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Nothing to Envy summary

Name: Nothing to Envy
Rating: 4.3 (38 reviews)
Author: Barbara Demick

Barbara Demick

Real Lives in North Korea

4.3 (38 ratings)

23 mins

Topics

Anthropology Wars Asian History

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Nothing to Envy
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What’s in it for me? Delve into the history of North Korea.

Imagine living under worse conditions than those of a stray dog, searching for scraps of food just to survive and never sure what danger is lurking around every corner. This, in fact, is the reality for many North Koreans, who since the division of the Korean peninsula have lived under the reign of Kim II-sung, Kim Jong-il and now Kim Jong-un, three generations of the same family.

These blinks tell the tale of how ordinary citizens have experienced living in a repressive totalitarian regime, including surviving a famine in the early ‘90s, which killed one-fifth of the country’s population. You will learn about the major historical events that resulted in the separation of the Korean peninsula and the Korean War, and will be introduced to the daily lives of North Koreans living under constantly chaotic conditions.

You’ll also discover

why the dividing line between North and South Korea was drawn at the 38th parallel;
how the citizens of North Korea were rated according to an arbitrary hierarchy; and
how self-reliance was the most important trait of the North Korean ideology.

The US Government’s decision to divide Korea in two led to the Korean War five years later.

During World War II, Korea was an obscure Japanese colony of little geopolitical importance. But when this peninsula just off the northern coast of China fell victim to the post-war power struggles between the United States and the USSR, things began to change.

In order to appease the USSR and maintain the balance among world powers, the United States divided the Korean peninsula into two parts. Fearing the Soviets would attempt to seize Korea in order to reach Japan, the United States gave the northern half of Korea to the USSR as a temporary trusteeship, while taking over the southern half themselves.

Washington drew the dividing line at the 38th parallel as an arbitrary matter of convenience, not for historical or geographical reasons. Koreans had no say in the division of their country; they saw themselves as victims of a struggle between superpowers.

Neither side was willing to reunify the peninsula and allow Koreans to regain independence, so by 1948, two republics emerged. The Republic of Korea was founded under the leadership of Syngman Rhee in the South. Kim Il-sung, a resistance fighter during the Japanese occupation, founded the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in the North.

In 1950, the two sides’ contesting claims to legitimate governance led to the Korean War. On June 25 of the same year, Kim Il-sung, backed by Soviet tanks, caught the South Korean military by surprise and captured its capital city, Seoul.

In response, several other countries joined the war: the United States and a United Nations coalition of 15 nations fought for the South and pushed back Kim Il-sung’s forces, who were now also backed by China. The war ended in armistice three years later, having accomplished next to nothing. The border along the 38th parallel had hardly moved, and 3 million people had lost their lives.

North Korean society was marked by a strict hierarchy that determined almost every aspect of its citizens’ lives.

Once the Korean War was over, Kim Il-sung established a communist government with himself as its president. But in reality, he had the power of a dictator who ensured loyalty by rewarding supporters with privileges, while ruthlessly punishing opposition.

Society was divided into three categories according to political loyalty: the loyal core, the wavering and the undesirable hostile classes.

Kim Il-sung implemented a thorough and persistent system of ideological training and civilian self-surveillance.

As Kim Il-sung began rebuilding post-war North Korea, he envisioned a new kind of self-sufficient communist society. He wanted to build a new kind of human being based on his philosophy of self-reliance, called juche.

Kim Il-sung drew from Marx's and Lenin's ideas of struggle between the rich and poor, capitalist and proletariat, and added the idea that Koreans were a special, self-reliant people that didn't need the help of their neighbors. He made it clear that the world outside Korea was nothing to envy at all.

Kim Il-sung established himself as an extreme cult personality, comparable to a religious figure.

Despite his rejection of religion in the name of communism, Kim Il-sung drew inspiration from Christian traditions when asserting his power. Well aware of the power of religion, he employed religious-style narratives to present himself as a god-like father and his successor, Kim Jong-il, as a Christ-like figure.

He used the media to create supernatural myths about him and his son. Stormy seas were reported to become calm when sailors sang songs in praise of Kim Il-sung. The media even reported that when Kim Jong-Il was born, a double rainbow and a radiant star appeared. He also aggressively pushed his image in both public and private spaces.

