Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives In North Korea

In the book Northing to Envy, Barbara Demick describes North Korea as an undeveloped country. “You can see the evidence of what once was and has been lost…” (4,Demick) The North Koreas aren’t up to the modern world and still haven’t learned that all humans need rights to be happy. Many aspects of human rights are broken in North Korean society that affect the people negatively, making them feel violated.

Cultures around the world are divide by their distinctive characteristic of people, and how people interact within their society. Most cultures are driven by the way their environment has been set for them. Many of cultures have to adapt to the way their environment are due to the conditions that are set for them and the amount of resources that they are provided. The biggest drive for culture are the historical custom. Most countries continue to carry their ancestor custom so that the tradition may stay with them throughout their years, in which making other countries distinctive from one another. One of the particular country that will be discuss in this report is North Korea. In this report, I will be discussing the North Korean culture, with describing their living condition in the country, common issues that they face with on a daily bases, and common threat that they pose on other countries.

In North Korea all aspects of life are ruled by the government, which essentially takes away human rights. North Koreans, rich or poor have this idea put into their head that their dictator is a supreme god. If someone had the idea of not worshiping the supreme leader in public, they would be sent to a labor camp. North Koreans who try to leave North Korea without permission may be shot on the spot or sent to a labor camp where they may never be released. In every house, no matter where you lived, there is a picture of the supreme leader that you pray to every day. When the supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong II, died recently, on December 17th 2011, there was a parade held that had mourners when the casket passed by. As the Supreme Leader’s casket passed by , the mourners were observed to see if they were actually crying. If they didn’t seem like they were sad enough they were sent to prison camps along with other North Koreans that didn’t join the parade. At these Labor camps imprisoned North Koreans are taught how important is to worship the supreme leader and sometimes kept there with their families for as long as they live.

They make people believe in things aren’t real just like King Jong Un does to his population. An example in George Orwell book was that 2+2=5, Orwell stated (1949) “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows” (page 81). This shows how much the government controls you and how they can manipulate the way people think. Just like 1984, North Korea makes the citizens believe things are true when they are clearly to anybody else in the world.The government is very careful with what they let in and out of the

Also the lack of jobs has led to the majority of the people to be below the poverty line. And the ones with jobs do not get paid much or at all due to government corruption. For example, “Men are forced to work long hours for the government, often without pay, and those that don’t show up for work risk imprisonment”. Which has led to men working worthless jobs and women becoming the breadwinners of the families but still not having the same respect as men. The North Korean government is forcing these men to work for free while their families have no food to eat. Brainwashing and propaganda are also major aspects of the regime to keep the people scared of the world outside North Korea, namely the United States, Japan and South Korea. As shown, “Ak (evil) may be the single most commonly used word to describe Americans. The derogatory term nom, similar to calling someone a bastard, is inevitably attached to the end of any word referring to Americans”. Children from a young age are taught to refer to Americans in such manner to install fear in them to always distrust Americans and their aid. Americans are the worst of the worst type of people, according to the Kim regime, because they prevented the reunification of the two Koreas. Followed closely behind by the Japanese, since there is still resentment from the Japanese colonial rule. South Korea is not as

In North Korea, a totalitarian or dictatorial government prevails, where one “Supreme Leader” is revered and even worshipped. This government features a monolithic system, which plays “a crucial role in enabling the continuing monopoly of power by a sole leader” (Park 5-6). All components of life and society thus become fully oriented toward the goals of the head of state, Kim Jong-un, and the Kim dynasty. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the government-headed Korean Central News Agency heavily commands the “dissemination of information, and all papers are strictly censored” (Lee et al.). This control over the movement of ideas in the population not only fosters the spread of government ideology but also prompts citizens to remain ignorant regarding certain issues, such as government actions

