A Quiet Voice Lost in the Shuffle, ‘Exit Emperor Kim Jong-il’
By Chris Green; Book
Review by Clara Fontana, [2012-06-01 11:31 ]
It has long been
thought strange by some that, despite having been one of the most powerful men
in North Korea for a great many years and a very close associate of both Kim
Jong Il and Kim Il Sung before him, former Chosun Workers’ Party International
Secretary Hwang Jang Yop has received so little attention beyond the
limits of the Korean Peninsula.
The reasons behind
this apparent disregard are as murky as the fog in which Kim Jong Il is said to
have once declared that North Korea must be wrapped. Regardless, the result is
that as he passed away at his home in Seoul in late 2010, Hwang remained wholly
unconvinced that he had even managed to get his message about the nature of the
Kim Jong Il regime across to experts and policymakers inside the Beltway, much
less in the international community at large.
When I ask author John
Cha about this over coffee, he is quick to point out, “People in the West have
the mindset that the Cold War is over and they don’t want to talk about it
anymore. Hwang is unknown in the West because I think that in
order to understand Hwang you have to understand the ideological
difference between North and South. And that’s just too cumbersome,
too tiresome to understand.”
If Cha is right then
he faces an uphill battle selling his new book, ‘Exit Emperor Kim Jong-il’ (see
review below). Described as a “primer” opening the way to more books on similar
topics in future, it is an opening gambit, he says; an attempt to fill the void
created by global ignorance of Hwang’s lonely fight against his former boss.
This Western
ignorance, Cha maintains, has been predominantly due to timing. In other words,
Hwang defected at a highly
inopportune moment. It goes without saying that he could not have known
that just a year after he walked into the South Korean embassy in
Beijing in February 1997, the left wing Democratic Party would enter
the Blue House in Seoul and set about instituting a ten year spell of
massive aid and assistance to North Korea that would render him at best
superfluous to requirements and, at worst, an outright embarrassment to the
Kim Dae Jung government. But it certainly had a hugely debilitating effect
on his life and political efficacy.
Hwang was immediately
isolated. He had been assigned a personal guard for his safety, but the flip
side to this was that, in his own words, “I’m like a prisoner. I can’t go
anywhere, I can’t say anything. All I can do is write – write books.” Cha
agrees with this characterization, saying that he thinks Kim Dae Jung
maintained the high level of security “just to keep him out of the
public eye.”
Hwang also came to a
second conclusion: that the outside
world was simply not in tune with what he was trying to say. “ The
Western press,” Cha notes, “wanted something dynamic about nuclear bombs
and the things that were going on in North Korea. Hwang was more
interested in discussing the
philosophical aspects of North Korean life and the dictatorship
that Kim Jong Il forces upon people. I think Hwang just got lost in the
shuffle.”
“I talk to people in
the U.S. and they’re just not interested, period,” he goes on. “I tried to
present Hwang as an exiled writer, even to the Pen Club. They are the stalwart
organization about writers and exiles and such things. And I tried to present
Hwang as an exile, but they weren’t interested.”
“They didn’t
understand who Hwang was and they didn’t appreciate anything about Korean
politics, because generally in the
West people don’t know why North and South exist,” he continues. “Take
the case of Sarah Palin; she was someone running for office! And she didn’t
know.”
Cha’s arguments make
sense, of course, yet one might feel justified in saying that Hwang’s story is
nevertheless old news, and that a book based on the notes of someone who
defected more than ten years ago has no value in the modern debate. After all,
North Korea has changed just like everywhere else, and Kim Jong Il is
unquestionably very dead.
Cha disagrees. “It’s
an introduction to what North Korea is
actually like. I think the English reading public and
policymakers should understand better what goes on in North Korea.”
In one episode
included in the book, Hwang’s notes are used to recount the way Kim Jong Il
hosted regular parties in which a majority of key decisions were made. For
Westerners, steeped in the logic of democratic governments accountable to those
who vote for them, such methodologies are hard to understand.
“Right,” says Cha.
“That story helps policymakers to understand that policy in North Korea was
made in these secret parties among (Kim Jong Il’s} trusted few. And the
policymakers in the West, in the U.S., should understand that they are not
privy to that process. They must understand that whatever comes out of the
North Korean press or as an official position is not what they say it is.”
“Hopefully at the end
of the book the reader will understand why Hwang defected and what his position
was with Kim Jong Il,” Cha concludes. “Was that the goal?” I inquire. “No, no,”
he answers immediately. “I think the ultimate goal was for people to
understand North Korean society. The people and the society.”
‘Exit Emperor Kim
Jong-il’ is in bookshops now, while author John H. Cha will be hosting a book
reading event at Seoul Selection's offline bookstore on Saturday, June 2nd at
3PM
Exit Emperor Kim Jong-il’, written by John
H. Cha from the copious notes of former Daily NK Chief Editor Sohn Gwang Joo,
benefits from a source uncommonly close to the Kim regime. It pulls largely
from the firsthand testimony of a former member of the North Korean party
elite, Hwang Jang Yop, the highest profile official ever to flee the state.
Cha’s book, however, is not merely an
account of North Korean history or contemporary politics. While it is
informative in all the necessary ways, enlightening the reader to the
complexities of the dictatorship in North Korea, it also serves another
purpose; that is, providing a long overdue introduction of Hwang to Western,
English-speaking audiences.
Hwang Jang Yop was for many years a member
of the North Korean party elite and, therefore, a close political associate of
the Kims. He is credited with being the chief architect of Juche, which the
North Korean authorities still promote as a state ideology and one that features
prominently in rhetoric used in the country today. Hwang was a philosopher, a
prolific writer and an ardent educator. Following his defection, he sought to
spread awareness of the North Korean reality to others, particularly younger
generations of scholars.
Yet while Hwang Jang Yop’s teachings
received modest attention within South Korea, much of the West still has yet to
benefit from his expertise. The exposure ‘Exit Emperor Kim Jong-il’ gives to
Hwang and his influence is perhaps its most important contribution.
Policymakers, as well as the average interested reader, can still find Hwang’s
experience enlightening in their own work.
The book is based on Hwang’s assessment of
North Korea as conveyed to the authors. He describes his time there; the
position he played under both Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, what he observed of
his fellow citizens, as well as the extraordinary starvation that occurred
during the famine of the 1990s. He also provides intimate insight into Kim Jong
Il’s character, and explains his reason for departing from the homeland that he
had once thought of as a budding utopia.
Ultimately, he also expresses his hope in
the possibility of a democratic future for North Korea. Hwang’s insight is
personal and candid, and still offers a relevant portrayal of the country
largely as it stands now, as well as an introduction to Hwang’s movement to
bring democracy to lands north of the 38th Parallel.
As an influential scholar and philosopher,
Hwang’s death should not mean an end to the movement he helped to launch in the
South. A man of his convictions, Hwang often asserted the importance of
“dreaming big” to his pupils, emphasizing, “Man must be careful not to waste
his time without a goal in his life.” Two years after his passing, the defector
movement in Seoul is still searching in vain for someone who can lead them
forward in the way Hwang did, proving above all else his importance to them.
Hwang Jang Yop’s dying wish was human
rights and democracy for the people of his homeland. By spreading awareness
through their book, “Exit Emperor Kim Jong-il,” John H. Cha and Sohn Gwang Joo
hope to honor their teacher’s dream by inspiring readers to help further his
cause.
