Nothing to Envy

Before reading Nothing to Envy, I knew very little about North and South Korea.

The book does a wonderful job of telling the story of North Korea by weaving together the threads of several lives of average people living in North Korea before seeking asylum in South Korea.

It’s amazing what these people suffered under the rule of Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il. They were forced into submission, oppressed, starved, and cut-off from the rest of the world. With no TV, radio, or internet, the North Koreans knew very little of what was going on in the outside world. Bypassing the controls on the TV or radio to get information from South Korea was taboo and strictly forbidden.

I can’t imagine living like that, and it’s hard to understand how many people did, and how many were willing to live that way. Repressed and taught from an early age to revere Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il as supreme beings, many people were recruited to spy and report on their neighbors and families.

People were starving, dying, imprisoned for something as simple as wanting a better life. Food was scarce, growing and selling your own yet another item on the list of forbidden things. Many people did this anyway, and often were arrested or punished for these crimes, when all they really wanted was enough food to live.

Why didn’t the rest of the world do anything about what was happening to these people? How many people knew the truth of the collapse while it was happening? Foreign visitors were shown a very precise view of North Korea, basically staged and very controlled. Much of the support for the country was coming from communist influence, like Russia. The US withdrew aid when North Korea refused to end its nuclear weapons program.

Many people were eventually able to escape North Korea, and many have sought refuge in South Korea. Unfortunately, many were unable or unwilling to escape, and many fleeing left loved ones behind.

Read the book and find out what happens!  It’s good, I promise! This is one of the best books I’ve read in 2014, and for those who know me, you know that’s about 60 books so far…

5 out of 5 stars.