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The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag

Questions About The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag

by Kang Chol-Hwan

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Does anyone have any The Aquariums of Pyongyang book club questions?
Sara
1) Why all the needless state induced censor and fake "anti-capitalist" propaganda?
2) How else can the North Korean regime be described?
3) How else c…more
1) Why all the needless state induced censor and fake "anti-capitalist" propaganda?
2) How else can the North Korean regime be described?
3) How else can a political system that brings out the worst in people be described?
4) What will we think in ten or twenty years about North Korea, and what we should have done?
5) Who would be strong enough to remain loyal to the principles one's been fed since birth?
6) Now the term "concentration camp" has become inextricably linked to Hitler's holocaust. Things are being repeated in this twenty-first century in North Korea, a relic of a failed experiment in human history called communism?
7) How can the West possibly allow this regime to continue?
8) How could this be going on?
9) Do we have to go after the North Korean leader like we did on Hitler?
10) How can we stand by while troops of orphans cross the Yalu and Tumen rivers seeking refuge in China?
11) How can we stand by while parents sell their daughters for something to eat?
12) Did you notice how he never really mentions what happens to his family? Did he not try to get them out?
13) What will we be doing to our own citizens when they disagree with the dominant narrative another ten years down the line?
14) How long can the rest of the world watch a leader - or a dynasty of leaders in this case - horrifically abuse their own citizens?
15) What responsibilities does the international community have towards citizens of particular countries that are suffering under despots?
16) Is it right for the presence of valuable resources, issues of diplomatic convenience, or generalized desires for revenge to be the determinants in which oppressed people are helped, and which are forgotten?
17) How many people really care about the fate of a refugee lost in China?
18) It certainly took far less oppression in places like France or even Russia for the people to decide to risk life and limb. Why not Korea? Or have the people tried and we just haven't heard?
19) Why is this still allowed to happen? Why is it not taken seriously?
20) How would you fare in the same situation?
21) When will Norway's parliament award the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE to people and groups that focus attention on the dire situation in North Korea?
22) Can you imagine being sent to a North Korean work camp as such a very young child, growing up in that setting and not knowing anything else?
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