[Opinion] The Joy of Taste

A poor newlywed couple ran out of rice one day. The unemployed husband made lunch for his wife who went out to work. All he had for her was some rice he managed to get somewhere and some soy sauce. After coming home, the wife sees a note left by her husband with the lunch, which read, “The queen’s rice and the beggar’s side dish. I hope you can appease your hunger with this for now.” Upon reading this message, her eyes filled up with tears, and she felt happier than any queen. Writer Kim So-wun’s essay, “The happiness in poor days,” was written in her difficult days and touched many readers’ hearts. Nevertheless, if such story were to happen today, the husband is likely to get divorced. Indeed, the biggest concern for every household today is how to get rid of food waste.

The founder of North Korea, Kim Il Sung, often said that the biggest happiness for Koreans was to have rice with meat soup living in a tile-roofed house. However, except for some party executives, most North Koreans do not enjoy such happiness. Millions were dying of chronic hunger, and it was lucky if they could get some corn porridge for three meals each day. The situation was aggravated after Kim Jong Il became the leader.

Deborah (25) is one of the six North Korean defectors who fled to the U.S., and the first English word she learned in America was “delicious.” Until recently, she had never eaten donuts and cereals, which are easily found not only in the U.S. but also in Korea. I suspect the U.S. did not give the defectors particularly extravagant meals. It is sad to see those defectors, now free from the fear of hunger, enjoying the joy of taste for the first time in their lives.

“Diet” is one of the English words that North Korean defectors settling in South Korea find hard to understand, because South Koreans are deliberately not eating to lose weight while North Koreans are starving to death. “Epicurism” is another new word for them. Nonetheless, what the North Korean defectors in the U.S. have learned should be the “taste of freedom” rather than the “taste of food.” When will we see the day when our oppressed and hungry brethrens in the North can enjoy the taste of freedom and abundance in their lives?

Han Ki-heung, Editorial Writer, eligius@donga.com