North Korea Quotes

“Only around 1983 did I begin to realize that not he but rather Kim Il-sung and his regime were the real causes of my suffering. They were the ones responsible for the camp and for filling it with innocent people. All during my childhood, Kim Il-sung had been like a god to me. A few years in the camp cured me of my faith.”
― Kang Chol-Hwan, The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag

“If the Nazis are Socialists simply because they call themselves Socialists, then North Korea really is a Democratic Republic.”
― Atom Tate

“When we connect with others with their humanity, without the filters of race, nationality, gender, religion and so many other artificially constructed division, most of the world’s problem will be resolved.
After all, we are all the same humans who have evolved through millions of years of evolution on this earth. All I am doing through my activism is showing the world that how we all share the same humanity regardless of our skin color, nationality or religion.
Division only creates more division and inclusion is the only way we can move forward as a civilization. It is time to include North Koreans to join our beautiful and compassionate free world.”
― Yeonmi Park

“I am most grateful for two things: that I was born in North Korea and that I escaped from North Korea.”
― Yeonmi Park, In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom

“People say mountains change in about ten years. If something as stubborn and mammoth as a mountain can change in a decade, the hearts of ordinary North Koreans can change. I'm sure of it. I'm living proof." --Ha Young, a North Korean defector”
― Jieun Baek, North Korea's Hidden Revolution: How the Information Underground Is Transforming a Closed Society

“In fact, they live in a state of constant paradox where truth is anything but constant”
― Guy Delisle, Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea

“This is not the sort of thing that shows up in satellite photographs. Whether in CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, or in the East Asian studies department of a university, people usually analyze North Korea from afar. They don't stop to think that in the middle of this black hole, in this bleak, dark country where millions have died of starvation, there is also love.”
― Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

“Whoever is planning a nuclear war or seriously thinking about using nuclear weapons must directly be taken to a mental hospital! Mad people are mentally sick and they only need a medical treatment! Every nation has the responsibility to weed their deranged politicians out from their governments!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“Since my addiction to motion is what feeds my writing, the main purpose of travel for me is to get lost.”
― Travis Jeppesen, See You Again in Pyongyang: A Journey into Kim Jong Un's North Korea

“It entered into a Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance with North Korea in 1961, containing a clause on mutual defense against outside attack that is still in force at this writing. But that was more in the nature of the tributary relationship familiar from Chinese history: Beijing offered protection; North Korean reciprocity was irrelevant to the relationship. The Soviet alliance frayed from the very outset largely because Mao would not accept even the hint of subordination.”
― Henry Kissinger, On China

“It's clear: North Korea is a total sham. Officially, it outlaws private business, but in the shadows it lets it thrive. Since there are hardly any markets, merchants warehouse their Chinese products at home and sell them to their neighbors and acquaintances. This farce is the only thing preventing the bankruptcy of the North Korean state and the pauperization of its citizenry.”
― Kang Chol-Hwan, The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag

“People say mountains change in about ten years. If something as stubborn and mammoth as a mountain can change in a decade, the hearts of ordinary North Koreans can change. I'm sure of it. I'm living proof." --Ha Young, a North Korean defector interviewed in Jieun Baek's book "North Korea's Hidden Revolution: How the Information Underground is Transforming a Closed Society”
― Jieun Baek, North Korea's Hidden Revolution: How the Information Underground Is Transforming a Closed Society

“What is the life of one person worth? Although the Supreme leader Kim Jong-un is not suicidal, life to him is relatively cheap, after all he had his half-brother murdered. The countries population of almost 25 million people is harshly subjugated and the military consists of 5,200,000 men and women both active and in the reserves. Although his military ranks as 25th of the worlds military powers, it is the development of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems that makes Kim Jong-un so dangerous. It is estimated that they have about a dozen nuclear devices that could most likely be delivered as far as Japan. Of course their future targets, including the United States are more ambitious. In contrast to their troop strength, the United States has 1,400,000 personnel under arms, South Korea has only 624,465 and China has 2,333,000 personnel. Our advantage is primarily technical, however regardless of our superiority in battlefield technology, oil which they get from China, remains the lifeblood of their supporting economy and army. North Korea has threatened to fire missiles at the U. S. military bases in Okinawa and Guam. The reality of a war is that we would most likely win such a conflict but at a very high cost. The biggest losers of a war on the Korean Peninsula would be South Korea, North Korea and the United States in that order. If there were to be a winner it would be Russia. What are we thinking? Perhaps we should come up with a better strategy.”
― Captain Hank Bracker, The Exciting Story of Cuba

“Logic is not a sure enough defense against moral bankruptcy.”
― Mark Sappenfield

“the greatest threat to American lives is not a country or an organization, Americas worst enemy perhaps may not be North Korea,  Iran or Al-Qaida, her worst enemy is the excess weight burden of its own population driven by the insatiable appetite for high calorie diets.”
― Oche Otorkpa

