This week’s Ask a North Korean deviates somewhat from our usual formula. Instead of publishing answers to readers’ questions, we’re publishing the first part of a series of excerpts from an upcoming e-book by one of our longtime contributors, Ji-Min Kang, which will be released later this year. 

In this excerpt, Ji-Min, who now lives in London, recounts a meeting he had when working for the ruling party’s Propaganda and Agitation Department. 

I stepped out of my office to meet with a South Korean who had willingly moved to North Korea.

Iarrived at the old inn where he was