This is the third part of a three-part series by Andrei Lankov on how Zainichi Koreans shaped the history of the DPRK. You can read part one here and part two here.

It looked like a complete disaster: the Zainichi Koreans were told tall tales about North Korea’s prosperity, but immediately after their arrival they discovered themselves to be in a very poor country, at the mercy of a highly repressive regime, and with little, if any, chances of ever going back. The journey to paradise had become a journey to hell.

But very soon the returnees began to discover that