In 'Without You, There Is No Us', Suki Kim unveils the secretive world of North Korea through the eyes of a foreign teacher. She intricately details her experiences in a regime where education is laced with propaganda and every conversation is a risk. As she forms bonds with her students, Kim grapples with the chilling realities of their indoctrination and the impact of isolation. The narrative is a poignant exploration of hope and despair, raising haunting questions about freedom and identity. With every page, the reader is drawn deeper into a stark and surreal reality, leaving them to ponder: what price do we pay for knowledge and connection?
By Suki Kim
Published: 2015
""In a world where silence is the loudest sound, the truth becomes both a weapon and a refuge.""
A haunting account of teaching English to the sons of North Korea's ruling class during the last six months of Kim Jong-il's reign Every day, three times a day, the students march in two straight lines, singing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea: Without you, there is no motherland. Without you, there is no us. It is a chilling scene, but gradually Suki Kim, too, learns the tune and, without noticing, begins to hum it. It is 2011, and all universities in North Korea have been shut down for an entire year, the students sent to construction fields—except for the 270 students at the all-male Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), a walled compound where portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il look on impassively from the walls of every room, and where Suki has gone undercover as a missionary and a teacher. Over the next six months, she will eat three meals a day with her young charges and struggle to teach them English, all under the watchful eye of the regime. Life at PUST is lonely and claustrophobic, especially for Suki, whose letters are read by censors and who must hide her notes and photographs not only from her minders but from her colleagues—evangelical Christian missionaries who don't know or choose to ignore that Suki doesn't share their faith. As the weeks pass, she is mystified by how easily her students lie, unnerved by their obedience to the regime. At the same time, they offer Suki tantalizing glimpses of their private selves—their boyish enthusiasm, their eagerness to please, the flashes of curiosity that have not yet been extinguished. She in turn begins to hint at the existence of a world beyond their own—at such exotic activities as surfing the Internet or traveling freely and, more dangerously, at electoral democracy and other ideas forbidden in a country where defectors risk torture and execution. But when Kim Jong-il dies, and the boys she has come to love appear devastated, she wonders whether the gulf between her world and theirs can ever be bridged. Without You, There Is No Us offers a moving and incalculably rare glimpse of life in the world's most unknowable country, and at the privileged young men she calls "soldiers and slaves."
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“"In a world where silence is the loudest sound, the truth becomes both a weapon and a refuge."”
Without You, There Is No Us
By Suki Kim
Discover a world of knowledge through our extensive collection of book summaries.
Suki Kim is a South Korean-American author and journalist, acclaimed for her remarkable exploration of North Korea through the lens of personal narrative. She is the author of several notable works including 'Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite' and 'The Interpreter,' which delve deep into themes of identity, isolation, and the human experience under oppressive regimes. Kim's writing style is characterized by its profound empathy, vivid detail, and journalistic clarity, providing readers with both an intimate and expansive understanding of her subjects.
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