Month: January 2019

As I read more of the book “Nothing to Envy”, there is always a new fact about how the people of North Korea have to live that totally shocks me. I have learned that there is assigned grocery shopping days and to buy groceries (which was mainly rice, corn, flour, etc) they would use their “ration book”, a small amount of money or coupons they receive from their workplace based on how well you did your duties at work. The food shortage got so bad that even the children didn’t have school lunch.

“Many of the fruit pickers were children. As school lunches got smaller and finally disappeared, children started cutting school to look for food.” (Nothing to Envy, Pg. 73)

Another crazy fact that I have learned from reading this book is that there were only two sets of clothing that they received each year, one for summer and one for winter, and of course they would get new clothes on the birthday of their leader to further reinforce the image that their leader is the source of the good things that they get. It is just so insane to hear about how these people are living and how they are not provided with the freedom to live with certain luxuries even as small as getting to shop for your own clothes or go grocery shopping when you want to.

After reading the article “Hardly Known, Not Yet Forgotten”, I have learned more about what really happened to the South Korean prisoners of war. In the book “Nothing to Envy”, there is a brief part in which the author shares the experience of a prisoner  of war, but reading this article goes further and allows the reader to understand even more about the unbelievable events that occurred.

In the article, multiple POW’s who have survived and relatives of survivors share their personal stories and terrifying experiences. The article also adds on to the fact that North Korea still denies the existence of the POW’s who were supposed to be released and repatriated back to their hometowns, but North Korea held them back to use them for forced labor.

“POW’s were not only used as forced labor. While the war was still under way, they were often given North Korean uniforms and redeployed as soldiers to fight the other side, defectors said. Some were
lucky enough to be taken prisoner by the South once more, and a policy of voluntary repatriation by the South Korean and US forces after the Armistice meant that they could remain there.” (Hardly Known, Not Yet Forgotten).

I think that Barbara Demick, the author of “Nothing to Envy” was drawn to this particular article because it provides real life stories from POW’s and their families who have suffered in such an inhumane way. These real stories shared in the article is what gives the article such a high quality value. Many people are not aware of the terrible way these people had to live, and how their lives inevitably affected their families.

Even during a crisis, North Koreans were still fed lies about their food shortages. A catchy slogan was told to the people along with a video of how a mans stomach burst from eating too much rice. So the easy fix? Only eat two meals a day!

Enduring hunger became part of one’s patriotic duty.

pg. 70

I found this particular section of chapter 4 very strange, yet understandable. In agricultural production, supervisors would fabricate statistics about industrial output because they were so fearful of telling their own bosses the truth. They simply weren’t able to produce what they were supposed to. Then those lies climbed the chain of command. Lies were built upon lies. They even mentioned that Kim Il-Sung might not have even known when the economy took it’s nose dive because of all the lies he received about how well his country was doing in their productions. The fear that was instilled in the people, I think led to even worse conditions. Would their fearless leader provided them with more food or resources to grow more if he would have simply known the truth?

The article further adds to my understanding of the hardship faced by POW’s and their families in North Korea post WWII era. The book briefly talked about the living conditions of POW’s, however, it did not go into too much detail rather it focused on the aftermath. The author was drawn to this article more than likely because it showed that even when wars “stop” they never truly stop and generation after generation continue to be punished for their ancestors actions. I found it wild that these men who had been captured were denied the right to go home and also the right to fully assimilate as a North Korean. It was as if they were only allowed to live in a glass house that created the illusion that they were taken care of but in reality they were being taken advantage of. I believe that the article has tremendous value and gives a voice to those who have endured the harsh living standards in North Korea. There is not way that their voices can be silenced and forgotten. They will not be taken away in the middle of the night and buried in an unmarked grave, rather they become the new hope for their people.

As the story further unfolds it becomes more apparent that the people who reside in North Korea are the most harmed in the whole situation. It is true that the entire world is under threat from North Korea’s nuclear missiles, however, at least we have a fighting chance to defend our selves and speak our truth, with out fear of being killed. The people of North Korea have no idea what freedom of speech is. They have been groomed since the end of World War II to simply bury their wants, desires and needs and sacrifice everything for their country. Even though, the smoke and mirrors appear to have begun clearing and cracking, the people of North Korea still believed the famine would be “temporary. Things would get better.” Their blind faith in their country quite literally disarmed their survival instinct and buy into their governments excuses. Despite people dying of famine, the electricity extinguishing, and the water shutting off these people could do nothing except “believe in a lie,” even though hungry stomachs shouldn’t. Truly if they don’t continue to believe the lie they could either have a psychotic break because living conditions were so unbearably horrific or they would be forced to flee and risk being killed on sight. It’s hard for any human being to admit that they put their money on the wrong horse let alone if it means you could be killed over it. Although it is difficult a human can only go though so much pain and suffering before before they have to wake up to reality and either choose death or themselves.

