Writing a North Korean character

So I have this Multinational Team of teenagers that get whisked off to another world, when I figure that one of them, Choi, is a 15 year old girl from Korea. North Korea. And then I hit a brick wall.

How do you write a character from the most insular country in the world? How does she react to being thrust in with people that she was told all her life were basically evil? Granted, it's a bit of a survival situation at first, so she might have to trust them by necessity, but still, compared to the other kids, she might have a more alien worldview than the actual aliens.

Machines were mice and men were lions once upon a time, but now that it's the opposite it's twice upon a time. - Moondog

One thing that comes to mind is eventual acceptance. Take the refugees for example who either defect or decide to flee to South Korea. They were told at a young age that the South Koreans are an evil bunch of capitalists. But once they get there, they find out that life there is better than in the North.

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"

Maybe you could get some ideas from the biographies of people who've defected/fled from NK?

You could try looking up the names mentioned in this wikipedia article.

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One downside of using North Korean defectors and refugees as a reference point is that they are defectors and therefore by definition, are people who have chosen to flee the country for one reason or another. So, unless most North Koreans are trying to flee the country as well, the defectors and refugees' views are not going to be reflective of the average North Korean and are likely to be biased towards the negative with regards to the North Korean government.

As such, a more interesting and original approach would be to have the character still hold a positive view of his/her homeland and government; despite how its leadership making no sense.

edited 6th Jun '13 8:51:14 AM by peasant

As a person who lives in South Korea*

, I should note that defectors get a lot of help from the South Korean government, to help defectors adjust to the extreme culture shock, obtain financial assistance, but also hide from North Korean spies who's jobs may involve finding and sending back defectors back to the North.

Students have a high drop out rate due to the extreme competitiveness of South Korean education. Hours and thousands of dollars devoted to studying and tutoring in order to get the high scores needed to be accepted into the best of the best high schools.

Also, note that 'Choi' or '최' (Pronounced like 'chweh'. NOT 'Choh-ee') is a surname, not a proper name. There are plenty of proper Korean girls names out there, and if you need help I can suggest some for you.

edited 6th Jun '13 9:17:41 AM by Tehpillowstar

"Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight." - R. W. Raymond

Firstly, is she a "Traitor" who ran away or is she a "Patriot" on a mission for Glorious Leader.

VERY important distinction.

If she is a traitor, then she (knowingly or not) condemned the rest of her family to Gulags or worse fates.

If she is a patriot, then she knows that ANY sign of disloyalty means her entire family suffers.

Traitor will say bad things about Glorious leader and good things about her evil pig dog masters.

Patriots will never say anything bad and will (Loudly?) declare the many virtues of Glorious Leader. All good things she gets are because Glorious Leader scares the Enemy into providing for her but she will never forget that without Glorious Leader, she is nothing.

All hail Glorious Leader! (or else)

edited 6th Jun '13 9:56:29 PM by Natasel

No. No no no no no no no. If you [the OP] characterize your character like that, I will personally berate you for making an offensive, one-dimensional, unrealistic strawman as one of your main characters.

It's not as simple as that. The world does not run on Black-and-White Morality. People cannot be categorized like that in such a simple because life does not work that way.

Your character 'Choi' (Again, it's a last name) most likely won't have very strong opinions about the government of North Korea, like most people do about their own governments. Such people tend to be the vocal minority, or the work of propaganda. She'll probably also be very homesick. Just think about it. She left her home, leaving everything behind: Keepsakes, friends, family, neighbors, routine, maybe a boyfriend, EVERYTHING, for a huge unknown that she couldn't imagine what it would be like. She risked her life on the blind faith that there might possibly be greener pastures. She lost everything that she recognized and predictable, only taking fading, nostalgia-tinted memories with her.

Remember that even though the North Korean government seems to constantly shove propaganda down the populace's throats, that people have their own personal lives, and that her own fond memories would definitely be based on those simple private pleasures.

Documentaries of the lives of people in North Korea should be taken with a grain of salt. Remember, the people who were filming those documentaries were constantly followed by government agents to make sure that they behaved and that the people who they filmed would behave, and that they pleased the government. A realistic portrayal of North Korean's lives would not be feasible, because of the simple fact that there is a camera rolling.

edited 6th Jun '13 10:38:26 PM by Tehpillowstar

"Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight." - R. W. Raymond

North Korea is a pretty bad totalitarian dictatorship with a Guns VS Butter ratio heavily into Guns. Famine is an open secret.

As much as having a one-dimensional character is a bad writing, its also painfully possible to be true.

If only because deviating from what is acceptable by the state has such harsh penalties.

edited 6th Jun '13 11:56:57 PM by Natasel

But just saying, "Roughly half of all defectors are still loyals and half of them are traitors" is still a gross generalization that doesn't put into account other factors for defecting besides politics, nor the character's (and real life people's) most likely complex feelings for defecting in the first place.

"Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight." - R. W. Raymond

I'm going with Choi Seung-yun, unless anyone has a better suggestion.

She isn't a traitor, or doesn't think of herself as such. Short of minor teenage rebellion, she has no real problems with the people in charge of her homeland. She loves her mom and dad, she's sorta-kinda gone out with a boy once before, she thanks the Glorious Leader for her meager meals every day, and is a loyal citizen... at first. After getting to know her partners in intergalactic adventure, learning that foreigners aren't the monsters she was promised (well, compared to the Aliens And Monsters she ends up facing), and getting a broader view of the universe in general, she comes to deeply distrust her upbringing and despise her country, even if she still loves her family. This isn't really an issue before she comes back to Earth, which will likely be just as much a part of the story.

