Nothing to Envy

I have been interested in North Korea since Rachel moved to Seoul some years ago. Jill and I visited her there and took a side trip to the DMZ. We learned some of the politics and history of the country and through Rachel we began to understand the nature of the relationship between the people of the 2 Koreas. I read some books, saw some videos and learned more about North and South Korea. We enjoyed Seoul, -an immaculately clean city, one of the biggest in the world with so much to offer for visitors and locals. Certainly Seoul is one of the great cities of the world. Why then, is North Korea so messed up, and is it really or is that just the western view? Barbara Demick is an American journalist and a good writer. She does not sway into a 'report speak' type documentation as some journalists do, but her writing manages to flow nicely and is worth reading at length, although after about 3/4 of the book I found that the the story had been told. I enjoyed it. She interviews North Koreans living in South Korea and focusses on a few of the more interesting stories. It seems that there are people in NK who are not satisfied with the regime, and even see its limitations and its inequities. They plan to escape, make their way to China, and then sometimes to SK. Their new lives are compared to their old ones and it makes for an interesting read, far more thoughtful than "Camp 14" but to be fair, Camp 14 is not meant to be a wholistic view on life in NK, not that "Nothing to Envy' aspires to that, but it does more to explain the conundrum that is North Korea.