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paperback $19.95
John Wiley & Sons
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More reviews by Paul French
Readers may purchase reviewed books from Paddyfield.com, Asia's online bookseller.North American readers may prefer to buy US editions from Powells.com.
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Comrades and Strangers: Behind the Closed Doors of North Korea by Michael Harrold
Every book about North Korea tells you something new. MICHAEL HARROLD's memoir of the years he spent editing Great Leader Kim Il-sung's speeches for the Pyongyang Foreign Languages Publishing House is no exception. Among the little factoids Harrold reveals is that Kim's face has never appeared on the country's banknotes, as this would involve folding them and consequently creasing the "Lodestar of the Revolution's" face. Often these titbits can be just as revealing as the political analysis -- in the case of North Korea anyway.
Harrold turned up in Pyongyang fresh from Leeds in 1986, the first Briton to live and work in North Korea since the country was founded. He stayed for an amazing seven years. People who live a matter of months in North Korea get enough material for a decent book; Harrold's is overflowing with details of daily life in the DPRK's capital. Most of this detail though concerns what Harrold did while he was there -- editing, arguing a little, drinking, sightseeing and remaining largely perplexed by the country and its people. In all his seven years he only entered a few North Korean houses and managed only a few casual conversations -- he did better than most.
Harrold's book is populated with a cast of strange and odd characters -- most of them foreigners who for one reason or another end up in Pyongyang. Most of them would fall into the misfit category; North Korea has a way of attracting the slightly odd. There is Madame Beatrice the aged French lady who describes herself as a `Kimilsungiste' and Sophie who arrives from Beijing insisting her child be enrolled in a local school and then starts distributing religious propaganda. Unsurprisingly Madame Beatrice outlasts Sophie. Harrold is never quite clear on what motivated him to last all those years in Pyongyang -- it might have been the hope of discovering more about life in Pyongyang, or being accepted more by the locals or perhaps of one day consummating his infatuation with a local barmaid. Probably a mix of all these things -- though Madame Beatrice tells him early on when he spies a beautiful North Korean girl that "she is not for you".
Harrold certainly lived through exciting times in Pyongyang -- the Great Leader died, his son came to power, shortages got worse and it seemed America was about to invade (a state of readiness that is pretty much constant in Pyongyang). However, Harrold was forced to observe all these momentous events through the prism of being a foreigner, and a capitalist foreigner at that. He was kept at a significant distance from everything. Despite this he was still able to observe and while that might not mean much in most countries (in fact pretty much every other country) in North Korea it counts for a lot.
Ultimately Harrold was drawn into the constant suspicion and paranoia that is the hallmark of life in North Korea. You want to make friends with local people but when they appear friendly you wonder why? If a barmaid talks to you; does she like you or is she questioning you? In the end Harrold wisely largely gave up wondering and accepted the moments of kindness when they came and fumed mostly silently when he realised his rooms had been searched. The reality of North Korea was (and is) that those same people who can invite you to dinner at their house or a picnic in the mountains can also be the people who slice open your suitcase looking for your diary -- comrades and strangers.
Paul French
24/10/2004
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Paul French is author North Korea: Paranoid Peninsula. He writes regularly on Chinese and North Korean economics and politics for a wide variety of publications. |
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