{"id":20884,"date":"2014-10-31T05:10:01","date_gmt":"2014-10-31T05:10:01","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-15T12:14:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T12:14:35","slug":"a-woman-who-taught-north-koreas-elite-undercover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=20884","title":{"rendered":"A Woman Who Taught North Korea&#8217;s Elite Undercover"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style='text-align:center'>\n<script type='text\/javascript' src='http:\/\/pshared.5min.com\/Scripts\/PlayerSeed.js?sid=281&#038;width=500&#038;height=314&#038;playList=518485843'><\/script><br \/>\n\n<\/div>\n<p>Suki Kim, an American journalist born in South Korea, told HuffPost Live&#8217;s Josh Zepps on Tuesday how she got involved teaching 50 students whose families were part of Pyongyang&#8217;s elite.<\/p>\n<p>Though Kim had traveled to North Korea before, she spent six months in Pyongyang in 2011 undercover, finding a job as a teacher at the all-male Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. She explained the bizarre agreement behind PUST; it was founded by a Korean American Christian evangelical under the agreement that teachers inside the school would not proselytize, a crime punishable by imprisonment.<\/p>\n<p>She told HuffPost Live the school was under intense surveillance by the military. &#8220;I was watched 24\/7. The school was bugged, so there wasn&#8217;t really any way to show anything out in the open,&#8221; Kim said.<\/p>\n<p>Her students, whom Kim described as &#8220;lovely,&#8221; were unaware of the school&#8217;s religious affiliation. But they knew she was a foreigner and that they weren&#8217;t allowed to show much curiosity about the outside world. When they did subtly ask her questions about life beyond North Korea, she was afraid to answer because she didn&#8217;t &#8220;know what danger it posed for [them].&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>When Kim returned from North Korea, she penned her experience in a new book, Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea&#8217;s Elite.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2014\/05\/20\/chicago-police-brutality_n_5355597.html?utm_hp_ref=crime\">Source www.huffingtonpost.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Suki Kim, an American journalist born in South Korea, told HuffPost Live&#8217;s Josh Zepps on Tuesday how she got involved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1012],"tags":[2120],"class_list":["post-20884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","tag-travel"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-highlighted-post":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-small":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x90.jpg","colormag-featured-image":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-default-news":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","colormag-featured-image-large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"Admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53e6cdc30765aade0129f85e5aeb50124b1d3f5bb9a70373be31e4eb328371e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"Suki Kim, an American journalist born in South Korea, told HuffPost Live&#8217;s Josh Zepps on Tuesday how she got involved","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["Travel"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":153,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":2,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"medium":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg",113,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"Admin","author_link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?author=1"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53e6cdc30765aade0129f85e5aeb50124b1d3f5bb9a70373be31e4eb328371e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"<a href=\"#\" class=\"category-link 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