The family was among the many that had, a generation earlier, relocated in Japan and become strong supporters there of Socialism, Communism, and North Korea . With the rise of Kim Il Sung, the family was enticed to come back to the fatherland and complete the reforms so badly needed there. This very rich but very dedicated family moved back to a near hero’s welcome. But growing suspicions about their wealth and their connection to the traditional foe of Korea slowly led the family from fame to ghastly impoverishment. The entire family was arrested and a new life begun in one of Kim’s infamous reeducation centers.

How does one wind up in jail with all these credentials? To get to a North Korean Camp, one must be either “a land-holder, a capitalist, a U.S. or South Korean agent, a Christian, or members of purged Party circles deemed noxious to the state.” Division is made then between “redeemable” and “unredeemable” prisoners. Once classed unredeemable, life is over. Your only worth to the state is hard labor. You will be taken to work at secret sites since there is no hope of you taking those secrets anywhere but to the grave. You will work until you drop dead. Redeemables, like the author of this book, have a chance. They are taught Kim propaganda. They are thoroughly redone in their thinking processes, and after a number of years, released to live their new life as a trusted member of society.

The people of both North and South Korea are overwhelmingly of a homogeneous Korean background. The evolution of the Korean people goes back more 9000 year with little input from other racial and cultural groupings. The strongest influence came from the Chinese and the Mongols, both of whom held sway over the Korean peninsula at various times over centuries. While there was a strong ethnic Japanese population in Korea during Japan´s occupation from 1910 to 1945, this had minimal effect on Korean culture. Nobody knows for certain how the Korean language, which is unique to the Korean peninsula, evolved. Spoken Korean is most closely related to Japanese, although even then is has many distinct differences. The syntax is similar to Chinese: however, it does not use tones to discern meanings a Chinese does. Korean writings began 13000 years ago, but initially used Chinese rather than a distinctive Korean style. Hangul, the Korean phonetic alphabet, was devised around 500 years ago. For an outside observer Korean script tends to be less complicated than that of Japan or China.

Daily life varies enormously for Koreans depending on which side of the 38th parallel they live. The average North Korean lives a fairly bleak life under an unrelenting communist dictatorship. Where once North Korea was fairly self-sufficient, today it is widespread starvation and malnutrition. Agricultural workers live in communities of collectivised farms. Everyone works to produce food for the rest of the population. Non agricultural work centres primarily on heavy industry, mineral extraction and military service. The state controls all aspects of life. South Korea is vastly different, having a private-enterprise economy, although with some state intervention at various levels. The average South Korean works a full day Monday to Friday and half day on Saturday.