By Mariam Lee ~
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go undercover in North Korea? Have you ever wondered what it’s really like living in a place where one is monitored every second of the day, given no personal freedom, and can barely even think for oneself?
If you answered, “Yes,” then Without You, There Is No Us by Suki Kim is the perfect book for you.
On November 14, 2017, I had the honor of meeting the courageous, wonderful, engaging Suki Kim, the author of Without You, There Is No Us, when she visited Penn State as part of the English Department’s Mary E. Rolling Reading Series. In the afternoon before the reading, I sat down with Kim (who is South Korean and has North Korean ancestors) and about ten other students and faculty members in a little conference room, and we just chatted – about her experiences living in North Korea immersed in such a strictly surveillanced and controlled culture, about the young men she taught at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) in the country’s capital, and about the struggles she endured in the ten years it took her to complete and publish her book.
Being South Korean myself and hailing from the same city as Kim (Seoul, the capital), I found the discussion only mildly relatable at times – I have been in North Korea, but only the part sectioned off at the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas; in other words, my tour of the country was incompatible to Kim’s experiences.
Suki Kim (left) and I posed for a picture together after the private conference.
However, I knew how she felt when she spoke of her grandmother losing her son to North Korea’s regime, the heartache eventually killing her. My own great grandfather was murdered by the Japanese during the division of the country in the Korean War, and my grandmother (his daughter) is still torn over it to this day.
I believe Kim does not get enough credit (though she clearly deserves it) for the courageous, life-risking act she pursued by willingly, for no pay, traveling to North Korea for long periods of time to teach some of the country’s elite young soldiers. On several occasions, Kim spoke of interviewers notably excluding her from certain questions because they believed she didn’t endure enough of a challenge to immaculately answer them, when this is undoubtedly completely erroneous.
Kim not only wrote down everything that happened to her during her time there in documents on her laptop (so as to not look too suspicious and copied these documents onto three different USB sticks and SD cards), but she also fell in love with her students – these innocent, clueless young men who will all one day grow up to become fighters in their country’s military.
During the evening reading, Kim read from her book briefly, but mainly talked about her experiences, using a collection of videos and images to illustrate the extreme challenges of living in a country where even the most privileged students do not have access to the internet, where every movement and thought is controlled by the corrupt government, and where most of the country’s history is based upon lies.
Above (in order) are the three Great Leaders of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK): Kim Il-sung (1912 – 1994), Kim Jong-il (1941 – 2011), and Kim Jong-un (1984 – ).
Above is what a normal bookstore in the DPRK looks like, where every book includes information about The Great Leader.
Above is Kim’s class watching Harry Potter for the first time.
Above is the PUST campus.
Kim does not plan on returning to North Korea, as it would be too dangerous – she believes she would surely be executed for the publication of Without You, There Is No Us. According to one of her reporter friends who visited the DPRK after releasing her book, there were mumblings about Kim among some of Kim Jong-un’s officials.
However, Kim does plan to continue writing, researching, and hoping that her boys will remain safe, not defect, and grow into the strong, confident gentlemen she knows they are at heart.