In Chapter four of Nothing to Envy, Ms. Song starts to realize something is amiss when the electricity starts to fade in and out. At first it was every now and then, and it progressed to where days would go by with no power. She had to alter her already daunting daily routine to now include fetching water because her running water was off during the blackouts. She became smart and would fill numerous buckets at a time, to make due during the outages. What else comes from not having any power? The train that Ms. Song would take to work was intermittent as well. She ended up just walking to work, an hour away, for fear of missing any work and not earning her food ration vouchers.

North Koreans were not paid wages that could sustain a person with enough food, shelter and possessions. What they were paid was more like an allowance. Everything they needed was provided by their government.

North Koreans were not supposed to shop because everything they needed was supplied by the government in the name of Kim il-sungs benevolence.

pg. 62

When the power started to fade, so did work at the factories for Ms. Song. They were eventually dismissed and told that they would need to find other means to feed their family. Some women took to the black market, selling things that were allowed to be sold. Ms. Song didn’t agree with the black market. She felt it was “not the place for a proper communist.”

I find it intriguing that Ms. Song can remain so proud and wouldn’t stoop so low as to sell things, considering it might help her to provide food and other necessities for herself and her family. I feel that if times were in such dier straits, I would do whatever necessary to provide food to my family. But then again, she believes in communist ways and to her the government shall provide!

This article “Hardly Known, Not Yet Forgotten, South Korean POW’s Tell Their Story” tells multiple and various first-hand stories of survivors from the Korean War. Very relatable to Barbara Demick’s book Nothing to Envy,  just in a much smaller version, describing the pain and terror they and their families had to go through to survive.

This article adds more information to my understanding of what I read in Demick’s book in general. It has advanced statistics of POW’s from both North Korea and South Korea, dates of when major events had occurred, facts of peers and events and even reasonings for why things happen. For example,

“Six hundred and seventy South Korean POWs were confined to hard labor at the Aogi coal mine in
1953, and 30 more arrived later. Out of 700 POWs, there are no more than 20 left now. Over the past
five decades, many have died in working accidents, and others have died of old age,” Kim said.

Just this piece of information improves my knowledge of the whole Korean War itself; a fact/statistic which explains what is happening, why it happened and when it has happened.

I think that the author of Nothing To Envy may have been drawn to this article, because they both talk about the conflict between North Korea and South Korea as well as having stories and information from POW’s. The article and book have different people, meaning they have different stories and experience. hat I’m trying to get to, is they have something in common, which is writing about Korea which shows similar interest. Maybe Demick wanted to further her education and knowledge of Korea and Korean people.

I believe this article is high quality. I believe what makes its quality or value, is the fact that this is primary research, meaning it is first-hand information. The original reporting was in Korean, reported by Sookyung Lee, which has been translated by Greg Scarlatoiu and has been posted on the English web from Luisetta Mudie. But other than all of that publishing, people will look and read at this article as “more important” because the stories that are told are not handed down stories, but from actual people itself that has survived and physically been there during the times of pain.

The women of this country do it all…. mothers, wives, military, informant, subservient, supporter of propaganda and simultaneously brainwashed.

Sun up tp sun down completely abstinent of any copious free time they are seemingly the spine of tyranny and family alike while longing secretly for liberation…

Reading this article makes it even more clear on the ramifications of war on it’s people and future generations.

Hardly Known, Not yet forgotten, South Korean POW’s tell their story is an article by Radio Free Asia. This article talks in a statistical way of how many POW’s there were in North and South Korea and how their lives were forever changed by this. I can further understand the need for the North Koreans depicted in Nothing to Envy, to keep their heads down and to hold their tongue.

Based on the numbers in the articles, many did not survive the imprisonment and if they did they were then told where to live, where to work and their children would follow in this same way. South Koreans who were released were given citizenship to North Korea, allowed to marry North Korean women and start families. They worked for years knowing they would never be granted promotion.

I feel that the author of Nothing to Envy, Barbara Demick, was drawn to this particular article because of the sheer volume of POW’s and how it shows the life of one after the war was over. It explains how the POW’s were left in the dark for years, not even knowing the war was over. It gives her more of an idea of why people would become defectors. It’s an eye opening article on how future generations of these POW’s are not granted a life of their own because of who their father was.

South Korean pows tell there story, and what an equally emotionally provocative pice in relation to “nothing to Envy’.

The relation between the two different sides of this war and how incredibly impactful the war was for the men women and children is in some ways painfully similar.

Lots of judgement and even shame towards these people just within the confines of the own culture, and amongst friends and family members, seemingly knows no limits and will more than likely last a few generations to come.

Theres nothing more riveting than first hand personal accounts of how wars like this effect these humans on such a broad scale.