Continuing writing about my North Korea trip…

Since returning I’ve found people incredibly interested in North Korea. For better or worse, many people ask what human rights issues I saw there, if any.

People far more experienced than I have investigated and reported on North Korea beyond what I could observe. If you want to learn about their experiences, you can find them. See below for a short bibliography.

I will write on what I saw, doing my best to avoid exaggeration and speculation, or at least note where I do so. I know plenty happened outside the field of view the North Korean government permitted us, perhaps outside Pyongyang or far from us, but maybe right under our noses.

I don’t intend to write about politics or human rights. Those topics are important. But what I cover has meaning too. I cover what my group and I saw with our own eyes and I will tell what happens when Americans interacted with North Koreans — rare occurrences.

In going we also presented Americans to them. I don’t know how they received or perceived us, but I went thinking my presence showed them the best of what America could offer. And I believe them seeing the best America has to offer — us — helps improve understanding and communication better than anything. If you think you can present better, by all means go.

• The New Yorker
  • “Alone In the Dark: Kim Jong Il plays a canny game with South Korea and the U.S.“, by Philip Gourevitch, September 8, 2003
  • On the occasion of Barbara Demick’s 2009 book, “Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea“, a finalist for the National Book Award with stellar Amazon reviews
    • “The Good Cook: A battle against famine in North Korea“, by Barbara Demick, October 26, 2009
    • “Barbara Demick on Life in North Korea“, posted by Avi Zenilman, October 26, 2009
    • “A True Believer” an audio slideshow on one woman who defected from North Korea, by Barbara Demick, October 26, 2009
  • “Kimworld: Inside the North Korean slave state” books on North Korea reviewed by Ian Buruma, August 22, 2005
  • “A Night Out in North Korea“, posted April 2, 2010 by Evan Osnos, who blogs many short pieces on North Korea for the New Yorker
  • “Our Man in Pyongyang: Bobby Egan’s barbecue diplomacy“, by Rebecca Mead, October 8, 2007
  • New Yorker articles with North Korea keyword
• An hour long, informative interview of Barbara Demick at the Asia Society in New York, January 7, 2010
• Daily NK, a South Korean publication opposing the North Korean government, supporting the North Korean people
• DPRK Profile, an overview by Koryo, the excellent group that organized our tour from Beijing
• Blogs
• Jordan Harbinger’s and Gabriel Mizrahi’s “North Korea Blog“
• Joseph Ferris III’s “An American in North Korea“
• Werner Kranwetvogel’s “Massgames Pictures“
• Wikipedia articles. Besides the content, the articles have many references.
  • North Korea
  • Kim Il Sung
  • Kim Jung Il
  • Juche
  • Arirang Mass Games
  • Censorship in North Korea
  • Korean War
  • Korean Demilitarized Zone
  • Propaganda in North Korea
  • Human Rights in North Korea
  • North Korean Famine
  • USS Pueblo
• The Council of Foreign Relations
• The Council on Foreign Relations’ report The China-North Korea Relationship
• The Council on Foreign Relations’ report The Six-Party Talks on North Korea’s Nuclear Program
• Human rights reporting
  • The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea’s Prison Camps (122 page pdf), by David Hawk of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (not related to the U.S. Government), 2003
  • “The Hidden Gulag“, by Young Howard in the San Diego Union-Tribune, May 15, 2005
  • Human Rights Watch articles on North Korea
  • Amnesty International’s 2011 Report on North Korea
• North Korea documentaries on Youtube
  • National Geographic’s Inside Undercover North Korea, about a doctor who performed over 1,000 eye surgeries in ten days, by the older sister of one of the journalists sentenced to twelve years hard labor, saved by Bill Clinton.
• How the first Ultimate Frisbee tournament in North Korea came to be

Tomorrow: common expectations of North Korea, as opposed to my experiences and what I observed.

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EDIT: I included much of this post (edited and polished) in my ebook, Understanding North Korea: Demystifying the World’s Most Misunderstood Country. I wrote the book to help increase understanding, communication, and freedom.

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