Nothing to Envy

“Then, in the middle of it all, an expanse of blackness nearly as large as England. It is baffling how a nation of 23 million people can appear as vacant as the oceans. North Korea is simply a blank.” 

This quote emphasizes the literal darkness of North Korea in relationship to the rest of the industrialized world. It also suggests our lack of knowledge about it: it is not just dark but a “blank,” an unknown and illegible area. Its lack of access to electricity and to the World Wide Web compounds its isolation and also limits the rest of the world’s knowledge of it.

“They don’t stop to think that in the middle of this black hole, in this bleak, dark country where millions have died of starvation, there is also love.” 

The author emphasizes that current discussions of North Korea often leave out the stories of the many citizens who live there. When only its government or propaganda or darkness are discussed, it is easy to forget that the citizens of this nation navigate the same emotions and situations as all other humans.

“In the futuristic dystopia imagined in 1984, George Orwell wrote of a world where the only color to be found was in the propaganda posters. Such is the case in North Korea. Images of Kim Il-sung are depicted in the vivid poster colors favored by the Socialist Realism style of painting.” 

This passage explicitly describes North Korea as a dystopia: something out of science fiction. It thus sets the scene for most of the novel’s action. We imagine Chongjin as a city street drained of color and activity, brightened only by splashes of red and yellow.