Nothing to Envy

Beulsun

"Tainted blood"

Kyohwaso

- labor camp meaning "enlightenment center" - goal: rehabilitate the wayward - nonpolitical prisoners, illegal border crossers, smuggler - prisoners could be released if they survived

Kwanliso

- the most notorious prisons - translates to "control and management places" - reserved for rival politicians, descendants of landlords or Japanese collaborators, Christian clergyman

It created egoism in those who eventually defected

According to Kim Jong-Il, how had the food problem caused anarchy?

The collective lots were not as well taken care of as the private ones

Contrast the collectively cultivated lots with the privately cultivated ones.

500,000 people; third largest city in North Korea; industrial center, "City of Iron"; lower class; build up during Japanese occupation -> industry fell

Describe Chongjin.

- pg 177 - later compared it to Auschwitz

Describe Kim Hyuck's experience at the 'kyohwaso.'

Big head, 4' 7", 15 looks 8, malnourished, thief

Describe Kim Hyuck.

- crazy/eventful - get the house and kids ready, polish portraits, stay late at work sometimes, get home and get house ready for next day

Describe a typical day for Mrs. Song.

- mourning - some killed themselves, even by starvation - most cried - some were not as sad and were seen as traitors

Describe some of the reactions individuals had to the news of Kim Il-sung's death?

- grow/bring their own medicine - donate their own blood - donate their own skin for grafts

Describe some of the selfless service North Korean doctors were expected to give.

- core: rich; associated with Kim or revelation - wavering: working class - hostile: tainted blood; POWs; farmers, landowners

Describe the main classes in North Korea.

- tied up with ropes - wore their own clothes bc there were no uniforms - usually older men -> knobby and thin

Describe the prisoners at the 'kyohwaso' at which Kim Hyuck stayed.

No cheap fuel oil/raw material -> factories couldn't run -> no exports -> no hard currency -> fuel imports decreased even more -> electricity stopped -> no coal mines -> no coal -> electricity shortage got even worse -> lower agricultural exports -> no more food -> starvation

Explain the spiral of economic decline detailed on page 67.

A dead person on the ground

Hardly a day did not go by that Mrs. Song did not stumble across what?

Wrote questions in textbooks using propagandized situations

How did everyday lessons incorporate both allegiance to the Great Leader and animosity toward political enemies?

When prisoners are taken to the kwanliso, their parents, children, and siblings are usually taken as well

How does the tainted blood thin out with respect to prison sentences?

34,000

How many statues are there of Kim Il-sung in North Korea?

Buying irons, jade, jewelry, and other goods from North Korea, then reselling them in China

How was Hyuck finally able to support himself without stealing?

- his father had a garden and they were able to harvest food from it - his grandparents brought money on their visits

How was Jun-sang's family able to survive the famine?

Hand copy books to teach them

How, on behalf of their children, would ambitious mothers compensate for the scarcity of books and paper?

- most important: subsidized food-> they were able to feen an area with a long history of famine - everyone had shelter and clothing - nearly eliminated illiteracy - free health care

Identify some of the components of the "economic miracle" of the 1960s in North Korea?

- they were told they themselves were superior to those countries that fell - economy started failing -> no more oil or electricity - North Korea was billions of dollars in debt -> no one wanted to do business with them

In 1990, how did the fall of communism elsewhere in the world affect the everyday lives of North Koreans?

To stop the development of nuclear weapons

In June of 1994, what agreement did former US president Jimmy Carter elicit from Kim Il-sung?

Kim Jong-Il wanted more control over the army's financial activities

In the year after his father's death, why, apparently, did Kim Jong-Il purge the 6th Army corps stationed in Chongjin?

Kitachosejin

Japanese Koreans

- 16th - illegally crossing the border into China - spent 20 months of a 3 year sentence

Kim Hyuck was arrested shortly before this ______ birthday. Why was he arrested? How long did he serve?

Hannara

One nation; the Korean people

"Tainted blood"; 3

Prison sentences for the kwanliso last for life. Children, parents, and siblings are often taken away as well to get rid of the ____________ that carries over ___ generations.

Mudang

Shamans who were also in the lower classes during the dynastic period

enlightenment center

The kind of prison Kim Hyuck went to was a 'kyohwaso' which means "_________________." Such prisons were for non-political prisoners like those who had illegally crossed borders, smuggled, or conducted business.

