Korean Job Discussion Forums

[northway]

Sorry if this has come up before, but in light of the recent stuff going on with North Korea, I thought I'd recommend this book for those who want a firsthand account of North Korean life. It's a collection of stories by an American journalist based in Seoul, written as a narrative. All of the people she interviews are from the same area in the northeast, to establish a more cohesive narrative. Really great book, and really scary stuff, but gives you a really good idea of the situation on the ground.

http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North/dp/0385523904

[cdninkorea]

I read about that book on the One Free Korea blog ( http://www.freekorea.us ), but isn't it only in hardcover right now at around 40,000 won? It does look good but there are lots of other good books on North Korea available in paperback.

[northway]

[mellow-d]

This is an amazing, interesting, engaging book. One of my favorites. Pretty sure it's 30,000-something Won at Whatthebook.

[Illysook]

I have it in paperback but I haven't dug into it yet. It's sitting on my desk nagging at me.

[Yaya]

I've read the book, and though I sympathize with the plight of defectors in South Korea, well, I say it's not all South Korea's fault that the defectors cannot adjust to a capitalist society. I remember how West Germans thought East Germans as lazy people who didn't want to work and how the latter thought the former were a bunch of machines meant to work and such.

I've heard that defectors who leave South Korea for Europe partially do so because European countries have offered them more benefits and such. It's hard to work for a living when your government has been handing stuff to you for decades.