North Korea Undercover (36 page)

The government of China is in the best place to put effective pressure on the Kim dynasty. Far from helping the ordinary people of North Korea, defectors say the Chinese authorities are sending more and more people back – a plain breach of their international obligations towards refugees. The highly critical interim report on human rights in North Korea by the United Nations, reporting ‘unspeakable atrocities’ in September 2013, was attacked by North Korea, and its allies Belarus, Syria and China. A Chinese diplomat said:‘Politicized accusations and pressures are not helpful to improving human rights in any country. On the contrary they will only provoke confrontation and undermine the foundation and atmosphere for international human rights cooperation.’
¹²
That issue may not get much traction inside the Chinese Communist Party, but North Korea’s behaviour is generating security worries for China. If Kim Jong Un keeps on messing about with rockets flying over Japan and staging nuclear tests, then the Japanese Right may argue it is time for them to have nuclear weapons – leading to a regional nuclear arms race in east Asia. For the moment, it seems that change in Pyongyang will follow, not precede, change in Beijing.

On our last night it was Mr Hyun’s birthday. He blew out the candles on his cake with one blow, just like the White House will fall. We then all watched the KITC video of our trip, Alex seldom more than two feet from me, in paroxysms of laughter. At times like this it is hard notto feel great affection for the people of North Korea. They are locked inside the madhouse, slaves to Zombie and Sons, at home in the craziest nation on earth.

Suspecting I’d struggle to find a copy there, I took Orwell’s
Animal Farm
with me to North Korea. In Wonsan, I re-read his great introduction to the Ukrainian edition – they, too, know a thing or two about famine, and brainwashing. Orwell wrote: ‘If I had to choose a text to justify myself, I should choose the line from Milton: “By the known rules of ancient liberty.’” As it happened, If inished
Animal Farm
whilst in North Korea and left my copy behind, thinking perhaps someone there might find it useful.

One thinks of the people shivering in the gulag, and wonders: how can we accelerate change? In Tom Stoppard’s play
Night And Day
, about journalism and drinking and freedom and tyranny, the hero Wagner listens to the lover of a dead journalist attack the whole damn thing as a waste of time: the heartbreak beauty queen, the classified ads, the editorial. He half agrees butthen replies: ‘People do awful things to each other. But it’s worse in places where every body is kept in the dark. It really is. Information is light. Information, in itself, about anything, is light. That’s all you can say really... What’s the name of the hotel?’

Information is light. Shine a light into North Korea. The BBC
could
think seriously about calls to start a North Korean service, specifically staffed with people who speak with heavy, rural North Korean accents. My South Korean translator in New Malden often had difficulty in understanding what the defectors from the North were saying. Likewise, North Koreans, listening to their secret radios at low volume lest the Bowibu catch them, might struggle with Seoul accents. Perhaps they could consider broadcasting
1984
,
Animal Farm
and the books on the North’s gulag. Second, perhaps some smart South Koreans could take apart the Orascom mobile phones used in North Korea and work out whether there is a simple modification that can be done that would enable ordinary people in the North to do more with their phones. Third, build the world’s biggest mobile phone masts all along the northern border of the South. Information is light.

On the way to the airport we overtook an oil train, a camouflage net draped over the engineer’s cab, leaving the two hundred wagons some what naked to the sky. The engineer waved to us as if he was in a North Korean version of
Thomas the Tan\ Engine.

When I got back to Heathrow, I got down on my knees and kissed the revolting plastic jetty. It was good to be back in England, drizzle and all. Leaving North Korea is notan option for its people. They will probably only be free to come and go as they wish when the Kim dynasty is dead, and on that day I shall go to ‘Excellent Horse-like Lady’ on the internet, and press play, and raise a glass to poor Hyon, dead or alive, and Ali and Doina, long dead, and all the others condemned to existinside North Korea’s living death.

¹
Lankov,
The Real North Korea
, p 117.

