Korea, he would have been considered too good for her and of too high a status to have their marriage accepted by his family or society in general. She looked up to him in awe, knowing that he was her ticket to a better life. Of course, she was enamoured of him, he was a lovely person by all accounts in the book and she would think about him with regret and yearning even once she had defected and married in South Korea. It turns out that he also moved to South Korea and they met up. It was an unusual reunion; she drove up next to him on the street and rolled down the window and told him to jump in the car. They finally got to meet once again. The newness of it all soon wore away and she looked at him in a different light. Whereas in North Korea he was like a knight in shining armour; a man who any woman would kill for with such a promising future in a dark and depressing land, in South Korea his studies were obsolete they were so out-of-date and it seemed he had such a limited future. They both enjoyed the freedon associated with South Korea and what that meant in terms of individualism. However they both claim to still have an aim of returning to North Korea to bring about change with the fall of the current regime. I found this quite interesting. I am not sure if everyone's sense of nationalism is so strong that afterhaving experienced the modern living in one of the most developed countries in the world they could still return to their home country to bring about change. I think it's something to be admired.