Memoir books from North Korea
Recommended memoir books (11)
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If you are into memoir here are some memoir books from North Korea for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
1.
A MiG-15 to Freedom : Memoir of the Wartime North Korean Defector Who First Delivered the Secret Fighter Jet to the Americans in 1953 by No Kum-Sok, J. Roger Osterholm EN
Country: Asia / North Korea
North Korea
Description:
On September 21, 1953, U.S. airmen at Kimpo Air Base near Seoul, Korea, were startled to see landing a MiG-15, the most advanced Soviet-built fighter plane of the era, piloted by Senior Lieutenant No Kum-Sok, a 21-year-old North Korean Air Force officer. Once he landed, Lieutenant No found that his mother had escaped to the South two years earlier, and they were soon reunited. At his request, No came to the United States and became a U.S. citizen. His story provides a unique insight into how North Korea conducted the Korean War and how he came to the decision to leave his homeland.
2.
A Thousand Miles to Freedom : My Escape from North Korea by Ŭn-ju Kim, Eunsun Kim, Sébastien Falletti EN
Country: Asia / North Korea
North Korea
Description:
A woman who escaped North Korea as a girl with her mother relates the harrowing story of her nine-year journey to freedom.
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In Order to Live : A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park EN
Country: Asia / North Korea
North Korea
Description:
'I am most grateful for two things: that I was born in North Korea, and that I escaped from North Korea.' Yeonmi Park was not dreaming of freedom when she escaped from North Korea. She didn't even know what it meant to be free. All she knew was that she was running for her life, that if she and her family stayed behind they would die - from starvation, or disease, or even execution. This book is the story of Park's struggle to survive in the darkest, most repressive country on earth; her harrowing escape through China's underworld of smugglers and human traffickers; and then her escape from Ch... continue
5.
La fille aux sept noms : l'histoire d'une transfuge nord-coréenne by Hyeonseo Lee FR
Country: Asia / North Korea
North Korea
Description:
La 4e de couverture indique : "Hyeonseo a passé son enfance en Corée du Nord, piégée comme des millions d’autres par l’une des plus secrètes et brutales dictatures. Elle grandit dans la ville de Hyesan près d’une rivière qui trace une frontière naturelle avec la Chine, un autre monde insaisissable. Au milieu des années 1990, la famine s’abat sur le pays. Chaque jour témoin de la répression et de la pauvreté, elle comprend que sa patrie ne peut être ʺle meilleur des mondesʺ qu’on lui vante depuis toujours. À 17 ans, au coeur de l’hiver, Hyeonseo décide de traverser la rivière gelée. Elle ne peu... continue
6.
Long Road Home : Testimony of a North Korean Camp Survivor by Yong Kim EN
Country: Asia / North Korea
North Korea
Description:
Kim Yong shares his harrowing account of life in a labor camp—a singularly despairing form of torture carried out by the secret state. Although it is known that gulags exist in North Korea, little information is available about their organization and conduct, for prisoners rarely escape both incarceration and the country alive. Long Road Home shares the remarkable story of one such survivor, a former military official who spent six years in a gulag and experienced firsthand the brutality of an unconscionable regime. As a lieutenant colonel in the North Korean army, Kim Yong enjoyed unprecedent... continue
7.
Stars Between the Sun and Moon : One Woman's Life in North Korea and Escape to Freedom by Lucia Jang, Susan McClelland EN
Country: Asia / North Korea
North Korea
Description:
An extraordinary memoir by a North Korean woman who defied the government to keep her family alive.
8.
The Aquariums of Pyongyang : Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Chol-hwan Kang, Pierre Rigoulot EN
Country: Asia / North Korea
North Korea
Description:
Part horror story, part historical document, part memoir, part political tract, one man's suffering gives eyewitness proof to an ongoing sorrowful chapter of modern history.
9.
The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee EN
Country: Asia / North Korea
North Korea
Description:
An extraordinary insight into the life under one of the world's most ruthless and secretive dictatorships - and the story of one woman's terrifying struggle to escape.
10.
The Hard Road Out : Escaping North Korea by Jihyun Park, Seh-Lynn Chai EN
Country: Asia / North Korea
North Korea
Description:
The harrowing story of a woman who escaped famine and terror in North Korea, not once but twice. 'A gripping, suspenseful and cathartic memoir that tells a story of pain and perseverance and makes the moral case for asylum.' David Lammy MP North Korea is an open-air prison from which there is no escape. Only a handful of men and women have succeeded. Jihyun Park is one of these rare survivors. Twice she left the land of the 'socialist miracle' to flee famine and dictatorship. By the age of 29 she had already witnessed a lifetime of suffering. Family members had died of starvation; her brother ... continue