At around 75% of the book, my head was echoing the dictator’s name. It appears in almost every panel. The songs, the walls, the badges, the monuments — even when the author looks in the mirror, he first sees the ruler’s photo.
Through this title, you walk through a Pyongyang that is monitored, guided, choreographed, and controlled. It becomes clear that the author never gets to see the real human side of North Korea(NK). He is always accompanied by a translator and a guide, both of them stay tight-lipped. Everything he sees feels like a performance for foreigners — spotless, scripted, and oddly perfect.
There’s one panel that hit me especially hard: the author, the translator, and the guide finally get a rare moment of free time. And what do they do? Nothing. They just lie down and stare at the sky, lost and silent. That stillness says more about the reality of the place than any guided tour ever could.
Another panel –
Published in 2007, the book hints at the country “opening up” in small ways. Hopefully, it has only improved since then.
A tone that sometimes strings
Guy’s sarcasm here is sharper than in Burma Chronicles(here are my thoughts). Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes insightful, and sometimes it crosses into being too harsh — especially when he makes that unnecessary comment about the museum guide. That moment stood out to me. She isn’t the regime; she’s just a woman doing her job under pressure, and the remark felt unfair.
And at one point, his generalised statement about Asians didn’t sit well with me either.
Closing the book — but not the feeling
I closed the book feeling unsettled. The author enters North Korea holding 1984 by George Orwell — and the message is loud: “Big Brother is watching you.” That was exactly the vibe throughout his stay in NK.
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Chai and Chatter Chronicles 