We accepted our situation meekly. How quickly we became prisoners, how quickly we gave up our freedom, how quickly we tolerated the loss of that freedom, like a child being abused, in silence. In this...
This was always the case with North Korea. It was like the bad boyfriend whose presence could never be depended on, so you always had to seize the opportunity to spend time with him when he made himse...
The surprise turned out to be songs: Our Unforgettable Teacher and the Song of Suki, a regional folksong they had been vaguely aware of, whose lyrics they had searched out during their August vacation...
They were always comparing themselves to the outside world, which none of them had ever seen, declaring themselves the best. This insistence on best seemed strangely childlike, and the words best and...
You will need to pay for the gas. Euros, Chinese renminbi, and U.S. dollars will be accepted, but the North Korean won is used only at Potonggang Department Store or at Tongil Market.
There it is again, the mantra if only. I am always made aware of the alternative universe where things turned out differently, in which lives were saved. I am used to the mantra. For immigrants, regre...
For those of us raised by mothers and fathers who experienced such trauma firsthand, it is impossible not to continue this remembering. I
Even teaching them to write an essay turned out to be dangerous, since the idea of coming up with your own thesis and making an argument based on evidence doesn’t exist in North Korea.