Month: February 2019

Very interesting to read that the North Korean regime viewed it’s citizens as opponents. Or maybe it was just the independent thinkers who were trying to survive that were the opponents? Either way, the regime had a way of fixing the opposition.

“Starvation was the way the regime preferred to eliminate it’s opponent’s”

pg. 179

Once Kim Jong-Il could no longer seem to get his “corner” on the underground commerce, he felt opposed. He set out to right the wrongs. He felt that punishments were too slack for offenders and that was going to change. His plan was to strike back against the people who fended for themselves. His motto:

“Everything good in life was to bequeathed by the government”

pg. 180

I find that an odd motto considering his father before him and he himself, failed his people. People weren’t allowed to fend for themselves. As the example set for the rancher who was sentenced to years in prison because he birthed a dead calf and didn’t report it. He chose to feed his family instead. He ended up dying in the prison by starvation. It seems Kim Jong-Il’s opposition plan was doing what he had intended it to do. Eliminate the threat.

“No boy of mine will be a thief,” ” better to starve than steal.”

This sounds like something I would say to my own child if I was trying to correct him. But it means more then just to say it, After reading this book and seeing the reasons why the boy has to steal it makes me wonder. Stealing is wrong no matter what. But, to steal food as a child who is starving who runs by a vender and takes a fruit from the market place or fending for himself. I have never experience famine on our island. When I was a kid, my parents fell into hard times. we would go fishing and we eat off the fat of the land. My mom says we would return to the land (aina) for survival. We picked guava, mango and coconut so freely, we had sweet potato leaves and boiled fish soup. What would also be super beneficial because we had the check on the first of the month, EBT that helped. But the children and the people in North Korea according to this book didn’t have that, they just starve to death. We should plant fruits and vegetables for the families in North Korea. Anyone interested?

I was just thinking about how the famine in North Korea occurred in the 1990’s, which wasn’t super long ago. I was also thinking about how in America, we had iconic fashion, music, films, TV shows, cartoons, etc. In North Korea, the people were starving to death, searching desperately for food.

It’s just crazy to think that all of this was happening just in the 90’s. The sad part too is that the North Korean people also had no knowledge of what’s outside of their country. They’re brainwashed to believe that their country is the best to live in and they have to be grateful for where they live.

Chapter 11 really shows the independent thinkers struggling to survive.

We meet a young boy named Hyuck, who I have nicknamed “Master thief”. This poor child was told from an early age that “it’s better to starve then to steal”. He never quite conformed to this way of thinking. His starving belly told him otherwise. He became a very resourceful kid. He found ways to trap animals, climb high trees to find edible bark, crossed rivers into China, all in order to survive. He watched as the world as he knew it changed and he kept forging ahead. He was once a part of the core class, born of privilege. But even in the times of the famine, no class was spared the hardship of hunger pains. He lost family, friends and witnessed the lies he had heard about China. For when he crossed over the first time, he saw food, bustling towns and fellow North Koreans. Was there hope that came with this new realization?

The markets in North Korea started busting at the seams. Some vendors were making enough money to even afford rent on a permanent station at the market. The market was booming with activity. Things were being sold that brought a new color to the once drab North Koreas palette.

While the famine was continuing, people were creative with the items they sold. There was a moment when the military was even making a profit by selling the humanitarian aid to the vendors on the black market. The hungry didn’t care how the food of all different colors got there, they were just excited to see food. Pineapple, oranges, bananas. They hadn’t even seen some of these items in years, if not ever in their life. Clothes from South Korea was popping up in hues and fabrics they never knew existed. Items thought to be luxuries were showing up everywhere. This was changing the lives of some. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer.

People continued to die all around. What used to be up was down and what used to be wrong was now right. The lives as the North Koreans knew it, was changing.

When faced with starvation and death, people in North Korea had to “unlearn” a life time of propaganda. Out with the rules and codes of honor. People were resorting to selling their belongings and sometimes even themselves.

“Everyone needed a scam to survive”

pg 154

Coal miners were becoming well versed in medicinal herbs. Doctors were performing minor and major surgeries on the side. Women started to become prostitutes. Why? Because they needed to in order to survive. They weren’t being provided for by their fearless leader and people were forced to be creative with their skills. Mills were being broken into and scavenged for any materials that people on the outside could fashion into shoes, wheel barrows or ovens.

The resourcefulness of this culture is leaving me in awe. They were able to take next to nothing and start businesses from it. Giving them one more day to try again.

