Three women strolling in Pyongyang, Sept. 2019 | Image: NK News
It’s easy to overestimate the importance of politics in North Korean society and forget that for the majority that lives in the country, the Kim state is a marginal concern. Most North Korean people go to work or school, date, enjoy leisure time (usually with a few beers) and live their lives seldom questioning the society they were born in.
Kim Young-sook (a pseudonym) was one such person, a daughter of a well-to-do family, reasonably successful in all her undertakings and, I would say, pretty typical.
It’s easy to overestimate the importance of politics in North Korean society and forget that for the majority that lives in the country, the Kim state is a marginal concern. Most North Korean people go to work or school, date, enjoy leisure time (usually with a few beers) and live their lives seldom questioning the society they were born in.
Kim Young-sook (a pseudonym) was one such person, a daughter of a well-to-do family, reasonably successful in all her undertakings and, I would say, pretty typical.
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Andrei Lankov is a Director at NK News and writes exclusively for the site as one of the world's leading authorities on North Korea. A graduate of Leningrad State University, he attended Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung University from 1984-5 - an experience you can read about here. In addition to his writing, he is also a Professor at Kookmin University.