This Is Paradise! My North Korean Childhood by Hyok Kang

Those liberalisations spurred the emergence of private markets or jangmadang. The reform continued the gradual reversal of economic liberalisations which had been permitted in the mid-1990s in response to the famines. Decades of misguided policies, the collapse of the Soviet empire, a succession of famines and floods since the mid-1990s, and increasingly aggressive international sanctions had already brought it close to complete collapse even before the currency reform of the end of last year. Five factors which have been at the heart of why 2010 was always likely to be a particularly difficult year are encouraging Beijing to grasp the nettle of North Korea ever more firmly.įirst, and possibly foremost, is the state the economy. “Resolving” North Korea would neutralise a noted nuclear proliferator and remove a major threat to regional security. North Korea has been presenting the international community with challenges for 60 years now – and increasingly daunting ones since the end of the Cold War despite predictions of imminent regime collapse after the death of Kim Il-sung in 1994. We are heading towards serious changes, and nobody seems prepared.”

Hyok Kang's childhood and courageous escape through China Vietnam and Cambodia to South Korea is a remarkable story that goes to the heart of a nation living under a disturbing delusion of 'paradise'.“Something unusual seems to be happening in Pyongyang and it’s probably time to think about the future a bit more seriously. After all, the propaganda North Koreans are fed by their government insists that compared to the rest of the world, this is paradise! When the famine comes so too does death by starvation of friends and close ones, and Hyok Kang watches as his classmates drop out of school one by one, too weak to attend. His shocking and moving portrayal bears witness to this spirited young boy's resilience and survival in a society forced to operate under the shadow of labour camps, public executions and the deception of UN representatives by Korean officials. This personal, illustrated account of school days in a rigidly communist institution and everyday life with his family and community provides a rare glimpse of this secretive nation. Hyok Kang was eighteen when he escaped from North Korea, a country locked away from the outside world.

This Is Paradise! My North Korean Childhood by Hyok Kang