When Mrs. Song’s mother-in-law eventually bit the bullet, many dismissed her passing as simply her “time to go,” though she would’ve aged much longer, had she the proper nutrition. Nonetheless, Mrs. Song internalized herself as a disappointment, bankrupting her self-worth. Mrs. Song no longer valued her hygiene or appearance; those concerns were miniscule in comparison to the overhanging panic of losing her loved ones. She never took the opportunity to grieve the loss of Chang-bo’s mom for fear that another family member might join alongside her. Despite her doctor’s warning to remain in bed for the three months following her train crash injuries, Mrs. Song persisted to ferret for food. Someone had to do it. Her husband, once able-bodied and chunky, corroded into a skeleton and wore scales like eczema. Consequently, Mrs. Song pleaded her sister for some noodles but to no avail. His demise came and went. In due time, Nam-oak, too, moved back in, but his urgency for penicillin, more or less, sealed his fate. He passed away soon after. Only after 1998 did the famine get allay, only because of fewer mouths to feed. As Mrs. Song said so herself, “Everybody who was going to die was already dead.” In my assessment, she functioned like a juggler, who never got a sturdy grip on the the balls. When one person died so did the next. I find her endurance remarkable, as Mrs. Song grappled to keep her family alive, let alone herself. I, for one, would need no less a year or two to process my emotions fully. Mrs. Song’s fighting spirit speaks to that of all other North Koreans to keep on keeping on each and every day.

As the Arduous March slumped to an all-time low, North Koreans had to come to grips with their adversity and begin fending for themselves. Many utilized traps and nets to ensnare small animals, while others foraged for seafood scattered upon beaches and/or unguarded cliffs. Those most desperate even resorted to picking out kernels of corn from animal excrement in order to eat. Every second, minute, and hour, the North Koreans scoured for their next bite, and lunch had now become a luxury. Neighbors often exchanged recipes and familial survival tips passed down from generation to generation. In order for Dr. Kim to keep her and her family afloat, she peddled tofu and raised pigs, nourishing them with the leftover tofu water. When the wages still didn’t raken in enough for basic provisions, Dr. Kim went on to sell almost all other possessions, including the TV, bike, sewing machine, and even apartment (though government-owned). Here in Hawai‘i, we often take the multitude and convenience of supermarkets and fast food restaurants for granted. The moment the continual shipment of overseas goods and foodstuffs comes to an end, we, too, would have to adapt like the North Koreans, doing everything in our power to survive.

I can almost picture the expression on Mi-ran’s face as the wheels within her head finally began turning. Even when Mi-ran was still a young girl, fantasies of life beyond destitute Chongjin animated her thoughts. Pyongyang epitomized prosperity and a safe haven from the constraints synonymous with inferior songbun. It is this illusion that endures to drive Mi-ran and North Koreans like her to struggle on, keep quiet, and mindlessly play by the rules. However, her former, rigid mindset started to crumble upon witnessing an adolescent who appeared to have been starved to death. In grade school, she was made to believe that starvation existed only in China and Africa, never in North Korea. Moreover, Mi-ran’s disbelief magnified, when she spotted children begging for food in the wee hours at the train station. “We’re so lucky to have Kim Il-sung” and similar assertions have distorted the North Korean’s concept of reality to the point that they don’t realize the truth of not only the outside world but their own nation. Her shocking realization proved that all her time and efforts were squandered on reaching for an imperceptible target.

While sitting under a tree in the botanical Gardens pondering over Dr Kims life as a North Korean woman, her accomplishments and losses I had a vision of her talking to God after death…. it looked and sounded kinda like this.

Dr. Kim Father…where am I? in heaven with me now my child, you have returned home and I am so pleased with you and all that you have accomplished.

But Father I lost everything i held true to my heart, all my accomplishments in the end were for not. I married a man I didn’t love, all the prestige and personal ranking and financial stability I built up ultimately diminished, left with little more than i started with to die with little legacy if any.

I fought so hard to try and make a difference, worked night and day relentlessly and ultimately all my efforts became my very demise. I fell i failed miserably….

God:

Dear child…. the ways of man and material things nor stature and possition mean anything to me…. what you did for your fellow countrymen, brothers and sisters, and especially the children of North Korea is all that matters.

EVERY DAY, you put forth your all, your heart and soul to make life better for those in need, to bring health education and some since of love and joy to the lives of others. For this my dear sweet daughter you shall sit by my side for all of eternity, you have exceeded my expectations of you.