²
‘Kim Jong Un “Loves Nukes, Computer Games and Johnny Walker”’,
Chosun Ilbo,
20 December 2010, http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/ 2010/12/20/2010122001136.html

³
Kim Jong Un’s ex-girlfriend “Shot by Firing Squad”
Chosun Ilbo
, 29 August 2013, http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2013/08/29/2013082901412.html

⁴
‘Excellent Horse-like Lady’, sung by Hyon Song Wol, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5tkXgw20MY

⁵
KCNA, Pyongyang, 22 September, 2013: ‘Those Who Hurt Dignity of DPRK’s Supreme Leadership Will Pay Dearly: KCNA Commentary’ http://leonidpetrov.wordpress.com/category/north-korea-news/

⁶
‘Kim Jong Un’s ex-lover “executed by firing squad’”,
Daily Telegraph
, Julian Ryall: 29 August 2013, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10272953/Kim-Jong-uns-ex-lover-executed-by-firing-squad.html

⁷
Michael Sheridan, Uzi Mahnaimi: ‘Kim Jong-il builds “Thunderbirds” runwa for war’,
Sunday Times,
27 April 2008.

⁸
‘Greece seizes N. Korea chemical weapons suits’, AFP, 16 November 2011.

⁹
http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/north-korea-tried-to-send-gas-masks-to-syria-1.1568595#.UiMvrLxM_fN

¹⁰
http://natethayer.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/the-violent-consequences-of-the-north-korea-syria-chemical-arms-trade/

¹¹
Chosun Ilbo,
18 September 2013, http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2013/06/11/2013061101459.html

¹²
‘North Korean inmates starved and tortured, abuse widespread': U.N., Reuters, 17 September 2013, http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/17/us-korea-north-crimes-idUSBRE98G0B920130917

Acknowledgements

Tomiko Newson returned from North Korea in 2012, passionate that the world should know more about the continuing tragedy of its people. Without her, this book would never have been written. Thanks, too, to Alex Niakaris, for his great good humour inside the North, and thanks to all the students who went on Tomiko’s trip in 2012 and the trip in 2013. For their observations, special thanks to Hoe-Yeong Loke, ‘Fred’, ‘Herta’,‘Dylan’, Jais and the Russian goddesses.

At the BBC, thanks to all my colleagues at
Panorama
, but especially Tom Giles, Clive Edwards, Karen Wightman and Howard Bradburn. Thanks, too, to James Jones and Owen Phillips for beer and cheer.

Long ago at the LSE, Professors Leonard Schapiro, Geoffrey Stern – he led a trip to Hoxha’s Albania, packed to the gunnels with journalists pretending to beacademics – and Wolfgang von Leyden helped frame my views about tyranny and free speech. I will always remember von Leyden‘s aside about the Nazis: ‘They were churlish and ill-bred.’

Thanks to Ludovico Tallarita for his work on the Italian section, Sorana Stanescu for her help in Romania, Carlos David with his help on the tragic case of his uncle, Barbara Demick, Gerry Gregg, Hugh Jordan and my two sources in West Belfast, and, in Washington DC, Andrew Natsios and Greg Scarlatoiu of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.

Jang Ho Kwon did sterling work tracking down North Korean defectors in New Malden. All of the defectors I met in South Korea, Washington DC and London have helped me understand their old country. One day, I hope, they will be able to return.

At Transworld, thanks to Henry Vines. No book would have happened without my agent, Humfrey Hunter.

Lastly, to Tomiko, Sam, Molly and Bertie: tyranny trembles in the face of mockery and laughter, for which much thanks.

Picture Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Alexander Niakaris and Georgia Short for their photographs. All other images have been supplied courtesy of the author unless otherwise stated. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders. We apologize for any omissions in this respect and will be pleased to make the appropriate acknowledgements in future editions.

Section One

Page 1: Kim Jong Un © AP/Press Association Images. Page 2: North Koreans walk past a portrait of their late leaders © Wong Maye-E/AP/Press Association Images. Page 3: both images © AP/Press Association Images. Page 4: the Pyongyang Arc de Triomphe © Getty Images. Page 6: North Koreans parade in Kim Il Sung Square © AP/Press Association Images; troops marching© Jon Choi Jin/AP/Press Association Images.

Section Two

Page 10: Kim Jong Un waves to a crowd © Ng Han Guan/AP/Press Association Images; North Korea’s Unha-3 rocket lifts off © AP/Press Association Images. Page 12: satellite image © DigitalGlobe/Getty Images. Page 14: James Dresnok © Kino/Everett/REX features. Page 15: North Korea at night © NASA/NOAA. Page 16: South Korean protestors © Ahn Young-joon/AP/Press Association Images; defaced banner © Kin Cheung/AP/Press Association Images; young men using mobile phones in Pyongyang © AP/Press Association Images.

Index

Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.

