Comrades and Strangers: Behind the Closed Doors of North Korea [Paperback]

Michael Harrold (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 2004

In 1987 Michael Harrold went to North Korea to work as English language adviser on translations of the speeches of the late President Kim Il Sung (the Great Leader) and his son and heir Kim Jong Il (then Dear Leader and now head of state). For seven years he lived in Pyongyang enjoying privileged access to the ruling classes and enjoying the confidence of the country’s young elite. In this fascinating insight into the culture of North Korea he describes the hospitality of his hosts, how they were shaken by the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and many of the fascinating characters he met from South Korean and American GI defectors to his Korean minder and socialite friends. After seven years and having been caught passing South Korean music tapes to friends and going out without his minder to places forbidden to foreigners, he was asked to leave the country.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“… excellent book…”(British Association for Korean Studies, July 2004)

"North Koreans are too often portrayed as hapless droids; Harrold peels back the last Iron Curtain to reveal their humanity." (Daily Telegraph, 13^th November 2004)

“…sheds considering light…” (Far Eastern Economic Review, December 2004)

“..the most revealing glimpse yet of what passes for normal life in North Korea.” (Asian Wall Street Journal, 3^rd September 2004)

From the Back Cover

In 1986, as a young graduate looking for some adventure before settling down to 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 anticipated would be an exciting interlude in the world's most secretive country became seven years in which his initial scepticism, even cynicism, about the regime and society developed into growing empathy with the people around him.  From among the ranks of the VIP guests at the major state occasions, to the paddy fields working alongside the farmers, he saw the country as no outsider has ever done.  He loved, and lost, a young local girl, fell foul of the authorities and yet stood beside the people as they faced the mounting threat of US invasion.

This sensitive and entertaining memoir give a unique insight into life behind the closed doors of North Korea.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470869763
• ISBN-13: 978-0470869765
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1.3 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #915,209 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What it's like to be an ex-pat in Pyongyang, September 13, 2004

By 

saskatoonguy (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Comrades and Strangers (Hardcover)

The author responded to an ad in Britain and found himself working for the North Korean government, polishing the English of their propaganda output. At the beginning of his employment, the author was incredibly naive, knowing nothing about North Korea yet taking a paycheck from its government. During his seven years in Pyongyang, 1987-1994, the author gradually became less naive while gaining a fondness for the North Korean people and its government. Eventually he realized that his love of North Korea was strictly a one-way street and that he would never be totally accepted. Yet even after leaving North Korea and learning how the rest of the world regards it, he is still excessively sympathetic toward its government.

The author describes what it is like to be an ex-pat working for the North Korean government - his daily life and his relationships with both Koreans and other foreigners. Some readers will regard the author as a communist dupe or stooge, while others will enjoy learning how the world looks from a North Korean perspective. Nonetheless, this is a readable and entertaining book for anyone interested in Korea.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating tale of extreme cross-cultural understanding, August 31, 2005

By 

TOMMY C ELLIS "Prison Rev." (Federal Way, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Comrades and Strangers: Behind the Closed Doors of North Korea (Paperback)

Harrold's personal story intrigued me on so many levels. I worked as an English teacher on the southern half of the Korean penninsula during almost the same exact period he was in the North (1987-1993 for me). Much of the xenophobic experiences that he attributes to ideology and politics, is rooted a culture that values much that the West does not: tradition, stability, respect for authority, hierarchical relationships, conformity and consensus. Of course, the DPRK's strident self-reliant communism, coupled with its constant search for "positive strokes" from outsiders greatly exacerbated the author's experiences, relative to my own.

It was especially fascinating to read how Harrold and North Koreans digested many of the incidences from that era--the South Korean "radical" who went illegally to North Korea; the visits to the North by Billy Graham and Rev. Moon; the drama surrounding the 1988 Olympics, and what, if any, role the North might have. These and other anacdotes had me thumbing through the pages late into several nights--a true testament considering that we have three young children in the house!

Some have complained that Comrades and Strangers is thin on actual information. However, part of Harrold's thesis is that a foreigner could be intelligent, observant, easy-going, willing to give up many personal liberties, and gain a working knowledge of North Korea's language, culture, history, and political workings, and still--after seven years--come out having barely scratched the surface. Those who want details might do better reading Bradley Martin's "Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader." However, this diary gives you an insider's feel for the North that Martin cannot match, despite his 800+ pages.

