Novelist and investigative journalist Suki Kim, who went undercover in North Korea in 2011 posing as a missionary and an English teacher, says when one talks of art and literature in that country, one has to step back to see if that is even possible.
When all universities in North Korea were shut down for an entire year in 2011, the students were sent to construction fields except for 270 students at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), a brand-new university staffed only by foreigners for sons of North Korea's ruling class.
Thrice a day, the students had to sing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea: "Without you, there is no motherland. Without you, there is no us."
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This went on to become the title of Suki's book. "Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite" is Suki's account of teaching English during the last six months of Kim Jong-il's reign.
Suki describes this university as a walled compound where portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il look on impassively from the walls of every room, and where she accepted a job teaching English.
Over the next six months, she taught them under the watchful eye of the regime.
"But strangely, there were no inquisitiveness on the part of the students. They were not connected to the outside world and did not have the curiosity too. Actually, they were not allowed to nurture any such curiosity," Suki told PTI during the recently-concluded Jaipur Literature Festival.
Suki scribbled notes whenever she could and later kept the written matter on USB sticks. Since 2002, she has travelled to North Korea, witnessing both Kim Jong-il's 60th Birthday celebrations as well as his death at age 69 in 2011.
She says no freedom of expression exists in North Korea.
"It is all under surveillance. How can one talk of art and literature in North Korea when one is allowed only to write and speak about the top leader. One has to step back to see if that (arts and literature) is even possible," she says.
According to Suki, it is important to examine and verify news and information related to North Korea.
She was responding to a question related to the book "The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea", written in 2014 by an anonymous writer from that country and translated by Deborah Smith.
In the collection, the dissident known only by the pseudonym Bandi paints a powerful and unflinching portrait of life under the rule of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.
"I am not sure if one can give a proof that a real North Korean wrote that book. Not every bit of information related to North Korea can be considered genuine without proper verification," Suki says.
Born and raised in Seoul, Suki lives in New York. Her first novel, "The Interpreter", was a finalist for a PEN Hemingway Prize.
Suki, who came to the Jaipur Literature Festival for the first time, says she loves novels of mother-daughter duo of Anita and Kiran Desai and Manil Suri.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