The North Korean economy could not stay afloat following the collapse of the USSR.

Despite Kim Il-sung’s philosophy of self-reliance, North Korea in fact relied heavily on its neighbors; subsidized oil, electricity and machinery came from China and various Eastern Bloc countries. But with the fall of Soviet Union in 1991, North Korea’s economy also collapsed.

Without the raw materials, equipment and energy sources that came from the USSR, North Korean factories had neither the supplies nor the electricity to continue running.

After food distribution centers became unable to feed the population, black markets and other illegal forms of commerce emerged.

Not only did factories close, but bad harvests began to devastate North Korea. Without a steady source of food to feed the population, or even fuel to transport the meagre produce that had been harvested, the state gradually stopped providing for its population. North Korean people were forced to find inventive ways to survive.

Commerce was strictly against the communist spirit and considered an economic crime, but in the face of dwindling rations, Kim Il-sung allowed people to grow vegetables in their gardens and sell them. These backyard vegetable sales gradually developed into a black market trade.

As North Korean society fell apart, Kim Jong-il finally allowed foreign aid into North Korea and began legalizing the black market.

By the time Kim Il-sung passed away, North Korea had deteriorated considerably. Natural resources had been depleted by foraging, adults no longer went to work and children skipped school to go look for food.

Orchards, forests and small animals were quickly decimated, and people turned to making soups out of grass and tree bark. Hospitals were able to provide shelter and heating for a time, but by the late ‘90s they were completely abandoned.

Defectors would cross the northern border to China on their way to South Korea, often by paying brokers or smugglers.

Faced with homelessness, starvation and death, North Koreans sought to escape to neighboring countries, even if it meant risking the cruel punishments for attempting to defect.

Fences along the coastlines prevented defectors from sailing to Japan, so North Koreans turned to the northeastern Chinese border that ran along two rivers. Escapees would sneak through the wilderness to the riverbank and cross at low tide.

As more and more North Koreans escape to South Korea, a gradual integration system helps them adapt.

In 1998, 71 North Koreans requested citizenship in South Korea; that number increased steadily to reach 1,139 by 2002, and thousands continue to arrive every year. Today, those who make it across the border automatically receive South Korean citizenship and enter an integration program.

First, they are taken to a dormitory and interrogated by the National Intelligence Service, the South Korean equivalent of the CIA. This is a measure intended to catch undercover spies, or frauds going after settlement benefits. Mrs. Song, who defected in the late ‘90s, spent one month in such a dormitory.

The lives of North Koreans today have not improved under Kim Jong-un.

The third of Kim Jong-il’s sons, Kim Jong-un, assumed power in North Korea in 2012. At first, the young dictator seemed to support economic reform and the improvement of the population's well-being. Some initial advances were achieved, but it wasn’t long before the ruler began to prioritize weapons above all else.

The beginning of Kim Jong-un’s rule coincided with the start of a construction and restoration period honoring Kim Il-sung's centennial birthday. Because of this, the buildings and roads that were constructed during the early years of Kim Jong-un’s reign gave the impression that he was genuinely interested in improving North Korean living standards.

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What is Nothing to Envy about?

Nothing to Envy (2010) presents fascinating first-hand anecdotes from North Korean defectors, giving intimate insights into the lives of North Koreans under the rule of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un. The thousands of refugees who arrive in South Korea each year bring with them stories of famine, repression and an isolated nation that has fallen out of touch with the developed world.

Best quote from Nothing to Envy

Establishing juche means, in a nutshell, being the master of revolution and reconstruction in ones own country. – Kim Il-sung

—Barbara Demick

Who should read Nothing to Envy?

Anyone interested in North Korea
Anyone who wants to know what it’s like to live under a communist dictatorship
Those curious about the lives of defectors and refugees

About the Author

Barbara Demick is an American journalist and current bureau chief in Beijing for the Los Angeles Times. Her work on North Korea has won her the Overseas Press Club award for human rights reporting, the Asia Society’s Osborne Elliott prize and the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Arthur Ross Award.

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Biography & Memoir Politics

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