Ever since I lived on the very edge of Japan's west coast, I've wanted to visit North Korea. If you've ever seen pictures of their mass games, parades, grand palaces, and smiling propaganda, you might understand the desire.
Everyone in my coastal village of Japan thought I was crazy of course. Especially because someone was allegedly kidnapped by North Korea from our very peninsula in 1977.
But despite this, ever since living so close to a place which doesn't allow its citizens access to the Internet, and only just legalised mobile phones in 2008, I've craved a visit.
I figured it would be a nice continuation to the communist obsession which saw me visit 'the big three' - Mao, Ho Chi Minh, and Lenin, along with their respective countries.
That was until the other day when I came across this.
After reading about Shin Dong-hyuk's experience of growing up in, and then escaping from, a North Korean prison camp, I realised I couldn't go there anymore. I couldn't spend any of my money in a country that did this.
And even though some would say that my pounds will trickle down, that they will touch some regular people as well as the government (which demands you're accompanied everywhere you go), I'm drawing my own 38th parallel, and won't be crossing this one unless things really change.
2 comments:
wow - what an awful story. Have you read the book?
Nope, I haven't. Half of me really wants to, and the other half wants to protect my mental wellbeing from the horror of real life.
Post a Comment