Inside the hermit kingdom: A memoir

Toronto: Key Porter, 1997 Book. As New. Hardcover. 3rd Edition. Visiting North Korea is a surreal experience. Harried-looking traffic police clear up imaginary bottlenecks on the deserted streets of Pyongyang, while long lines of forlorn citizens wait patiently to be admitted to amusements parks that have long since been abandoned. Everywhere, pretense and illusion are the order of the day. Closed to the West for more than forty years, North Korea is an isolated and alien land. When Yi Sun-Kyung traveled there in the summer of 1994-the first Western journalist ever allowed in for an extended visit-she found a nation ruled by fear and a people yearning for unification with the South. This extraordinary memoir grew out of that unforgettable trip. But Inside the Hermit Kingdom is more than just a travelogue of a strange and foreign country. It is in fact the story of two journeys-the first a journey to a place seldom seen and only vaguely understood, the second a journey of self-discovery for the author. Born in South Korea in 1967, Sun-Kyung moved with her family to Canada when she was still a girl. 237p. plates.