I finished listening to 'The Aquariums of Pyongyang' and wow. That was amazing; by amazing not the positive amazing but astonishing, shocking, sad and dramatic. I felt like I was listening to a movie - the things that happen in North Korea are dreadful and inhumane. They go to such a far extent to maintain privacy but more people are becoming aware.
The author explained how even when there were family visitors from Japan the whole neighbourhood would have a clean out and be under high surveillance so the family can not mention the condition of the country and conversation was small with their visitors. Some things I found unbelievable was the high level surveillance, the near 'worshipping of their leader, the prison camps that many innocent were forced to live in, the rough food conditions that led them to sacrifice their corn to lur in rats ro eat the rats, the public executions where children would see 'betrayers' and 'criminals' be killed in the most vile ways, the selfishness that the author had to go through just to escape North Korea leaving his family including his little sister and the girl he loved, the North Korean government system and the crimes against humanity in general. Animal farm guys...that country is full of propaganda!
If you want to find more about North Korea (there's google...I kid) check out my page 'The countries you don't hear much about'. I really recommend this book - it's a real eye opener and even though the content is sad it is interesting to learn about it. You might now look at North Korea as 'communist country with 'little, fat hitler in a boiler suit' ruling constantly threatening the US and South Korea' but now you might see it as a place where many live with extremely unjust rules, unfair punishments, sufferring with a corrupt paranoid government.
See you all soon
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