내가 ‘탈북자 인터뷰’ 요청을 거부하는 이유
지난 몇 년간 수많은 외신 기자들에게 인터뷰 요청을 받았다. ‘탈북자의 관점’으로 본 북한에 대해 이야기해달라는 인터뷰였다. 현재진행형인 남북정상회담 드라마 또한 이들 외신에게 탈북자 이야기를 할 기회가 됐다. 유럽의 한 유명한 TV 방송국 팀은 4월 27일 남북정상회담 취재차 방한했고, 정상회담 취재를 보충하기 위해 나에게 ‘이면에 숨겨진 이야기’를 요구했다.
Why I Decline 'North Korean Defector' Interview Requests
Over the past few years, journalists from all sorts of global media have contacted me to get my ‘defector point of view’ on all things North Korean. And the current inter-Korean drama has been yet another occasion. A famous European TV station crew, flying to South Korea for the Apr.
Beyond Blood and Bloody Relations
My grandmother was born in Inje County, Gangwon Province, in what is now South Korea. She was displaced by the division of the peninsula, ending up in the North. I vividly remember her repeatedly saying she wanted to visit Jeju Island before leaving this world. The irony is that I,
Inter-Korean Marriage and Pursuit of Assimilation
A North Korean woman, alone in her cheap government housing, asks, “I want to get married. Where is my love?” She daydreams of being only in her underwear, straddling her ideal South Korean man, and calling out to him in affection, “My dear husband.” That controversial advertisement by a matchmaking
The Republic of Konsumerism
Upon entering a supermarket in Seoul for the first time, I was completely lost. What I thought would be a simple challenge became nerve-wrecking: choosing a tube of toothpaste. Everywhere I looked, each product claimed to be better and cheaper than the last. “Three for the price of two”, “20%
A North Korean Views South Korea
It has been more than a decade since I left North Korea, but every time I read George Orwell’s Animal Farm I am reminded of my life back ‘home’. The novel points to the North Korean regime’s hypocrisy without using complex language. Published on 17 August 1945, just