Cannibalism

To what did some, horrifically, resort to satisfy their hunger?

Hospitals didn't have enough bottles to put IVs in so people had to donate old bottles

To what does the title of chapter 7, "Two Bottles for Your IV" refer?

Homeless shelters

What are 927 centers?

- devastated - realized they had not been given the same opportunities as other children because of their low class status

What are Mi-Ran's siblings' reactions to the revelation that their father was a South Korean prisoner of war?

- body starts to eat away at itself - immune system starts shutting down - body can't metabolize antibiotics

What are some of the indirect ways starvation kills people?

Complain to see how they reacted -> if they were traitors

What did Comrade Kang, an agent from the Ministry for the Protection of State Security, ask Mrs. Song, as part of her inminbanjang duties, to do in order to sniff out dissent among the inminban?

- North Korea was the last country of its kind - the rest of the world saw them as weak - the US and others had been sending aid, but North Korea was making nuclear bombs instead

What did Jun-sang learn about the outside world from the TV programs he watched?

- ate grass and frogs - raised pigs, made/sold tofu

What did Mrs. Song do to obtain food and money for it?

Roll tobacco and eat it (steal; perform for money or food)

What did almost all children do to dampen hunger?

- wrote a family tree implying that she should flee to Japan - letter for party membership

What did the father of Dr. Kim give her before he died?

That they would die

What did the prisoners at the 'kyohwaso' never expect to happen?

- his parents are from Japan, and were very wealthy - 5 wardrobes, electric fan, tv, sewing machine, fridge, pet dog, had their own house

What distinguished Jun-sang's family from many in North Korea, culturally and materially?

It started thriving

What effect did malnutrition have on Chongjin's underground economy?

- complained about his kids not having boots - he was good at talking his way out of trouble

What had Chong-bo done to arouse suspicion? Hoe did he elude punishment?

Trying to get rice

What had Mrs. Song been trying to do when she took the train that had the accident?

There had been all these exotic animals like tigers and wolves, not there were only birds bc there weren't enough resources to care for the rest

What had happened to the zoo animals after 1990 and what are the implications of this?

Never made it to the actual people

What happened to much of the 2.4 billion in food aid that North Korea received during the famine?

They sold their home

What illegal sale yielded a great profit for Mrs. Song and Chang-bo?

Seeing the little boy at the train station singing songs of praise about Kim Jong-Il even though he was suffering

What incident pushed Jun-sang over the edge, propelling him to decide to defect?

Self-reliance

What is 'juche'?

That they will be taken away in the middle of the night and that he will not be able to get a good education/have a good future

What is Jun-sang's parents' biggest fear?

The orphans at the train station

What is a "wandering swallow"? (Title of chapter 11)

- "people's group" - cooperatives of families who kept tabs on each other and reported on suspicious activity

What is an inminban?

- impure people whose ancestors' reputations had been damaged - Mi-ran and her family

What is meant by the title of chapter 4, "Tainted Blood" and to whom does it refer in 'Nothing to Envy?'

- niacin deficiency - result of eating too much corn - patches of flaky skin on hands, neck, and around eyes

What is pellagra?

- her husband, Chang-bo, stroke - her mother-in-law, pallegra - her son, Nam-Oak, pneumonia (Mrs. Song chose to get food instead of medicine)

What loved ones did Mrs. Song lose during the famine?

Opened a mill

What new endeavor did Mi-ran's mother partake in?

Baking cookies

What new enterprise did Mrs. Song take up in the wake of multiple deaths?

- transporting other merchants' goods to and from the market - hair dressing

What other businesses emerged alongside the markets?

US pulled out of nuclear nonproliferation treaty

What panic-inducing announcement did North Korea make in March of 1993 and what was the US reaction?

10%-20%

What percent of people died during the famine?

- plump face bc it made her look well fed even though she wasn't - bow-shaped mouth bc it made her look happy even though she wasn't - button nose and earnest eyes bc it made her look trusting and sincere

What physical feature of Mrs. Song made her ideal in the eyes of the government? Why?

- death toll: 700 - Mrs. Song was badly injured

What resulted from the train accident Mrs. Song was involved in?

He wanted people to see him as God, and his son as Jesus

What role did religion play in Kim Il-sung's ascent to power?

Her father had been killed by US/UN soldiers

What triggered Mrs. Song's loyalty to her country?

Rice and brand new manufactured goods

What was absolutely forbidden to be sold in the farmers markets?