The country of North Korea compares rather closely to the world in Ayn Rand’s Anthem. Both nations of people are very closed off from the community and the outside world. The citizens only know about what the government officials want them to know about. In North Korea everyone depends upon and worships their leader, Kim Jong Il, almost as though he is their god. They all only depend on what they classify as “we” and they rely only on that because they do not have access to anyone else or even know what it means to be an individual. In both the book and North Korea, the citizens are locked down and watched with a careful eye. Breaking the rules in Anthem would send you to the Uncharted Forest, which is very similar to what happens to those

North Korea is known to use misleading propaganda to appear as a great and power, well-built country when in reality its people are suffering greatly. The leaders know they are in the wrong yet will not admit it and seems to not truly care so long as they are powerful militarily

Through this book Demick establishes her deep knowledge of North Korea all the while following the lives of six defectors as they fought to survive. Demick shows us the struggle that these North Koreans face as their country is consumed by an economic crisis and a famine that killed one fifth of their population, while it also gave us a glimpse at what we never think of when we hear about this country. The collapse of North Korea’s economy caused factories to close and other jobs to be terminated. This led the citizens of North Korea to lose their only source of income and forced to find other means to support their families. It caused them to make sacrifices in order support their families and essentially learn to become selfish, to turn a blind eye to the ones around who were also suffering in order for themselves to survive.

One of them believes that “Communism, he reported, was proving a failure as an economic system,” (17). They are clearly not happy with how they are being treated. In North Korea, the government has full control over everything the people do; everything down to their haircuts, which is shown in paragraph four where it states, “They also made sure people weren’t violating the dress code by wearing blue jeans or T-shirts with Roman writing-considered a capitalist indulgence-or wearing their hair too long. The party issued regular edicts saying that men shouldn’t allow the hair on top of their head to grow longer than five centimeters...If a violation was severe, the offender could be arrested by the Public Standards Police.” Because the government has so much power, they easily force the people into submission, and they are unhappy. They get no say in what goes on. They are stripped of their individuality and silenced by the blindness of their higher powered officials. If there is anyone or anything who knows what’s right for the people, it would be the people

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea is a novel by Barbara Demick, the Beijing bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times. It is published by Spiegel & Grau in the United States. It was originally published in 2009, however this version that I had read was published in 2015, with a chapter put on the end of the tome to update it to more recent events. Demick starts out the piece in North-eastern North Korea, specifically the city of Chongjin, the third largest city in North Korea, a major part of the North Korean steel industry. The subject that the author pursues is how an average North Korean lived in the transition of regimes and the struggles that it came with.

Nothing to Envy Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick is a narrative non-fiction novel that shows the importance of propaganda in a totalitarian regime. As the story unfolds, the six defectors leave North Korea because of the famine. Because the country ran out of food and fuel, they left in order to survive; it was never out of disloyalty to their country. Up until their departure, several of the defectors were loyal believers that North Korea was the best country in the world. North Korea still stands today and is able to indoctrinate its people because of its effective use of propaganda.

Although most governments put positive spins on things, normally, they would at the very least give us a glimpse of the truth. North Korea doesn’t do that. Finally, Demick concludes that The citizens of North  Korea aren't treated the way they should

The Secret State of North Korea offered a great look into what basic things North Koreans are lacking. Even within the realm of Communism. Lack of freedoms, lack of food, lack of community, lack of trust, lack of a social society, lack of programs for children, lack of equality, and a lack of information. When Kim Il-Sung created North Korea, the government was based on Marxism and Leninism, called “Juche.” Just as the Soviets, the North Koreans followed suite with massive inequality between the government officials and the common people. The documentary showed its viewers what the government is omnipresent in the everyday lives of its people, so much so that recordings of daily life are illegal, and “random” searches take place commonly.

Understanding how North Korea as a country defines itself in a changing world. Where do they derive their customs and practices, political standings and military power? Define North Korea’s history leading into the modern age and define its culture and characteristics and how they interact with the world today. Understanding a subject as broad as the term culture begins where the culture began with the birth of civilization and the people that influenced it. There are many factors that play a role in the shaping of a nation none so much as turmoil and conflict and the Korean peninsula saw its fair share for the better part of a millennia. A complete statistical breakdown of North Korea shows a struggling nation that strongly depends on