Suki Kim`s book ‘English Teacher in Pyongyang’ released

After a book called "Korean-American Ajoomma goes to North Korea," written by Korean-American Shin Eun-mi (aged 54, female) who caused a nation-wide controversy over pro-North Korea activity, was delisted last Wednesday from the list of excellent literature books selected by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, attentions are being drawn as a book written by Suki Kim (45), another Korean-American woman, which is on the opposite side of the above-mentioned one, is scheduled to be released in the local market on Tuesday.

The title of the book is "English Teacher in Pyongyang" and published by Dione. This book was published in the U.S. earlier in October of 2014, titled "Without You, There is No Us," which was taken from a lyric of a song to encourage loyalty to the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Kim is a professional writer who went to the states at the age of 13 and graduated from Columbia University. Disguised as a missionary, she entered into the isolated and secluded communist regime and taught English to 270 students at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) for six months from July to December 2011.

In the preface written in Korean under the title of "Desperate and Honest Reason for Writing This Book," Kim said, “I witnessed real lives of North Korean elites, which have been rarely known so far. The goal of this book is to make known the reality in the nation and to let the people there live humanitarian lives.” Kim also confessed difficulties she experienced during the publication. “Many people on the SNS such as twitter blamed me for putting the teachers and students at risk by publishing this book. However, I believe it is more important to depict pains that the North Koreans suffer in daily lives and I made their identities obscure so that they would not be punished,” Kim added.

According to the book, even elite students at the PUST believed “all people in the world speak in Korean” and some of them never experienced "Internet," which is not censored by the North Korean authority. Even though they knew the truth, the author described that they pretended not knowing it because they were afraid of the government’s surveillance. The book also depicts that the students kept her under surveillance in terms of lecture contents and remarks. Especially, "cautions" for the teachers dispatched as missionaries included the followings: Do not wear jeans. The North Korean leader associates jeans with the U.S. and hates them; Do not have conversations with anyone outside ; Listen to music via iPod, not using CDs. The regime is afraid of CDs as it can get outside; Communication is always eavesdropped. The author said she felt "claustrophobia" for such conditions.

Like a documentary, the book depicts scenes where the author was afraid of being deported after she taught democracy to students, and processes that she had gone through to obtain a permission to show the movie "Harry Porter." At the end of the book, it describes the students who were confused by the death of Kim Jong Il.

The publishing house expects this book to receive great attention from the public amidst the recent pro-North controversy. The publisher has already printed 5,000 copies, which is more than double the volume of the first edition of a normal book (around 2,000). While the book "Korean-American Ajoomma goes to North Korea" is removed from the list of excellent literature books, attentions are being paid whether this book can be listed and provided to libraries and organizations for the youth across the nation.