During my stay in Seoul, I was searching the bookstores for contemporary (South) Korean literature, when one of the sales girls handed me this book. Now, North Korea is not certainly not an easy subject to talk about — especially in East Asia where attitudes towards the country are to a large part influenced by prejudice and political propaganda. While I’m not a fan of the People’s Republic myself, I’ve been trying to get a clearer, unbiased image of the country through a lot of reading, so I can make up my own mind (especially travel reports come in handy here — see below).

I had been hearing about The Aquariums of Pyongyang before, when its author, Kang Chol-hwan, received an audience with George W. Bush in June 2005. With my trip to the DMZ planned for the next day, I thought I should get prepared and spent the night reading about Kang’s childhood in Pyongyang, his family’s background and his imprisonment in the Yodok labour camp.

His accounts of North Korea are unbelievable, fascinating and frightening all at the same time. Yet I don’t quite agree with his political attitude and there are a few parts of the story I’m not sure are completely true — e.g. when he told the story of his grandfather who was supposedly convinced to move to North Korea by a Yakuza boss. Still, Kang’s book is a captivating read and I recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.