Kim Il-sung rooms

What was instituted in schools around the country in 1996, as ordained by the Ministry of Education?

There were no ambulances, so people had to be given piggy back rides to the hospital

What was the main problem during the famine regarding hospital transportation?

No wood -> no lunch -> sleeping in class -> stopped showing up

What was the progression of acute suffering Mi-ran noticed in her school during the decline?

"Let's eat two meals a day"

What was the slogan used during the famine?

25% of the gross national product

What was the total military budget of North Korea?

- selling food/goods at the market - prostitution - collecting wire - performing abortions

What were some free-market exploitations North Koreans engaged in during famine?

South Korean television and radio, books that were only accessible to certain students

What were some of the ideas that Jun-sang was exposed to at Pyongyang University that catalyzed his decision to defect?

- hunting small animals like frogs - eating grass and bark by grinding it up and making porridge

What were some of the methods used to obtain food during the famine?

- people dying in the streets - no food, water, basic necessities

What were some of the obvious signs of North Korean decline evident from Mi-ran's trip to Pyongyang?

He had been born into a prestigious family

What were the circumstances of Kim Hyuck's birth?

1912 bc that's when Kim Il-sung was born

What year marks the beginning of the Korean calendar? Why?

So many people died that they didn't need as much food to feed them

What, in part, ended the famine? (Fewer mouths to feed)

Go on long walks and talk since there was nothing else to do

What/why did Mi-ran and Jun-sang do on their dates?

The train station at Chongjin

Where did many of the homeless children and teenagers live?

- Mi-ran: daughter of a kaolin miner, a South Korean POW, so with bad songbun, disqualifying her from advancement, but one that may finally be improved with work; is accepted at a teacher's college and begins teaching kindergarten classes right at the start of the country's devastating economic collapse - Jun-sang: a student with Japanese and Zainichi Korean ancestry and Mi-ran's secret boyfriend in North Korea; becomes a privileged university student in Pyongyang but still develops a critical outlook on the regime and begins listening to "subversive" South Korean radio and television

Who are Mi-ran and Jun-sang?

- athletes - young children - the elderly

Who are especially vulnerable during famine?

- he went to university in another city and there were no cell phones/email - she could barely afford scrap paper - letters took forever to arrive - sometimes postal workers would burn letters to keep warm

Why did Mi-ran and Jun-sang correspond by letter and what were the hindrances with this method?

To get glass/pottery to sell for money to make the Kim Il-sung room at their school

Why did Mi-ran and her colleagues travel to Pyongyang (when she stayed to surprise Jun-sang in chapter 8)?

- there was no heating - there was hardly any food

Why did Mi-ran want permission to live off campus?

Men were fighting in the war

Why did women make up the vast majority of factory workers?

The government ran the shops and decided that the people got

Why didn't North Koreans shop?

They didn't have the money to pay them, so she implied that Mrs. Song buy and sell on the black market

Why had Mrs. Song's manager at the garment factory suggested that Mrs. Song "find some other way to bring food home to your family" and what did her suggestion imply?

The workers would burn letters to keep warm

Why had mail delivery become so delayed or did not arrive at all in the worst years of the decline?

So it would be harder for thieves to see/get into the garden

Why had most families in Jun-sang's neighborhood raised the walls around their houses, violating the 1.5 meter height restriction?

- the difference in their classes - her low status could hurt his prospects -> his parents would disapprove

Why is Mi-ran and Jun-sang's relationship scandalous?

The government kept track of every citizen

Why was homelessness considered so extraordinary in North Korea?

More people were getting arrested as a result of the stricter laws being put in place

Why was the prison population bursting at the seams?

It made it look like they were bowing, seeking forgiveness for their crimes

Why were condemned prisoners bound to a wooden stake at the eyes, chest, and legs before a firing squad?

- main reason: government kept the food for the rich - some people couldn't recover - some couldn't afford it - some didn't want to break the law

Why were people still dying with so much food?

They would have gotten in trouble

Why were there no protests during the famine?

- men were working in other places - vendor-ship was seen as lower-class

Why were women the vast majority of vendors?

- he gets 3 meals a day - he has heating - he goes to a nicer school - bc the government wanted to make sure those students had food and electricity to study

Why/how is Jun-sang's life at university easier than most others'?

Kisaeng

female entertainers, comparable to the Japanese geisha. Well trained the arts and well educated.