Suki Kim – Without You, There Is No Us

A book that goes further behind the walls that surround North Korea than anything else I have seen. Suki Kim managed to squeeze herself, American-Korean, into a English teaching job at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, and reports her experiences during two visits there.

Most of us in the connected world are well aware about the incredibly backwardness of North Korea, and the harsh living conditions despite the praise that is bombarded onto us through the official channels. But reading about the incredibly underdeveloped students at PUST, Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, the elite of the country, who never heard about the most basic techniques, is still surprising.

Time there seemed to pass differently. When you are shut off from the world, every day is exactly the same as the one before. This sameness has a way of wearing down your soul until you become nothing but a breathing, toiling, consuming thing that awakes to the sun and sleeps at the dawning of the dark.

Another very disturbing part of this book are the short but intensive looks into the country side, when excursions or shopping trips were scheduled. They lay open a barren land, with Gulag like working conditions and permanent shortage of proper food.

I have been aware about the situation in North Korea, but reading about it from a very special perspective gave me the shivers.