North Korea bibliography and what I will write about

Continuing writing about my North Korea trip…

Since returning I’ve found people incredibly interested in North Korea. For better or worse, many people ask what human rights issues I saw there, if any.

People far more experienced than I have investigated and reported on North Korea beyond what I could observe. If you want to learn about their experiences, you can find them. See below for a short bibliography.

I will write on what I saw, doing my best to avoid exaggeration and speculation, or at least note where I do so. I know plenty happened outside the field of view the North Korean government permitted us, perhaps outside Pyongyang or far from us, but maybe right under our noses.

I don’t intend to write about politics or human rights. Those topics are important. But what I cover has meaning too. I cover what my group and I saw with our own eyes and I will tell what happens when Americans interacted with North Koreans — rare occurrences.

In going we also presented Americans to them. I don’t know how they received or perceived us, but I went thinking my presence showed them the best of what America could offer. And I believe them seeing the best America has to offer — us — helps improve understanding and communication better than anything. If you think you can present better, by all means go.

• The New Yorker
  • “Alone In the Dark: Kim Jong Il plays a canny game with South Korea and the U.S.“, by Philip Gourevitch, September 8, 2003
  • On the occasion of Barbara Demick’s 2009 book, “Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea“, a finalist for the National Book Award with stellar Amazon reviews
    • “The Good Cook: A battle against famine in North Korea“, by Barbara Demick, October 26, 2009
    • “Barbara Demick on Life in North Korea“, posted by Avi Zenilman, October 26, 2009
    • “A True Believer” an audio slideshow on one woman who defected from North Korea, by Barbara Demick, October 26, 2009
  • “Kimworld: Inside the North Korean slave state” books on North Korea reviewed by Ian Buruma, August 22, 2005
  • “A Night Out in North Korea“, posted April 2, 2010 by Evan Osnos, who blogs many short pieces on North Korea for the New Yorker
  • “Our Man in Pyongyang: Bobby Egan’s barbecue diplomacy“, by Rebecca Mead, October 8, 2007
  • New Yorker articles with North Korea keyword
• An hour long, informative interview of Barbara Demick at the Asia Society in New York, January 7, 2010
• DPRK Profile, an overview by Koryo, the excellent group that organized our tour from Beijing
• Wikipedia articles. Besides the content, the articles have many references.
  • North Korea
  • Kim Il Sung
  • Kim Jung Il
  • Juche
  • Arirang Mass Games
  • Censorship in North Korea
  • Korean War
  • Korean Demilitarized Zone
  • Propaganda in North Korea
  • Human Rights in North Korea
  • North Korean Famine
  • USS Pueblo
• Human rights reporting
  • The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea’s Prison Camps (122 page pdf), by David Hawk of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (not related to the U.S. Government), 2003
  • “The Hidden Gulag“, by Young Howard in the San Diego Union-Tribune, May 15, 2005
  • Human Rights Watch articles on North Korea
  • Amnesty International’s 2011 Report on North Korea
• North Korea documentaries on Youtube
  • National Geographic’s Inside Undercover North Korea, about a doctor who performed over 1,000 eye surgeries in ten days, by the older sister of one of the journalists sentenced to twelve years hard labor, saved by Bill Clinton.
• How the first Ultimate Frisbee tournament in North Korea came to be

Tomorrow: common expectations of North Korea, as opposed to my experiences and what I observed.