North Korea: daily life in a mental dictatorship - the story of the refugee

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Remco Breuker is a true expert on North Korea. While North and South negotiate peace and nuclear disarmament, with and without the US, Breuker warns against optimism, as he recognizes the strategizing of the North Korea’s ruthless dictatorship. Despite the negotiations, the daily lives of North Koreans are not likely to improve, as we will hear from the former propaganda poet Jang Jin-sung, who fled to the South. Once he had to sing the praises of the supreme leader, but now he is free to write about whatever he wants. Through poetry and conversation, Breuker and Jang enlightend us on what it is like to live in North Korea’s dictatorship of the mind. Moderated by Hassnae Bouazza.

Event curated by Ton van de Langkruis (Writers Unlimited)
Books for sale courtesy of Van Stockum Booksellers

Information

Date and time Thursday 18 October 2018 from 20:30 to 22:00 hrs
Location Podium B - Centrale Bibliotheek Den Haag, Spui 68, 5e etage

Remco Breuker

(Zaandam, NL, 1972) is a professor of Korean Studies at the University of Leiden. He studied Japanese and Korean, and lived for a time in Seoul while earning a second Master's degree. Breuker collaborated on the first Korean-Dutch dictionary(2002). In 2006, he obtained his doctorate (with distinction) with When Truth is Everywhere: The formation of plural identities in medieval Korea, 918-1170. In 2008, Breuker worked as a researcher at Australia's National University (ANU). Then he worked on the research project Conceptualizing Northeast Asia: World history through the lens of Koryǒ and Liao. Breuker is the acting director of the project History as Social Practice: Unconventional historiographies of Korea. He is editor-in-chief of the e-magazine Korean Histories and an editor with the magazine East Asian History. In 2010 he received the KNAW Heineken Young Scientists Award for Historical Learning for research into Korean identity. Together with Imke van Gardingen he translates contemporary Korean literature. 

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Hassnae Bouazza

(Morocco, 1973) is a journalist, columnist, translator, researcher and producer. She publishes in various media (including Dutch national daily newspaper NRC and women's magazine Linda); runs her own online magazine for culture lovers, Aicha Qandisha. She compiled a story collection about Arab women, Achter de sluier (Behind the Veil, 1999); 2013 saw the publication of her book Arabieren kijken (Looking at Arabs), about "ordinary" people in the Arab world. She made TV programs for various broadcasters, including the documentary series Seks en de Zonde (Sex and Sin). Together with Michelin-starred chef Soenil Bahadoer, she wrote the culinary books Spicy Chef (2020) and Streetfood (2022). She published two further books in 2022: Een koffer vol citroenen (A Suitcase Full of Lemons), a requiem for and portrait of her mother, and Arbeidsmigranten in Nederland (Migrant Labourers in the Netherlands).
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Jang Jin-sung

Jang Jin-sung (ca.1970-1971) is the pseudonym of a prominent North Korean dissident and former propaganda poet of Kim Jong Il. He fled to South Korea and wrote the international best seller Dear Leader - My escape from North Korea (2014). In 2015 he was a guest lecturer at Leiden University.
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