The Hidden People of North Korea Read Online Free PDF Page A

are hanging in the subway car. At the factory entrance, the workers (all women) are greeted by a female agitprop team whose leader is praising Kim Jong-il while her half-dozen associates line up behind her waving red flags. As the workers prepare their sewing machines for the day’s work, the factory manager announces that the factory has been assigned a quota of 150 coats for that day, although they made fewer than 100 the day before. Then the electricity goes out, and the women take out paperback books and read or talk to each other.
    In a separate room the factory manager convenes a meeting at which he blames the power outage on “the American stranglehold and years of natural disasters” and predicts, “As long as imperialism continues, our energy problem will exist.” Then he calls on the equipment manager to stand and give her report, which she reads in a monotone voice: “I am responsible for the equipment department. I am not a good manager. I did not prepare the equipment plan properly. It’s my fault the machines are in bad shape and unreliable. I didn’t train the workers well. That’s why the whole department performs so poorly. I vow that I will improve the production lines.” Everyone takes notes, and when she sits, there is a moment of silence. Then another manager reads his report: “Our comrades should know that the electrical shortage is caused by the isolationist policy of imperialist countries, above all, the U.S.” The factory manager adds, “This problem will go on until our enemy is defeated.”
    At one point the “third broadcasting” speaker on the workroom wall comes alive with a “news flash”: “Our great general Kim Jong-il has, on behalf of the people, received a letter from a Chinese delegation. The letter of thanks says, ‘Pyongyang, we have seen the fantastic results of your socialist system and encountered a friendly tradition and warm atmosphere during our visit. We would like to express our thanks for the effort Korea has made to make our visit a success. DPRK, we wish you eternal life and happiness.’ ”
    At the end of the day, the family gathers in its apartment and listens to the grandfather, dressed in a suit covered with war medals, tell Korean War stories about how the Americans bombed his school and his house, killing his father and older brother. When he enlisted and went to the front, “I shot at Americans. I was breathing fire. You can imagine how badly I wanted revenge.” He proudly says, “Even my granddaughter says, ‘Kill the American dogs.’ I taught her that.”
    His daughter-in-law, smiling brightly, adds, “My father-in-law has often told us about the enemy and about his experiences during the war. So even though I wasn’t in the war myself, his stories have shown me how bad and cruel those American dogs, our people’s enemy, were to our people. We must ensure that our people never suffer at the hands of those American monsters again. I believe from the bottom of my heart that we must do everything to destroy all American monsters on our land [i.e., the Korean Peninsula].”
    The Book Chapters
    Following this brief preview of North Korea, we move in chapter 2 to a discussion of the ideas, leadership techniques, and lifestyle of Kim Jong-il and his father, who are the architects and builders of North Korea and the two people for whose benefit the country continues to exist separately from South Korea. Although they have governed much like other dictators, the two Kims stand out because they have had a much longer time to perfect their dictatorship.
    The foundation of a society is its economy, which is the subject of chapter 3. The socialist command economy that Kim Il-sung adopted and that Kim Jong-il has embraced is more than an economy: it is a social-control mechanism. People who don’t obey, don’t eat. Although this economic model is admirably suited to keeping the Kim regime in power, it can only function as long as it receives foreign