North Korea is today one of the last bastions of hard-line Communism. Its leaders have kept a tight grasp on their one-party regime, quashing any n...
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Jul 11, 2010
I already knew that North Korea was a crazy place, but this book underlines how its regime is both terrifying and utterly odd. I won’t even get into the logic of naming a man as President for eternity, four years after his death. In one of the most powerful images in the book, the author looks across the Yalu river one night. On one side is noisy, busy, lit-up China. Across the bank, North Korea is dark and silent - as North Koreans describe it, “calm as hell”.
Some interesting snipp More...
Some interesting snipp More...
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Jan 19, 2009
Osho
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North Korea (but not my first from there).
A memoir by a child whose family, though highly politically active on behalf of Kim Il-Sung's government, was interned in Yodok, one of North Korea's labor camps. He was there for 10 years, through his late childhood (age 9) and adolescence. Though then released, he remained under observation. Threatened with a return to the camps because he listened to South Korean radio, he fled to China, then to South Korea.
The memoir is intere More...
A memoir by a child whose family, though highly politically active on behalf of Kim Il-Sung's government, was interned in Yodok, one of North Korea's labor camps. He was there for 10 years, through his late childhood (age 9) and adolescence. Though then released, he remained under observation. Threatened with a return to the camps because he listened to South Korean radio, he fled to China, then to South Korea.
The memoir is intere More...
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Apr 04, 2008
E
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I'm not sure what it says about me that I can fail the memoir of someone who survived a decade in one of North Korea's most infamous prison camps, but that's exactly what I'm doing. From the very beginning I was somewhat skeptical. The back cover promotes the book as what George W. Bush read when he wanted to learn more about the DRPK prior to dubbing it part of the Axis of Evil, and the author writes in the Preface that "I now realize that the Lord wanted me to use President Bush to let th
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Mar 31, 2008
Ebookwormy
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An easier read than I expected, the cold, hard, truth is told in this biography without sensation. Documenting the struggles of his (South) Korean family after they were lured from Japan to the magnificent ideals of the socialist kingdom of Kim Il-Sung, rare insight into the "Hermit Kindgom" is provided. I learned a lot about the timeline of history in Korea, and Korea culture. It is important to note that the author's experience is limited to his life before his escape (which took pla
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Dec 31, 2007
Lars
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As a trained Korean cryptolinguist, I was aware of some of the ways in which the evil regime of Kim Jong Il represses its citizens, but this book painted a clear and detailed portrait of a people so crushed beneath the boot heel of their gov't as to make any lover of liberty despair.
Living in the freedom of the U.S., it's hard to even conceive of a place where the gov't seems to be trying to map out new territory in the abuse of human beings. Written from the first-person perspectiv More...
Living in the freedom of the U.S., it's hard to even conceive of a place where the gov't seems to be trying to map out new territory in the abuse of human beings. Written from the first-person perspectiv More...
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Nov 16, 2008
Andrés
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For those who think evil doesn't exist or is a word that shouldn't be said out loud, this memoir is a useful introduction to reality. How else can the North Korean regime be described? How else can a political system that brings out the worst in people be described? Kang's writing is direct and rather without sentimentality, which adds to its force. And in the end, there is the realisation that North Korea's evil political system was created by humans, so it represents the possibility for evil w
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Aug 25, 2008
Kris
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Unlike reading the past events of the WWII holocaust, The Aquariums of Pyongyang reveals the current conditions of North Korea and the North Koreans' prision camps. Through this author's bravery we are able to see Kim Jong Il's perfect communist society for what it is-- a people not unlike a horribly beaten dog-- starved, punished for little or no rule violations, and fearful of its master. This book, brought me up to date on the past history and current events of North Korea. Startling.
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Oct 02, 2011
Христо
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“Империя на ужаса” или какво е да си затворник в Северна Корея – разказ от първо лице
http://www.knigolandia.info/2010/06/blog...
Зловещото име на книгата “Империя на ужаса” на Канг Чхол Хуан и Пиер Ригуло винаги ми е пречело да седна да я прочета, не обичам книги с подобни гръмки заглавия. Но и нейното време дойде.
