#238
Title:
The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean GulagAuthor: Kang Chol-Hwan and Pierre Rigoulot
Publisher: Basic
Year: 2005
Country: North Korea (not my first)
238 pages
A
memoir by a child whose family, though highly politically active on
behalf of Kim Il-Sung's government, was interned in Yodok, one of North
Korea's labor camps. He was there for 10 years, through his late
childhood (age 9) and adolescence. Though then released, he remained
under observation. Threatened with a return to the camps because he
listened to South Korean radio, he fled to China, then to South Korea.
The
memoir is interesting and serviceable, if not literary. Although there
are many statements about emotions, the narrative is more expository
than demonstrative. I particularly would have liked to know more details
about the family's interactions in the camp (for example, did they
share food they stole, or was it everyone for himself?) and about how he
manages the emotional and psychological consequences of fleeing the
country, knowing that this would bring potentially extreme negative
consequences to his remaining family.
It could have uses a better
editor, both for narrative flow and structure. In addition, it would
have benefited from further attention to details. For example, Kang
reports that his first detail as a child detainee was on a team that
carried meter-long logs from the mountains to the village 3-4 kilometers
away. He says that it took 12 round trips (72 to 96 km, or about 47.5
to 63 miles) to meet the daily quota from 1:00 PM on. Assuming they
worked from 1:00-9:00 PM, probably an overestimate, with no breaks, the
children would have had to cover 6 miles an hour at a minimum, on foot,
carrying "terribly heavy" meter-long logs half the time. It's simply not
possible. He then goes on to say that it added up to 40 kilometers in
12 round trips.That's still over 26 miles in a shift, with logs, but
makes each leg of the trip 1.67 kilometers, not 3-4 (p. 71). If you
assume that, though difficult to miss, this was an editorial error,
that's fine. If, like some reviewers, you think he's exaggerating in a
more general way, it is worth taking a look at other escapees' (and
Amnesty International's) accounts of oppression in North Korean and
similar dictatorships, which substantiate his assertions even if some
details are suspect.