“Liberty and love
These two I must have.
For my love I’ll sacrifice
My life.
For liberty I’ll sacrifice
My love.”
1 January 1823, Petőfi Sándor was born in Kiskörös, Hungary.”
― Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

“The word could be translated in a number of ways. It could mean self-reliance, autonomy, independence, or responsibility—all the things we weren’t allowed to have. According to the Juche 'philosophy,' 'human beings are the masters of the world, so they get to decide everything.' It suggested we could reorganize the world, hew out a career for ourselves, and be the masters of our destiny. This was laughable, of course, but that’s always the way with totalitarian regimes. Language gets turned on its head. Serfdom is freedom. Repression is liberation. A police state is a democratic republic. And we were 'the masters of our destiny.' And if we begged to differ, we were dead.”
― Masaji Ishikawa

“When you are frightened of seafood, you should really stay indoors with the curtains closed.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“The North Korean government, for all the terrible things it undeniably and inexcusably does, also builds housing, schools, and hospitals for its citizens. If you had concrete proof that your tourist money was being spent on the construction of an orphanage, would this be the deciding factor that would persuade you to travel there? Are there no aspects of every country one might object to—including your own? Once we begin to impose travel boycotts on ethical grounds, we quickly run out of places we can go.”
― Travis Jeppesen, See You Again in Pyongyang: A Journey into Kim Jong Un's North Korea

“The North Korean regime and its leaders have often been described as irrational. My experiences have made me question that contention and wonder if this “irrationality” is more often than not a label applied to those who do not wish to understand an opponent’s worldview.”
― Travis Jeppesen, See You Again in Pyongyang: A Journey into Kim Jong Un's North Korea

“It can take billions of years for light to reach us through the galaxies, which is to say, History is ever arriving. So it's most likely that the decision, seemingly all mine, was already made years ago by someone else, which is to say, language — that is to say, translation — always arises from collective consciousness.”
― Don Mee Choi, DMZ Colony

“In town, during the week, I pocketed my emotions—silent and screaming anguish in all shades of red—Father’s way. But on these trips out of town, the neung-jae grasses that skimmed my body ripped holes in my pockets and emptied all the red I had saved.”
― Myun Haing Kim

“As boys grow to men, they keep score on their fathers. In one column goes the wins—the times he protected his family, provided for them so they did not know hunger, taught his children how to navigate the world. In the other column are his sins. Sometimes, these losses weigh heavily.”
― Myun Haing Kim

“Happiness is found in simplicity and commonness. Or maybe happiness descends from the sky like it did that hot August day. More than seven decades on, I suspect happiness is the capacity to stay human. I still don’t know for sure.”
― Myun Haing Kim

“Guy: „Hey, isn't that Karl up there?“
Mr. Kyu: „You know Marx? Very good.“
Guy: „A bit... Doesn't everybody?“
Mr. Kyu: „Oh no, not many capitalists do.“
Guy: „Really.”
― Guy Delisle, Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea

“In the North there are no words for things like "shopping malls," "liberty," or even "love," at least as the rest of the world knows it. The only true "love" we can express is worship for the Kims, a dynasty of dictators who have ruled North Korea for three generations. The regime blocks all outside information, all videos and movies, and jams radio signals. There is no World Wide Web and no Wikipedia. The only books are filled with propaganda telling us that we live in the greatest country in the world, even though at least half of North Koreans live in extreme poverty and many are chronically malnourished.”
― Yeonmi Park, In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom

“In a capitalist society a carefree life for the working people is inconceivable. In this society even those who are fairly well-to-do are always fearful of sudden bankruptcy, job-loss and poverty. Living a prosperous life in idleness without any thought for others cannot be regarded as a genuine human life.”
― Kim Jong Il, Abuses of Socialism are Intolerable

“The images conjured for us of tanks rolling across the border and slaughtering our people in their homes moved us all to floods of tears. The South Koreans had made victims of us. I burned with thoughts of vengeance and righting injustice. All the children felt the same. We talked afterwards of what we would do to a South Korean if we ever saw one.”
― Hyeonseo Lee, The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story

“Perhaps it would be even harder for them to understand that I still love
my country and miss it very much. I miss its snowy mountains in winter,
the smell of kerosene and burning coal. I miss my childhood there, the
safety of my father’s embrace, and sleeping on the heated floor. I should be comfortable with my new life, but I’m still the girl from Hyesan who longs to eat noodles with her family at their favourite restaurant. I miss my bicycle and the view across the river into China.”
― Hyeonseo Lee, The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story

“In June 1949, the Koreans who previously had belonged to the Japanese Communist Party migrated en masse into the newly created Korean Workers’ Party, as the North Korean communist party was called. Like its counterparts all over the world, the KWP showed a formidable knack for creating associations with the allure of democracy and openness to the public. There were women’s associations, movements for the defence of culture and peace, sports clubs, and various other groups which the Party could influence from the shadows. My grandmother was among the Party’s most active organisers and eventually became director for the Kyoto region.”
― Kang Chol-Hwan, The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag