Star rating: 4/5; Must read for everyone
As a uni student, a whole wealth of knowledge is available at your reading leisure within the confines of a library, which (I hope) to make advantage of in between my architectural struggles.
This time, I moved away from familiar Indian territory and took a trip with Hyok Kang through his graphic and realistic childhood, living in South Korea’s destructive brother, North Korea.
Again, another eye-opener. Though not at all relatable, empathy is evoked with this book.
Though I won’t describe what happened in Hyok’s tale (partly because it’s his story to tell – so go read it if you’re curious – and also because I can’t remember it that well woops), there was the understated shock that comes with reading about life in a modern day dictatorship.
It was only in the 90’s that these people were forced to starve whilst their dictator, or God, would be comfortably full every night. The plight of the Jew’s (and of course, countless other minorities – gypsies, homosexuals, black, Muslims) during WW2 would provide somewhat of a comparison, though North Koreans were brainwashed as opposed to shunned (unless of course, they weren’t brainwashed enough).
It’s scary to think, that we live in such a free digital era with little censorship and yet this happens. I have the ability to type whatever I wish about this communist dictatorship, you have the ability to consume that information freely without any restriction, anyone else has the ability to comment, reply, agree, argue, passionately state their opinion, whilst citizens in a tiny country in the Pacific Ocean will be thrown into concentration camps for a single breath out of line.
The escape from NK consists of crossing the rivers, borders, police, harsh landscapes, foreign, alien countries, and finally ending up in South Korea where they are integrated into society by the governemnet. Despite these plans though, it seems that there is still a high stigma surrounding NK’s in SK, though because of my limited knowledge on this subject, I can only go as far as to conjecture.
I can only ask that we pray for their people to escape, and that they can lead a life that we should all have access to.
Take care,
Noor M
The Noor in my life 