Nothing to Envy

Jun-sang witnesses a public execution and contemplates the realities of life in Chongjin. He sees that even soldiers are stunted and starving. At university, he is exposed to more international literature—some of it illicitly traded by his friends and classmates—and learns that even Russia has embraced some degree of capitalism. He purchases a TV and modifies it to get South Korean television; confronted with images of life there, he wonders if it is all a fabrication before coming to accept his own ignorance of the outside world. He also hears Kim Jong-il’s voice for the first time—in North Korea, his words are “voiced by professional announcers” (194). He contemplates the irony of the song with the lyrics “we have nothing to envy” and comes to realize that many of his classmates must feel the same way as he does: deeply skeptical of their nation. Nonetheless, under the regime’s strict repression, he hesitates to express his views to anyone, including Mi-ran. 

Mi-ran and Jun-sang’s relationship suffers: both have doubts about the regime, but neither is comfortable expressing them. Jun-sang kisses Mi-ran for the first time, and she begins to believe that they will never get married, that there is no future for them together.