Explanatory Post Nothing to Envy

Book Summary

Barbara Demick’s book Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea is about different North Korean defector’s lives in North Korea and there lives as defectors in South Korea. The book focus on 6 North Koreans from different walks of life and it goes into detail of their lives in North Korea, their escape from the country and their new lives in South Korea. All the people come from a northern city in North Korea called Chongjin which was hit quite hard during the famine in the 1990s. An estimated 20% of the city died due to a lack of food. One of the only ways for North Koreans in Chongjin to survive was to turn to illegal privatisation, if caught people would often be sent to a labour camp or on occasion executed. These harsh conditions lead to these individuals making their way to South Korea and establishing new lives.

Chapter Summary

This particular chapter Twilight of the God looks at the North Korean public’s reaction to Kim Il Sung’s death in 1994. Some of the people were sincerely shocked and saddened by the death of Kim Il Sung but this was not the case for all people. Kim Il Sung had been made into a god like figure and if people did not show their devotion to him and the Communist Party they were deemed enemies. The apathy for Kim Il Sung that some of the people felt in the book caused a problem for themselves as if people did not show signs of remorse and sorrow they could be severely persecuted. The country went into a 10 day mourning period where everyone was expected to show how much they cared about their leader. People were expected to visit one of the estimated 34,000 statues of Kim Il Sung where it almost became a competition of who could show their sorrow the most. It was particularly hard for Mi-ran who was a teacher at the time as she had  to take her class once a day to the statue where she had to make sure that the children did not get hurt in the large crowds or become hysterical.

Analysis

Demick uses a good technique of interweaving stories from the North Koreans she interviewed and information on what was happening in North Korea in general at the time. I have read a couple of other books about North Koreans but as they were autobiographies they did not have the depth of information that Demick has in her book. It seems Demick has a wide range of knowledge on the subject which she has acquired by interviewing 100 North Korean defectors, about half whom were from Chongjin, through books and articles, use of data from studies and visiting North Korea many times herself, which is all noted at the end of the book. Her thorough use of resources gives me the reason to believe that she is trustworthy, the only problem on relying on testimonies is that there is the possibility that they are not telling the truth but it does seem that Demick tried to back up as many of these testimonies with other information and with such a large group of people she interviewed it would seem unlikely they were all making it up.

Demick’s portrayal of the reaction of Kim Il Sung’s death to me seems accurate. When Kim Jong Il died there was a lot of coverage of the displays of mass hysteria that was also seen at the death of Kim Il Sung. I think that it would be very hard to say how much of it was genuine sadness and how much of it was just to go along with the crowds but Demick gives example of both perspectives. Comparing videos of the reaction to both of the leaders death to me there seems to be a difference to the extent of hysteria although this could be only because of what has been shown but there was likely to be more sincerity in Kim Il Sung’s death partly due to the god like position he was placed in where many believed he would not die yet when Kim Jong Il died it was more expected as the state had already dealt with his father’s death. Kim Il Sung was also deemed a war hero while Kim Jong Il had only earned his position through birth not through any actions of his own. The “earned” devotion of Kim Il Sung has also been around since the war which is compared to Kim Jong Il who has really been in the public's eyes for only the 10 years before his fathers death.

Reaction to Kim Il Sung’s death :

Reaction to Kim Jong Il’s death:

I think North Korea is a very unique state and there is definitely no other state still around today that uses a cult of personality to such a degree for control over the people as North Korea. It could be compared to China under Mao but that era did not last as long compared to North Korea. The use of starvation I think was also as a way to gain control because if everyone is starving, people are more preoccupied in trying to feed themselves rather than becoming involved in political matters. We have also been talking in class about how for an overthrow of power it usually comes from an inside source. The people at the top of the North Korean government are made up of relatives and trusted friends, they are in good positions so they are happy to keep this cult of personality in place. If they did want to take over power they may not be able to succeed in replacing this giant persona that has existed for so long.

If you are interested in the lives of North Koreans this book is definitely worth reading, I would also recommend The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North KoreanGulag by Kang Chol-hwan which gives a good insight into the conditions in the North Korean labour camps or if you are interested in life during the Cultural Revolution in China which is similar to life in North Korea, I would recommend Gang of One: Memoirs of a RedGuard by Fan Shen which gives a great account of his ability to survive during this time. There is also this strange show in South Korea called Now on my way to meet you where they have a group of North Korean female defectors yet its both a comedy show and a place for people that have lost touch with loved ones since they left North Korea. I think it really shows the extreme differences between the two halves of the peninsula. Sadly it’s not fully available with English subtitles but here is a small segment on it.

Amy 300267639