Nothing to offer but themselves / In Pyongyang’s marketplace

With rations cut off, people began to starve.

Food bartered for your sister’s chastity.

The earth is dark, the sky is dark, and the people’s hearts are dark.

You can’t drink when you have the money on you.

Last year, shortly after the excerpt from Blizzard in the Jungle was published in the graphic lit issue of WWB, I ran across a blog, oikono.com, maintained by Geoffrey K. See, a Yale graduate student…

Since the ideology and values conveyed in children’s books tend to be relatively transparent in all cultures, I hope this excerpt from Blizzard in the Jungle gives a useful glimpse into the self-representation…

Translator’s Introduction1. Reflections on the ManhwabangI grew up in South Korea in the 1960s during the Park Chung-hee years, back in the day when comic books, or manhwa, were classified as one…

Slowly, she opened her eyes. They were met with another pair, filled with tears.

I said let my hand go. People will see!

I looked into her big eyes, cloudy and lifeless with concern, and my heart grew so hot that I could not find the right thing to say.

And we are now as different as could be, unrecognizable like siblings separated at birth.

His brow immediately grew red, his rage unmistakeable.

Perhaps the most salient feature of North Korean literature in contrast to its southern counterpart is its eternal optimism.