As an official correspondent for The Los Angeles Times, Barbara Demrick was assigned to the Koreas (both North and South). She was given this assignment in 2001 at a time where North Korea was even stricter with who they would allow into the country than they are now. Also, as a journalist, Demrick faced a whole other set of obstacles in her way. Demrick says that all journalists from the West were assigned “minders” whose only task was to make sure that the journalists did not speak with any unauthorized citizens or take pictures/videos of any of the citizens under any circumstances. Barbara Demick’s book “Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea” is a novelization of the lives of six North Koreans over a fifteen-year period. Demrick interviewed a total of six North Koreans whose names were altered for their own safety: Mrs. Song, Oak-hee, Mi-ran, Jun-sang, Kim-Hyuck, and Dr. Kim.
In order to give a better overall summary of the book, one must first realize who the citizens/interviewees are. Mrs. Song is a pro-regime housewife with high public standing and one of the upper members of the Inminban. Andrei Lankov describes the inminban in his collection of essays titled North of the DMZ;
The inminban network was established by the late 1960s. Every North Korean woman who does not have a full-time job is required to participate in inminban activities, which include cleaning public toilets, tidying up the neighborhood, manufacturing small items at home, and occasionally going to the countryside to do agricultural work. This made women without jobs nearly as busy as those with jobs, and was said to contribute to high female participation in the North Korea workforce. (Lankov)
Barbara Demick adds that the Inminban also has quite the tendency to report people directly to the secret police if they find anything suspicious.
North Korea has always been known as a country which prides itself on secrecy and strict rulers, Barbara Demick went to this country at an especially difficult time. Demick began her interviews just after Kim Jong-il assumed power from his late father Kim Sung-il.
The first character introduced and interviewed is Mi-ran. She is introduced as a young teen that has a love interest in another boy named Jun-Sang. It starts out as an innocent love that is shared between the characters but there was a problem. Mi-Ran was born from a poor miner that was a former South Korean, the enemy. As she matures she finds out that she is treated lesser than Jun-Sang as he is from a higher class. Her family is of the lowest class with the father working in the coal mines of North Korea. Mi-Ran is fortunate enough to get an education and eventually became a teacher. By the time she became a teacher the famine in North Korea had struck and many were dying. Mi-Ran was helpless and couldn’t do anything about the situation and faced starvation and malnutrition in the classroom she taught, even death. She is devastated realizes that she needs to get out of North Korea and defects through China and then to South Korea. Mi-Ran shows how the lower class is treated and how blindly following the government leads to disaster.
The love interest of Mi-Ran, Jun-Sang, is of a higher class family that is blood related to Japan. Japanese in North Korea are usually wealthy as family in Japan sends money to the families stuck in North Korea. Jun-Sang is privileged and is able to afford gifts for Mi-Ran for their secret relationship. As Jun-Sang matures he is able to get into the most prominent school of North Korea and is part of the North Korean army, a mandatory service for all the able-bodied. As he was being educated the famine and economic downturn hit. The school building is no longer heated and power is rare and is generally not used. Jun-Sang is faced with his first real struggles as he is no longer treated as upper class and everyone is affected by this downturn in the country. He thought deeply about the censorship of North Korea after reading foreign novels. He eventually decides to defect and leave his parents behind which he may never see. Jun-Sang shows that everyone was affected by the famine and how Jun-Sang was able to find out that North Korea wasn’t as great as the Dear Leader had stated.
Mrs. Song, a pro-regime housewife, is of a middle class family that strongly believes the Dear Leader. She is introduced in the story as a hardworking woman that works at her factory to support her family. She is also watches over her apartment complex to pick out gossipers against the regime. Her husband, Chang-Bo, is a hardworking government reporter that spreads propaganda. She also had 4 children, 1 son and 3 daughters. She lived in a nicer apartment that had modern technology but that drastically changed after the downturn of the country. The factories were still operational but there was no pay for the workers. The apartments were also losing power, plumbing, and heating. The famine also caused Mrs. Song to start up her own businesses but through all this hardship she still truly believed that the Dear Leader was the best. She eventually was caught up with the death of the famines as her husband and her relatives passed away and she had no reason to stay in North Korea. She defected to China and then to South Korea to live with her daughter who had defected previously. Mrs. Song shows that despite being a hard worker for the government and truly believed North Korea was the best the Dear Leader did not do anything for her family. The Dear Leader couldn’t provide for the starving population.
Oak-Hee is one of the 3 daughters of Mrs. Song that was rebellious and did not believe what her mother believed. She grew up privileged to have a steady income and went to school with comfort. At an early age she despised the regime and listened to her father conspire about the government and talk about the better life outside. She is eventually married off to a supposedly sweet husband in an arranged marriage. However, the husband is a drunk and abuses Oak-Hee and she is unhappy with her life. She is able to give birth to children and please her husband. She is also able to get a good job as her husband is of high class. However, despite a good life, the famine hits and the downturn of the economy and society happens. Oak-Hee then defects to North Korea and marries a Chinese man but she misses the children she left behind. She goes back for the children but is caught and stuck inside North Korea. She eventually is able to defect to South Korea and brings her mother but leaves behind her children and the rest of the family. Oak-Hee shows that people that didn’t follow the government blindly still were affected by the government’s choices. She was also hit by the famine and experienced many deaths.
Kim-Hyuk is an orphan that was abandoned by his father at a very early age with his brother. Kim-Hyuk grew up innocently and did not experience the outside world much and was stuck inside of the orphanage for most of his life. He grew up with other orphans and created a close knit family with each other. However, when the economic downturn and famine struck North Korea the orphanage shut down and Kim-Hyuk and the other orphans were out on the street. They stole and scavanged whatever food they could get in order to survive. In the streets the orphans experienced the real world and saw the reality of the situation when dead bodies were littered throughout the streets due to hunger and malnutrition. Kim-Hyuk was able to find a way out of North Korea through China. There were hardships along the way in China and even death got to one of the orphans. Despite the hardships, Kim-Hyuk was able to get to South Korea. Kim-Hyuk’s character shows that even the helpless and innocent were stuck in this horrible famine. It also shows the illegal activities that was required to survive the economic downturn and famine.
Dr. Kim was also a loyal follower of the regime, like Mrs. Song was, and she was a perfect citizen in terms of North Korea. She was a doctor of the workers party and worked hard to maintain the health of the patients that went to receive treatment from her. She was the ideal woman of North Korea; she was beautiful, smart, and hardworking. She strived to become perfect in all that she does and provide the most excellent care she could give. The famine and downturn of the economy changed Dr.Kim’s view on perfection. So many starved patients were coming in and there was almost nothing Dr.Kim could do except accompany them while they were dying. Even the hospitals didn’t have food or resources. It eventually got to the point where Dr.Kim was not getting pay and was helping from the satisfaction of helping others. She would try to provide the best even though she knew there was no way she could help them survive. She defects after realizing that there is too much and she had too little to offer. When she defected to China she came across a dog’s bowl of food and realized that the dogs in China ate better than doctors in North Korea. Dr.Kim’s character shows that even though a perfect citizen may get you a better living condition, almost no aid was given during times of crisis. This is shown through the dogs as the dogs in China were able to receive better food than the citizens of North Korea, even the doctors.
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