How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Panel)
Quote #1
You’ve got to be ready for anything when you travel. (1.39)
Any region is different from your home, but North Korea is different from every other place on the planet. Its motto should be “expect the unexpected.”
Quote #2
You can pick up a dozen frequencies on AM and FM, but they all play the same station. (3.33)
What a disappointment. Guy smuggles in a radio but can’t listen to anything good on it. Frankly, we’re not sure what he expects. We doubt NPR has a tower in Pyongyang. We doubt anything has a tower in Pyongyang.
Quote #3
Food aid has poured in, feeding up to a third of the country’s population. (3.94)
It’s incredible how a country with such ostentatious buildings—a hotel with a revolving restaurant on top—needs so much aid. What are they doing with all that money? Oh, wait: that hotel with a revolving restaurant on top...
Quote #4
Only one drawing stands out for its personal style, but it’s in the bottom rows. (4.43)
How sad. People who try to express themselves and have a distinct personality are shunned in North Korea. But do you think this is something that happens only there? Maybe North Korea is just more extreme about it?
Quote #5
It used to be risky to grow your own food in the “paradise of socialism.” But with today’s shortages, the regime looks the other way. (4.46-4.47)
This is a big difference between North Korea and the rest of the world, and yet another example of their arbitrary rules. The government tries to control everything, down to how many chickens the people can own. Seriously, though: things must be really tough if the regime is willing to look the other way about anything.
Quote #6
You have to be on your guard for devious spies hatching evil plans to destabilize the socialist system. (4.64)
One thing the regime of North Korea does to control its people is turn them against each other. Citizens are encouraged to speak out against their friends and neighbors. It’s a dangerous culture of dishonesty. Who needs constant technological surveillance when your people are already doing the dirty work for you?
Quote #7
A sword of Damocles hangs over every head, waiting for one false move, striking both the “guilty” and their entire families. (5.77-5.78)
The sheer level of paranoia the people of North Korea must live with every day is unlike anything we can imagine. We’re not sure anyone else on the planet would know what that was like. Former residents of the Soviet Union, perhaps?
Quote #8
The International Friendship Exhibition was dug into the side of the mountain to withstand nuclear attack. (7.19)
Paranoia runs high in North Korea. Anything that’s worth anything—the IFE, the subway—doubles as a nuclear fallout shelter. It’s like they actually think people might want their worthless stuff...
Quote #9
As a student, [Kim Jong-Il] apparently published no less than 1,200 works, including a number of specialized military treatises. And in his first golf game, he hit 11 holes in one. (9.4)
This sounds like something out of a South Park parody, but it’s real. It’s incredible how much value North Korea puts onto its leader, as though one man can completely and totally embody an entire nation.