If you look at satellite photographs of the Far East by night, you’ll see a large splotch curiously lacking in light. This area of darkness is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Barbara Demick Read Quote
Gonpo Tso was born a princess. As a young woman, she dressed in fur-trimmed robes with fat ropes of coral beads strung around her neck. She lived in an adobe castle on the edge of the Tibetan plateau with a reception room large enough to accommodate the thousand Buddhist monks who once paid tribute to her father. Barbara Demick Read Quote
Televisions and radios are locked on government frequencies – it is a serious crime to listen to a foreign broadcast. As a result, North Koreans think that they live in the best country in the world and that, as difficult as their lives may be, everybody else has it much worse. Barbara Demick Read Quote
North Korea is probably the only country in the world deliberately kept out of the Internet. Barbara Demick Read Quote
The scene that has raised the most objections in ‘The Interview’ is at the very end, when Kim’s head dissolves into flames. To me, it feels gratuitous. Barbara Demick Read Quote
For a North Korean watcher, seeing ‘The Interview’ is like seeing an earnest endeavor reflected back through a freak-show mirror. Barbara Demick Read Quote
Good reporting should have the same standard as in a courtroom – beyond a reasonable doubt. Barbara Demick Read Quote
In 1984, George Orwell wrote of a world where the only colour to be found was in the propaganda posters. Such is the case in North Korea. Images of Kim Il-sung are depicted in vivid colours. Rays of yellow and orange emanate from his face: he is the sun. Barbara Demick Read Quote