Comrades and Strangers

From Wikiversity

Comrades and Strangers: Behind the Closed Doors of North Korea is Michael Harrold’s account of his nearly seven years working in North Korea for the Foreign Language Publishing House translating Kim Il Sung’s writings and speeches into English. While living in North Korea, Harrold attempts to learn about the Koreans and their lives under the reclusive regime of Kim Il Sung. However, an invisible barrier causes him to never fully know the Koreans, as they are scared to be seen in public with a foreigner unless it is related with work. Despite Harrold’s best efforts he never understands why the Koreans behave the way they do. Along the way, he falls for a barmaid at one of the hotel bars frequents. After several years of work, a government official throws out the idea of him having a Korean wife. His attempts to marry the mysterious barmaid fail, as he soon is informed that she is engaged to be married, before totally disappearing from her job.

Harrold gets an inside view of North Korea as it deals with its own increasing isolationism during the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Communist bloc in Eastern Europe in the early 1990’s. Not only did this dramatically reduce North Korea’s allies, but it also reduced the amount of foreign trade that participated in. As trade dried up, North Korea had to do more with less, despite continuing giving off the aura that the economy was booming. Calls for the reunification of the Korean peninsula were renewed, but the United States remains unwilling to reunify under the conditions that the North has set out. The anti-American fervor that once united the North was cooled when talks were under way that could lead to reunification. Recently though, they have again heightened as the world has called for North Korea to cease its nuclear program, another act of aggression by the American Imperialist. Once again, the north must be on alert that the Americans do not again invade and that the puppet government in the south does not aid in the invasion either.

Harrold does begin to understand the Koreans that he works with, but he never fully integrates into their society. The culture of fear and secrecy prevents foreigners from being able to fully understand the North Korean way of life. The mystery of the people and their devotion to Kim Il Sung and the Party strikes Harrold as being irrational most of the time, because most people did not have enough to live comfortably. Only the most basic needs were met, and this could be debated at times. Harrold’s experience inside North Korea is something that separates him from the rest of the world, in that he saw firsthand what life is like for the average Korean living in the north, without as much political fog in the way.