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North Korean Defectors

May 2013

We continue our tenth anniversary celebration with writing from North Korea. In compiling our September 2003 issue, we discovered North Korean writers can publish only propaganda, and are restricted to official outlets.  As this opaque nation becomes more visible, and threatening, on the international stage, we turn for insight to the only writers free to tell the truth: defectors. From the safety of exile, Gwak Moon-an, Jang Jin-sung, Ji Hyun-ah, Kim Sung-min, Kim Yeon-seul, Lee Ji Myung, and Park Gui-ok document famine, corruption, and the soul-crushing pressure on writers to sacrifice art and individuality in the interest of promoting the state. We thank our guest editor, Shirley Lee, who provides an illuminating introduction.

Introduction
By Shirley Lee
The mere use of everyday language is a subversive act in the North Korean literary context.
I Want to Call Her Mother Again
By Park Gui-ok
After that day, I had no mother.
Translated from Korean by Sora Kim-Russell
Multilingual
The Poet Who Asked for Forgiveness
By Gwak Moon-an
He came to accept that art had no value unless it was used as a tool of propaganda.
Translated from Korean by Shirley Lee
Multilingual
Pillow
By Lee Young-ju
“Pillow” is a poem by 2019 Poems in Translation Contest winner Lee Young-ju, translated into English by Jae Kim.Listen to Lee Young-ju read her poem “Pillow” in the original Korean.…
Translated from Korean by Jae Kim
Multilingual
The Arduous March
By Ji Hyun-ah
With rations cut off, people began to starve.
Translated from Korean by Sora Kim-Russell
Multilingual
A Rice Story
By Kim Sung-min
Food bartered for your sister’s chastity.
Translated from Korean by Shirley Lee
Multilingual
A Blackened Land
By Kim Yeon-Seul
The earth is dark, the sky is dark, and the people’s hearts are dark.
Translated from Korean by Sora Kim-Russell
Multilingual
After the Gunshot
By Lee Ji Myung
You can’t drink when you have the money on you.
Translated from Korean by Shirley Lee
Multilingual