Nothing to Envy Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick-Part 2

At long last, here comes the second part

Please click here for part 1

Kim Hyuck

The fifth defector Kim Hyuck had lost almost the whole family due to starvation.  As his father could not afford to raise him any longer, he was sent to an orphanage.  Kim Hyuck eventually left the orphanage when it was unable to feed him any longer.  Though living a life of extreme deprivation, he survived by his wits.  He later became an adventurous young man and began a relatively profitable career, stealing and smuggling goods between China and North Korea .

Dr Kim

The last defector was a dedicated North Korean doctor who had been forced to helplessly watch children die of illnesses or starvation as there was no medicine and food.  With nothing to cure the patients, Dr Kim and many other doctors in North Korea could only scour the mountains for herbs to be used as medicines. There was a set quota and if the doctors did not collect enough, they were sent out for more.

When famine descended, housewives in North Korea had to add weeds and leaves to soups to fake vegetables.  To further create the illusion of a half-full stomach, they added husks, stems and cobs, too.   But they were too hard for children to digest.  What the doctors could do was to discuss this problem among themselves and gave the mothers “cooking advice” viz. if one uses grass or tree bark, they should be grinded very finely and cooked for a very long time so they become soft and easy to eat.

During a terrible famine in the 1990s, it was estimated that over two million people died in North Korea, which was about 10 percent of the population.  To this date, North Koreans are still malnourished.  According to Demick, the army had to lower its five-foot-three minimum height requirement in the early 1990s because most recruits could not meet it.

Propaganda

Many people would think that the people in North Korea would blame the Kim Jong-il regime for their suffering.  However, due to the regime’s propaganda apparatus, the people in North Korea largely blamed the United States for the agony.  

Absurd stories were drilled into every North Korean from birth through state-run schools and propaganda outlets.  Children did not celebrate their own birthdays, but those of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.  Even the math problems in schools were worded as propaganda, e.g . “Eight boys and nine girls are singing anthems in praise of Kim Il-sung. How many children are singing in total?”.  Every North Korean must wear pins of Kim Il-sung and display portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il on the walls of their houses, and they must clean the pictures daily and keep them spotless.  Television sets which were seldom available were rigged so only one official propaganda station was streamed. Secret police conducted random checks to make sure all those rules were enforced in houses.  Community organizations called inminban required neighbors to spy on each other.  The massive propaganda campaign molded most North Koreans into thinking that they had “Nothing to Envy”, but for the minority who had any slight doubt of the regime, either because they were suffering from immense pain of having lost their families or starvation or because they had a glimpse of what the outside world was really like, propaganda forced them to at least appear to be a loyal follower of the regime.  Masses of North Koreans bubbling like they were having a 'who can cry most impressively' competition, fearing of not being seen to be energetic enough in their mourning, is an example.

It is startling to learn that in the 90s, millions of North Koreans were still scraping tree bark and eating sawdust to survive.  When people talk of famine in the 90s, one will usually think of skinny child with a bloated stomach in Ethiopia, but rarely will one associate nationwide tree bark scraping in North Korea!  Think of what you were doing in the 90s!  Still enjoying your carefree university life?  Already started your working life and began to savour what the world has to offer?  This book is a very sad book, but viewed from another perspective, it makes me very grateful for having been born in Hong Kong and having what I have today.  I would invite all aggrieved angry HongKongers to read this book.  I am sure you will start counting your blessings in life the minute you finish 10 pages!