Abshier, Larry 250, 257, 262, 263

Adams, Gerry 215

Adams, Jeremy 217

Adderley, Mark 219, 220, 222

agriculture, North Korean 103–4, 122–3, 124, 125

Al En Ti Sar
(ship) 288–9

Alabama 3 (band) 222

Albania 7,121,122

see also
Hoxha, Enver

Aldershot, England: bombing (1972) 202–3

Alia, Ramiz, President of Albania 121

Alley, Kirstie 168

Amnesty International: Lameda’s report 130, 138,139

animals and wildlife, lack of 229

Anocha Panjoy 262

arms sales, North Korean 161–2

army
see
Korean People’s Army

Asher, David L. 224

Associated Press (AP) 11–12

Baekdu, Mount 67, 85, 171

Baghdad Zoo 95

Balog, Maria 114

Barnes, Julian:
The Porcupine
60–61

Batikian, David Batikovitch
see
Levin, David

BBC 14, 19,197, 211–12, 214, 225, 293

Crossing the Line
249
see
Bonner, Nicholas
see also Panorama

Becker, Jasper:
Rogue Regime
5
and n,7n,
200, 232

Belarus 8, 14, 19,219, 221,292

Berlinguer, Enrico 38

Berlin Wall 18, 70, 120, 209, 211

Bischof, Werner 113–14

Blake, George 112, 115

Bloody Sunday (Derry, 1972) 202

Bonner, Nicholas 248–9, 293

Crossing the Line
248, 249, 251–3, 258–60, 261, 262, 263–4

The Game of their Lives
249

A State of Mind
249

Bowibu, the 51–2, 89, 132,184, 235, 279, 280, 287

brainwashing 19, 116, 167–70, 292

in North Korea 4, 11, 13,19, 8, 91, 110, 166–7, 170–81, 197

Breathnach, Colm 212, 213

Breen, Michael 12

Kim Jong Il
12, 25, 38,
63n,
66, 185

Bucharest, Romania (1989) 156–7

Bukharin, Nikolai 123

Bulgaria 37, 60

Bumbea, Doina 156, 253–4, 260–64

Bumbea, Gabriel 261–2, 264

Bumbea, Petra 264

Bush, President George W. 13

business opportunities, North Korean 82–4

Buzo, Adrian:
The Guerilla Dynasty
47, 61, 62, 68, 143–4

Cadwalladr, Carole 249

Campbell, Raelyn 271

Campbell, Sheena 215

cannibalism 234, 235–6

Cao de Benós, Alejandro (Zo Sun Il) 15–16, 82, 139

Castro, Fidel 147

Ceausescu, Elena 152

Ceausescu, Nicolae 11, 19, 37, 60, 131, 147, 231

visits Pyongyang 149–57

see also
Urian, Izidor

Cedillo, Manuel see Sedillot, Jacques

Celac, Sergiu 155

Chae Mun Tok 197

chemical weapons technology 103, 288–90

China/Chinese 3, 18, 23, 24–5, 50

brainwashing167–8

Communist Party 62, 65, 67, 70, 100, 122, 292

crossing from North Korea into 85–6, 91, 179–80

food aid for North Korea 239

Great Leap Forward 233

and human rights 291

human trafficking 172–4

and impregnation of North Korean women 269

Korean families in 26

and LSE 15–16

and Russia 124, 140–41

and smuggling 86–8, 89, 90, 91, 92, 172, 223

see also
Mao Tse-tung

Chinese People’s Liberation Army 140–41

Cho Man Sik 70, 71, 72

Choe Chang Ik 122–3

Choi Un Hee 5, 190, 191, 192–3, 194–5, 200

Choku, Bedri 122

Calhoun, Craig 16

Chongjin, North Korea 27, 76

Chongori
see
Prison Camp 12

Chongsan-ri Farm (‘No Animal Farm’), North Korea 20, 55, 56–7, 75

Chosun Ilbo
(newspaper) 161, 285

Christianity 12, 64, 65

Chung Ju Yung 25

Church of Scientology 19, 21, 164–5, 168, 201,297

Churchill, Winston 69

Clark, Peter Keith
see
Todd, Hugh

class system, North Korean 25–7

Clinton, President Bill 53, 102

Cockerell, Simon 12–13

concentration camps
see
gulags

Condon, Richard:
The Manchurian Candidate
167

Confucianism 25, 46, 64, 107

Corcoran, Christopher 219, 220

Cruise, Tom 168, 283

Czechoslovakia 7, 37, 126, 142–3, 199

Daddah, Moktar Ould, President of Mauritania 37