I was thinking none of these kids really had a choice in being taken offworld, until I read this:

What if she actually did have a choice, or at least the illusion of one? The chance to see and experience the Great Unknown? It's tantalizing for anyone, but would hold far more weight for someone from such a repressive and closed society. Would her background make her more or less likely to accept such an offer?

Something else: What effect would her absence have back home? For the other characters, I assume it would be the typical missing child story of heartbroken parents and futile police searches, but what happens in a place where "disappearing" is far too common? Would the authorities suspect her of fleeing the country (technically true), putting her family at risk?

edited 7th Jun '13 2:14:44 AM by Carbonek13

Machines were mice and men were lions once upon a time, but now that it's the opposite it's twice upon a time. - Moondog

Hells yeah.

Dictatorships are not cool with any threat to their monopoly of power, and that means when people "disappear", they damn well want it to be them and only them that make the disappearing.

Compare and contrast the USSR, Nazi Germany, and the USA when it comes to "Terrorists".

The odds of anyone having a "rebel" opinion in any of these places is only about as good as the chances of staying hidden from the state.

For the most part, her rebellious phase consists of sneaking out past curfew to stargaze. She might dream of one day working on her country's satellite program. A fascination with the stars, and the Alien Sky she later finds herself under, would work well to drive home her situation; and say what you want about The Democratic People's Republic, but it must have some clear and beautiful night skies.◊

Machines were mice and men were lions once upon a time, but now that it's the opposite it's twice upon a time. - Moondog

Yup. Cause the country's power supply is so horrible that outside the gulags, military and party, you don't get any.

Lovely North Korea, where the stars are brighter cause your in the dark at night.

I actually have some research suggestions for the OP, as I am somewhat of a NK enthusiast, although by no means an expert.

Give Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick a read. It mostly focuses on six North Koreans of varying ages as they grew up in the '70s-'90s and some of the things that eventually caused them to defect. It's a pretty fast read, and it talks about how the pervasive reach of the state affects many basic things like work, education, dating, and buying food.

I highly recommend reading some articles on DailyNK, as well. A lot of the "Inside North Korea" and "How NK Works" articles are really helpful for explaining what the state demands of its people and the general level of corruption in North Korea.

Honestly, a lot of your character's experiences and world outlook will be very much shaped by where she is from and who her family is. There's a world of difference between the child of loyal Pyongyang elites and the child of a poorer laborer in one of the cities bordering China.

https://soundcloud.com/rich-justice-hinmen Too white for the black kids, too white for the white kids.

Another small but important detail: The party elites in Pyongyang are going to probably speak a very different kind of Korean from said labourers. The official dialect as spoken in state business and used in official publications is modelled on Seoul dialect; most of the rest of the country uses a very different dialect, in terms of sound and often terminology. In many places, r and l become n, for example.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

I'm far, far, far from an expert on this, but I did hear a thing on NPR once about North Koreans adjusting to life outside their country. One difficulty they faced was being very hestitant to make decisions on their own, since they were so used to having official edicts telling them where to go and what to do.

Again, that's just what I heard from one radio story; I don't have anything to corroborate that. Still, indecisiveness could make for an interesting character flaw.

"It takes an idiot to do cool things, that's why it's cool" - Haruhara Haruko

One issue that comes to mind is that the current situation on the Korean peninsula is, well, super unstable. As the setting is Next Sunday A.D., and the characters' return home, particularly Seung-yun's, has some wide-ranging international consequences, what are the odds that I'll have to deal with The Great Politics Mess Up within a few years?

edited 14th Jun '13 8:51:02 PM by Carbonek13

Machines were mice and men were lions once upon a time, but now that it's the opposite it's twice upon a time. - Moondog

Meh, the only big question is if North Korea will fall or not.

Considering the likely end scenario of both cases, (and most agree they both suck ) she might consider it "Different day, same BS."

Unless there's going to be some odd twist where North Korea becomes a real paradise on Earth instead of just more lies/propaganda, its kinda expected that the suck will continue.

Well, maybe she will be struggling with the fact that she knows DPRK is wrong, but propaganda is so ingrained in her she feels it's right? She would be in love with DPRK but unable to reconcile it mentally.

- xxFashionista.xx

Look up Hwang Jang-yeop. One of the most interesting things about defectors is the decision making they must undertake. The late Mr. Hwang is, depending on your perspective, either a hero or that prick who murdered his family. I imagine most defectors feel, at least partly, that they've been very selfish.

I live in South Korea, by the way, but I don't know any North Koreans.

For a fun idea, if you want to use Korean family names, is to have her a member of the 이/리 clan. That's pronounced "Ee" in South Korea and "Ree" in North Korea. It's also a super common family name.

Great men are almost never good men, they say. One wonders what philosopher of the good would value the impotence of his disciples.

You totally do not have to write in politics if you're writing a 15 years old girl. I will write from my own viewpoint, since I was born and raised in the Soviet Union (not quite North Korea but close). When I was a child, I didn't care about government, the party, defecting or patriotism. All I knew that there is the West, it is different and no one seems to agree whether it is evil or the bee's knees. From the books I read, shows I watched and what the teachers said I knew the West was up to no good, but every once a while some underground American culture aficionado showed up and boasted that they have blue jeans, chewing gum or Pepsi cola, and that's allegedly super mega cool. I did't want to go to a Western country or meeting people from there, but that was nothing of the true, inner ideals, it was simply something I never thought about seriously, because the West was for me a kind of another world that will never directly intersect with mine.

When all this was, however, I was not older than ten, and perestroika was already happening. When I was 15, my country already was in the post-fall hypercapitalist chaos. So perhaps you can't use my experiences as they are. However you can use them as for comparison. However, if North Korea falls in your work, you can adapt them as is.

edited 20th Dec '13 1:42:12 AM by aurora369