Jean Luc Coatalem and one of his friends, who pose as travel agents, obtain the right to visit North Korea to possibly to develop tourism. Here they embarked on a journey, strictly supervised by Kim 1 guide to monitor the Kim 2 Kim to monitor the 1 and 3 which Kim driver offfice ... This is a dive in an absurd world where the excessiveness of buildings and constructions slice with the extreme poverty of the population. In the Metro line, only two stations open. The so-called attractions are fictitious (model farm pasteboard), often desert or unable to function (claims of cold mud baths ...). In addition to the blackouts, chronic hunger is felt up tables of these Official restaurants where they serve a little rice, cucumber slices querlques and fermented cabbage ... The cult of personality of dirgeants is omnipresent: huge statues to worship and whole museums dedicated to the glory of Kim il Sung (the Juche) and Kim Jong it. Oppressive stay during which both tourists will have no exchange with a terrorized population leaky contact for fear of reprisals. A true atmosphere of paranoia sets in.
However, I left a little disappointed in this book. Despite these efforts, the narrator, who could not escape his escort Kim, has little unpublished anecdotes. The pages on the geopolitical and historical context are not the most successful. His digressions on the book "Tuesday" Hermann Melville have hardly interested me. Apart emphasize his elegance contrasted with the sad blue costumes vinalon Koreans, the presence of Clorinda, his traveling companion, did not seem indispensable.
As North Korea does not change, the descriptions in this country and this grotesque tragically rigid society are neither new nor original. "A COLD NOODLES PYONGYANG" therefore advise whoever does read anything North Korea.
