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Comrades and Strangers: Behind the Closed Doors of North Korea
By Michael Harrold
John Wiley& Sons, 2004; 414 pages.
In 1986, as a young graduate looking for some adventure before settling down to an otherwise mundane life in the suburbs, Michael Harrold answered, on a whim, an advertisement to become the first Briton to live and work in North Korea. What he initially anticipated would be an exciting interlude in the world's most secretive and isolated country ended up spanning seven years in which his initial skepticism, even cynicism, about the regime and society developed into a growing empathy with the people around him.
In his memoirs of that period Comrades and Strangers: Behind the Closed Doors of North Korea, Harrold chronicles the seven years he spent in North Korea as the language adviser for English translations of speeches by the country's president, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. It was an unforgettable and eye-opening experience that gave him a unique insight into what is, perhaps, the world's most misunderstood...