Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea’s Elite

Suki Kim is a Korean-American writer from New York City. She went undercover as an English teacher in a college-level all-boys-institution in North Korea where the sons of the North Korean elite were educated. She tells the story of how she got into her position and how dangerous it was for her to be there.

Through her narrative we get an amazing glimpse into the society of North Korea and its people, its culture and its political system that we can’t get looking in from the outside simply from what the media tell us, or what the occasional tourist reports after visiting.

Being in North Korea was profoundly depressing. There was no other way of putting it. The sealed border was not just at the 38th parallel, but everywhere, in each person’s heart, blocking the past and choking off the future. As much as I loved those boys, or because of it, I was becoming convinced that the wall between us was impossible to break down, and not only that, it was permanent. This so saddened me that some frozen dawns, when I woke up to the sound of the boys doing their group exercises, I had to fight not to shut my eyes and go back to sleep.

— Kim, Suki. Without You, There Is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea’s Elite (p. 257). Crown/Archetype. Kindle Edition.

Today North Korea is a vilified nation, a nuclear proliferator, and a world-aggressor. All we know about North Korea, for the most part, is the iconic image of the boy-dictator Kim Jong-un, and the lackeys in uniform who surround him. We think about parades of tanks, masses of soldiers in goose step, and missiles hauled on trucks through wide boulevards lined with trees. We think about nuclear missile tests. We don’t know much about this country that gets so much bad press around the world.

Reading Suki Kim’s book Without You, There is No Us opens up a wide window into this elusive and closed society. North Korea is an example of an entire nation of 25 million people completely and totally brainwashed for generations. The country’s elite does not get Internet access or modern computers. They cannot research because most topics are taboo. They have been told, for 75 years, that they are one of the most powerful and prosperous nations on earth. And they have no idea that they are actually one of the most isolated nations, resembling a concentration camp of 25 million occupants, who live under 19th century conditions, with shoddy power, terrible infrastructure, malnutrition even for the elite, complete suppression of the media, no access to modern music, art, literature or cinema.

Even family members are kept apart. The boys in the college are not allowed to communicate, even by letter, with their families or friends. When they are in the military, for years at a time, they don’t get to come home – in a country the size of Pennsylvania!

North Korea is a threat to world peace, particularly now, where the president of the United States is widely viewed as the most serious threat to world stability.

Every American should read Suki Kim’s book to better understand the tragic and failed experiment that is called North Korea. One man, with the aid of his father and grandfather, has managed to subjugate 25 million people, by keeping them underfed, uneducated and in constant fear – just so he can aggrandize himself – and eat well.