Escaping North Korea

now, the evidence is clear that humanitarian assistance through government channels is ineffective and in most cases simply feeds the party leadership or the military.

Breen tells a humorous story about a meeting in Seoul between North Korean and South Korean diplomats. Lee Bum-Suk, the head of the South Korean delegation, was driving into Seoul with his North Korean counterpart. The North Korean diplomat, noticing the city bustling with construction and traffic, said, “We’re not stupid, you know. It’s obvious you’ve ordered all the cars in the country to be brought into Seoul to fool us.” Lee, known for his sense of humor, replied, “Well . . . that was the easy part. The hard bit was moving in all the buildings.”8

What we don’t know about North Korea is so vast that it makes the Kremlin of the 1950s look like an open book.
—Arnold Kaner, U.S. undersecretary of state under President George H.W. Bush

They even have a creed that is almost identical to the Apostles’ Creed.”