The Accusation by Bandi - review: unflinching tales from North Korea
(The Guardian North Korea)

These compelling stories of cruel absurdity are believed to have been smuggled out from the secretive totalitarian stateWhen the founding strongman Kim Il-sung died in 1994, displays of public grief in North Korea reached extraordinary levels. Sobbing television presenters segued into distraught citizens tearing at their hair and family members collapsing in paroxysms of despair. In Pyongyang´s vast eponymous square, rows of kneeling, white-clad men and women set up a keening cacophony. The scenes were repeated 17 years later on the decease of the son and successor, Kim Jong-il. When he died, North Korea´s news agency solemnly reported, ice cracked, magpies mourned and a family of bears was found weeping on a road.Both had presided over an exceptionally totalising and brutal regime. Even as Kim Il-sung died, a devastating famine was beginning that would last for four years and reduce the population beneath destitution in what had once been one of north Asia´s most prosperous countries. What, the puzzled outsider had to ask, were they all crying about? Related: North Korea celebrates Kim Jong-il`s birthday - in pictures Continue reading...