Пиер Ригуло е журналист, който е помогнал на севернокорееца Канг Чхол да подреди своя разказ. Книгата е именно писание от първо лице за неговите преж More...
http://www.knigolandia.info/2010/06/blog...
Зловещото име на книгата “Империя на ужаса” на Канг Чхол Хуан и Пиер Ригуло винаги ми е пречело да седна да я прочета, не обичам книги с подобни гръмки заглавия. Но и нейното време дойде.
Пиер Ригуло е журналист, който е помогнал на севернокорееца Канг Чхол да подреди своя разказ. Книгата е именно писание от първо лице за неговите преж More...
May 29, 2011
Steve
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Kang Chol-Hwan was one of the first people to escape from North Korea after being incarnated in a North Koren gulag and to tell his story. He was a trailblazer in a sense, and a brave man for taking the lead. The story is pretty harsh, from a reasonably wealthy Japanese/Korean family environment to a mud hut at Yodok, it is terrible to read and to experience with him. However, as Kang all but confesses himself he got off lightly. Other families were sent to the hard labour camps never to return,
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Jul 20, 2009
David
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This is the memoir of Kang Chol-Hwan: a short narrative description of his young life in the North Korean Gulag mixed with his views on North-Korean politics. There is a new preface that continues where the original epilogue leaves off, discussing the plight of the modern North-Korean in an increasingly more interested world.
It was a difficult read at times. Kang Chol-Hwan's story is a brutal one, especially as he was a child, growing up in Pyongyang, and then taken with his family t More...
It was a difficult read at times. Kang Chol-Hwan's story is a brutal one, especially as he was a child, growing up in Pyongyang, and then taken with his family t More...
Jan 06, 2012
Justin
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I've had this one for a while, but with the recent demise of Kim Jong-Il I finally found the occasion to read it. It was an intriguing book, particularly if one considers how it fits in with other concentration camp memoir literature. You don't learn a lot about North Korea or the concentration camp system there, at least not in an academic sense. And you don't really get an idea of what life is like in North Korea for regular citizens. Chol-Hwan spent the majority of his time in North Korea in
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Feb 04, 2012
Angie
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This book is a bit too bare-bones for me, even though it does go into a fair amount of sickening detail of life in a North Korean camp.
I'll share two important parts:
"I was also terribly sad to be leaving Yi Sae-bong and his stories of Japanese life. There were other prisoners who had offered me their friendship and help during very hard times. With them I had shared rat meat and heaped maledictions on the Wild Boar; with them I had buried the beautiful young girl an More...
I'll share two important parts:
"I was also terribly sad to be leaving Yi Sae-bong and his stories of Japanese life. There were other prisoners who had offered me their friendship and help during very hard times. With them I had shared rat meat and heaped maledictions on the Wild Boar; with them I had buried the beautiful young girl an More...
Apr 27, 2010
Steven
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A friend happened to be reading this while I was reading Nothing to Envy, and recommended Aquariums of Pyongyang to me.
As with one of the people whose story is told in Nothing to Envy, Kang's family is part of the Chosen Soren -- Korean residents of Japan who are sympathetic with North Korea. As a relatively well-off member of North Korean society, his childhood seems rather idyllic until the arrest of his grandfather and the internment of many of his family members in the Yodok camp More...
As with one of the people whose story is told in Nothing to Envy, Kang's family is part of the Chosen Soren -- Korean residents of Japan who are sympathetic with North Korea. As a relatively well-off member of North Korean society, his childhood seems rather idyllic until the arrest of his grandfather and the internment of many of his family members in the Yodok camp More...
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Feb 13, 2012
Meggan
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North Korea makes me so sad. Its people are just trying to get on like everyone else, but a ruthless psychopath deprives them of the most basic, fundamental needs and desires. This memoir brought several realizations to my doorstep:
One, people look for small things to make them happy; the extravagant wealth of the rich is all excess. Small happiness arrives after food/shelter/clothing needs are satisfied. When you aren't worrying about your next meal, you can enjoy something as simple More...