Having praised the content of Harrold's offering, a few minor issues. The book comes across as a diary that's been organized for publication. As such, it is occasionally uneven, sometimes a seeming collection of "random thoughts," and somewhat overabundant in mundane personal details. While I enjoyed the work for its personal first-hand information and story-telling, I'm wondering if more revision and editing might have improved this effort. Another concern--Comrades has a very narrow audience niche. Those interested in things Korean, and in the particularly intriguing system that permeates the North--as learned and told by an expatriot with limited Korean language skills will likely prove few indeed.

Bottom-line: I loved this book--but mostly because I could relate to so much of it. The writing is anecdotal, very personal, and it covers the enigma of North Korea from the perspective of a British national, employed by an official foreign language organ of the regime. The mass market appeal for this work may be limited, by I personal thank Michael Harrold for giving me some truly enjoyable and thought-provoking reading.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Insider's View - but a Rather Vapid One, January 23, 2008

By 

Dash Manchette - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Comrades and Strangers: Behind the Closed Doors of North Korea (Paperback)

As someone who spent seven years living inside North Korea, the most hermetically sealed society on earth, Michael Harrold had the opportunity to gain an insider's view of a land most of us will never know. COMRADES AND STRANGERS is the result and, although the book is easy reading and somewhat interesting, it leaves a reader with a strangely empty taste at the end.

Harrold is best when he describes his day to day interactions with North Korean citizens. As most books and articles on the country focus, not surprisingly, on the political structure of the country and those within that structure, COMRADES AND STRANGERS is interesting in that it takes us down to the street level. We read first hand accounts of North Koreans' friendliness mixed with their well known and acute xenophobia. Harrold's interactions with a mix of people provides us with a picture usually not taken and even more rarely shown.

If only Harrold had stopped there. Alas, everything in North Korea is about politics, with the issues of reunification with South Korea and hatred of the imperialist Americans providing daily feed for the grind. Harrold cannot help but interject his thoughts on these issues and, to be blunt about it, despite seven years in North Korea, he seems ridiculously naive about the world in which he lives.

Harrold seems to accept a ridiculous paradox in that he mixes a recognition that North Korea is a totalitarian state with an apparent willingness to believe almost anything that state has to say regarding its intentions with other nations of the world. The reader is treated again and again to examples of how North Korea extended its hand, however furtively, to the outside world only to have some other country rebuff it. That free states may recognize that North Korea's leaders are willing to lie in order to gain some tactical advantage does not seem to enter Harrold's scope of vision.

This is particularly funny (a relative term to be sure) in light of negotiations regarding North Korea's nuclear ambitions. Harrold was in the country during much of the time when a non-proliferation pact was negotiated and signed and there is nothing in Harrold's writing to indicate that maybe, just maybe, a totalitarian police state may not be a trustworthy signatory to such a pact. We now know that North Korea started breaking its promises almost immediately. No surprise to anyone familiar with how totalitarian states work, but apparently it would be a surprise to Harrold.

Further, in an attempt to be scrupulously fair, Harrold simply splits the difference between North Korea and free states on a wide variety of issues. But being fair does not necessarily mean going 50-50 every time. As one example, representative of many in the book, Harrold states that, while North Korea's poverty may be appalling, one can be equally appalled at the wealth discrepancies found in the capitalistic southern part of the peninsula. Really? Even if one were concerned with wealth discrepancy, can one really be equally appalled by a free society in which many people can work their way into at least a decent paying job, even if it does not make one a billionaire, and a society in which ten percent of its citizens have starved to death and people are eating bark off of trees? He compounds the problem with statements to the effect that other nations must put aside ideological differences in order to foster humanitarian aid. Yet the more obvious solution would be for North Korea, if its leaders were really concerned with the welfare of its citizens, to change its own purely ideological system that has a record of failure worldwide.

Even with respect to his interactions with citizens, Harrold often misses the big picture. Repeated references are made to North Korea's potential based on the character and opinions of its citizens. Yet the hallmark of a state such as North Korea is that the leaders do not care what its citizens think. It is a rather telling note that, after leaving North Korea, Harrold was invited back due in part to North Korean authorities being happy with interviews he gave about the country. No doubt they were.

One may argue, of course, that while Harrold spent seven years in North Korea, I have never even been to Asia. But others sure have, and they have also written books on North Korea that show more insight than this. Indeed, one need not be a political analyst. The graphic novel PYONGYANG by animator Guy Delisle shows an acute insight into North Korea, capturing the foibles of the society despite the book's light-hearted and humorous tone. Check that out instead.

Better choice: Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, Guy Delisle