Nothing to Envy

Introduction: Life in the Dark City of Chongjin

In Seoul, Barbara Demick found that government minders hide the truth from outsiders. They use staged parades and false prosperity to mask the grim reality of daily life. The real story only surfaces by listening to defectors who managed to escape the restrictive regime.

Focusing on the industrial city of Chongjin reveals the human reality of the famine that struck in the 1990s. These personal accounts turn abstract propaganda figures into real people with complex lives. From high above, satellite photos of the Far East at night reveal a startling void where this city sits.

While South Korea and China glow with the neon pulse of modern life, North Korea remains a vast and silent expanse of blackness. This is not the darkness of an undeveloped nation, but of a country that has fallen out of the developed world. After the Soviet Union collapsed, the power grid rusted away, and the lights simply went out.

For the people living within this shadow, the lack of electricity is a source of bitter frustration. They can no longer read at night or watch television, and the comforts of modern power have retreated entirely. Yet, the darkness offers a rare and precious gift of privacy in a society defined by constant surveillance.

Mi-ran and Jun-sang began their romance in the flickering light of a cinema before the total blackout took hold. They met as teenagers in Chongjin, a place where life was lived in long rows of one-room homes stuck together. Jun-sang was a future scientist, while she was the daughter of a humble miner, creating a gap in social status that dictated their future.

Their courtship unfolded over a decade and was defined almost entirely by long walks in the pitch-black night. Because of the strict social hierarchy and the risk to his career, they could never be seen together in the daylight. They would meet after dinner, navigating the unlit streets and forest paths by instinct to avoid informants.

The pace of their romance was painstakingly slow due to the constant fear of discovery. It took three years of these midnight walks just to hold hands and six more to share a kiss. They talked about books, their families, and their dreams, creating a private world apart from the red propaganda signs.