One, people look for small things to make them happy; the extravagant wealth of the rich is all excess. Small happiness arrives after food/shelter/clothing needs are satisfied. When you aren't worrying about your next meal, you can enjoy something as simple More...
Oct 30, 2011
Alex
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When you're reading a book like this, I guess you kind of expect to read about atrocities and the cruelty that one person can do to another in the name of some dogma and simultaneously expect a message of some hope, since, obviously, the author escaped to write the book. This is exactly what this book was. But somehow, this book seemed more immediate, I suppose because the things that happened in the book are still going on today in North Korea. This is not a history of an old Russian gulag or v
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May 17, 2010
Megan
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This gets a 5 for information, 3 for writing. I had to drag myself through this book--it was mostly written in encylopedia-style--lots of telling, some showing. It's got nothing on 'The Gulag Archipelago,' which is not just informative, but a beautiful read.
That being said, I wish everyone WOULD read this book, simply because the subject--life in a North Korean gulag--is far from common knowledge. Most people either don't know how terrible life is under the Communists, or they don't More...
That being said, I wish everyone WOULD read this book, simply because the subject--life in a North Korean gulag--is far from common knowledge. Most people either don't know how terrible life is under the Communists, or they don't More...
Mar 18, 2011
Terra
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This was a book club selection I never would have picked up on my own but am so glad I read it. What a horrifying account of atrocities that are happening in MY lifetime and continue to happen today. A glimpse into the life behind the curtain of North Korea that left me disturbed and morally outraged. This fascinating memoir by Kang Chol-Hwan tells the story of a nine year old boy who is sent to a labor camp for ten years with his family for political crimes against the state committed by his
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Mar 09, 2010
James
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"Once both men were finally dead, the two or three thousand prisoners in attendance were instructed to each pick up a stone and hurl it at the corpses while yelling, "Down with the traitors of the people!" We did as we were told, but our disgust was written all over our faces. Most of us closed our eyes, or lowered our heads, to avoid seeing the mutilated bodies bodies oozing with black-red blood. Some of the newer prisoners-- most of them recently arrived from Japan-- were so di
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Jan 12, 2012
Victoria
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This book is incredible - a rare insight into life under the communist regime in North Korea. It is really well written and has a real sense of what it was like in the camps. I have been to Seoul and it is hard to imagine the difference between the two countries, formerly one. I think it was particularly interesting to learn of the connection between Japan and North Korea, and also the difference between China and Korea, with China seen a as liberal environment! I also don't think I have ever re
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Apr 25, 2011
Tyson
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Another great book on the suffering of the people of North Korea. Like the book Nothing to Envy, this book does an excellent job of showing the hardships of living a "civilian" life in NK. This time we see the brutality of North Korea's prison system. The fact that they entire family must suffer for the crimes of one person we follow the life of the youngest son as he is jailed at age 10 and released 10 years later only to find his way to South Korea and tell his life story. While his
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May 04, 2010
Pete
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Okay, this is overall a pretty amazing story.
Basically this dude spent his whole childhood in a prison camp for a decade for no real reason. The story takes a while to get started, but if you make it about halfway through you're bound to finish.
At one point the story takes us out of the prison camp, and this part was probably the most hair-raising.
The real strength of this book is the fact that the prison camp in which the author was held STILL EXISTS and there are More...
Basically this dude spent his whole childhood in a prison camp for a decade for no real reason. The story takes a while to get started, but if you make it about halfway through you're bound to finish.
At one point the story takes us out of the prison camp, and this part was probably the most hair-raising.
The real strength of this book is the fact that the prison camp in which the author was held STILL EXISTS and there are More...
