North Korea Story Notes 2

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80,000 words

four story lines

20,000 words each

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Japanese girl kidnapped by North Korea, forced to teach English

American soldier who defects

North Korean spy

 

Kimiko (“Empress”)

Jung Hwa (righteous & rich) / Myung Dae (“right and great”) and

Myung Hee / Myung Ok (“Bright Girl/Bright Pearl”)

Soo-kyung / Soo-hyun

Roy / “Dae Ho”

 

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WATER (reflection)

 

Kimiko – Walking to school and is kidnapped by strange men, taken on boat; forced to teach spies at a special school; forced to marry a man whom she doesn’t love (rapes her?)

Jung Hwa & Myung Hee – They live with their mother and father, go to best schools; their mother tries to escape with them; their father is a spy and stops them from escaping North Korea; they are taken away from their mother and told they will never see her again.

Roy / “Dae Ho” – Soldier at the DMZ; Terrorist attack coincides with riots in South Korea; learns of US role in propping up corrupt South Korean dictators; disgusted with American imperialism, decides to defect; walks across the DMZ into the guns of North Korean soldiers.

Soo Hyun – The terrorist goes to school, befriends her Japanese teacher, who is about her age (?); Soo-hyun, is to be involved in a terrorist attack on South Korea; Kimiko gives Soo-hyun a postcard to mail to tell her parents she’s alive; travels through Britain and must decide whether to send Kimiko’s postcard; decides not to but keeps the postcard; goes on plane and blows it up; is captured and taken to South Korea.

SKY (refraction)

Soo Hyun – In South Korea, she realizes everything she was taught was a lie. She killed innocent people. Her only way to atone is to turn over the postcard, which she does, but the South Korean police don’t trust her, and don’t deliver it immediately. A Japanese couple comes to visit her, and asks her about Kimiko.

 

Roy / “Dae Ho” – Hailed as hero in NK but soon sees bad side; is given a “Korean” wife, who actually turns out to be Japanese – Kimiko; he is kind to her; they both confess they are prisoners together; she has a dream of uniting her parents again, with their grandchildren; he says he doesn’t think the postcard was delivered because he would have heard of it (timing?); vows to help her find her children

Jung Hwa & Myung Hee – famine hits North Korea; they are taken to the hills and abandoned. They decide they must leave for China; start the journey, two among thousands of homeless beggars; cross the river; arrive in China; are betrayed and sold back to North Korea

Kimiko – Kimiko is told she may go home to Japan, but without her children or her husband; she does not want to but Roy tells her she must. In Japan, she is shocked to see how she has become a cause celebre. Then the news comes that her children have been found – back in North Korean custody. But to get them back, she must exchange herself. Instead, she discovers another has taken her place as the exchange – Soo Hyun – although this means certain death. Kimiko, Roy and the children are reunited with Kimiko’s parents in Japan.

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The Winter River

Language of the Fox People

Frog in a Well