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Jun 17, 2009
brook
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Nonfictional read about a boy/man's move back to N. Korea from Japan, and subsequent time in the Yodok prison camp, and more (not going to throw spoilers). It is written in a *very* straightforward style, with not a lot given to drama, hyperbole, etc. This may also be due to the fact that it is translated from Korean. As such, I cannot say it is an "exciting" or "riveting" read, but interesting for those who want to know what goes on behind DPRK curtain. You get a taste of wh
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Apr 29, 2011
Angie
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An excellent book club choice. Our book club chose this book for March and I found I could not put it down. I'm not one who usually picks a nonfiction book for pleasure reading but I'm glad that I had the opportunity to read this one. The most I'd known about North Korea was that it is a threat to the United States because of nuclear weapons, and that Kim Jong-Il is a bad, bad man. This novel reiterated that second point a hundred fold in my mind.
There are a lot of great points o More...
There are a lot of great points o More...
Feb 12, 2012
Diane
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The author is a refugee from North Korea who came to South Korea in the early nineties before the famine in the north. His story was first published in French in 2000. The author's family were Koreans living in Japan who decide to go back to North Korea. The family was fairly wealthy and were welcomed in North Korea and given many luxuries - possibly because they turned over much of their wealth to the government. The author remembers an easy and happy childhood in Pyongyang. Things started to
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Aug 27, 2010
Bunny
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Excellent book about the life of a young boy who spent ten years in a North Korea prison camp. His only crime was being related to his outspoken grandfather. His grandparents were Koreans living in Japan and decided to answer the call to return to their homeland. Unfortunately, the grandfather was too outspoken for the regime, was arrested, and disappeared. Soon the whole family was arrested (parents, grandmother, uncle, sister, and this young boy). After getting out of the prison camp afte
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Jan 20, 2012
Michael
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This is the second book about life in North Korea that I've read recently. (The first being Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea.) It was originally written in French and later translated into English.
When the author was 9, and his sister 7, his father, uncles and grandmother (a communist true believer and delegate in the people's congress) were arrested and sent to a concentration camp a few weeks after the security services "disappeared" his grandfather for unsp More...
When the author was 9, and his sister 7, his father, uncles and grandmother (a communist true believer and delegate in the people's congress) were arrested and sent to a concentration camp a few weeks after the security services "disappeared" his grandfather for unsp More...
Jun 21, 2011
Jeremy
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I heard about this book from reading George W Bush's memoirs. It's as good as he said it was.
Quotes:
According to the constitution of the Republic of Korea, Koreans on both sides of the DMZ fall under the sovereignty of its government.
Now the term "concentration camp" has become inextricably linked to Hitler's holocaust. But how on earth could I ever explain that the same - and in fact far worse - things are being repeated in this twenty-first c More...
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Apr 23, 2011
Helmisade
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This is so far the only book I have read about North Korea. My first shock came in realizing that these events took place in the mid-1980s, not that long ago. According to this book the situation in North Korea has gotten much worse since and who knows what's really going on right now?
As mentioned, I didn't know much while starting to read this book. Since it's a biography, however, that wasn't really a problem. The author tells enough about his family and their life to get an idea abo More...
As mentioned, I didn't know much while starting to read this book. Since it's a biography, however, that wasn't really a problem. The author tells enough about his family and their life to get an idea abo More...
Nov 27, 2009
Amy
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The Koreas are a topic near and dear to my heart after living in South Korea for almost 4 years. The division of this country is heartbreaking and to read this first-hand account of just exactly what is happening to Koreans north of the 38th parallel is gut-wrenching. To give you an idea of just how much so, when the author finally made it out of North Korea, he could not believe how freely the people around him were living - in CHINA! We cannot even imagine the conditions these people are li
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Aug 19, 2011
Michael
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The Aquariums of Pyongyang is a first-hand account of a survivor of the North Korean labor camps. This is the story of a wealthy Korean family who, lured by the promises of the Kim Il-sung's party, found themselves trapped in the North's visible and invisible prisons (the aquariums). In tone and writing focus, Kang Chol-Hwan sets himself as a North Korean Solzhenitsyn (author of the Gulag Archipelago account of the Russian labor camps).
Kang Chol-hwan covers in his account his life a More...
Kang Chol-hwan covers in his account his life a More...
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