Completely fascinating and breathtaking story of “life” in North Korea, especially the last sentence of this paragraph:

Fujimoto and Jong-yo were given a new apartment in Pyongyang. Soon after the two moved in, a family of six disappeared from their building. Though they lacked a common language, Fujimoto claims he and Jong-yo have always been good at understanding each other. She was the first person to explain the gulags to Fujimoto, telling him “when one person disappears, it is to a re-education farm. He will return someday. When the whole family disappears, it is to a labor camp. None of them will be seen again.”

Last year, the Guardian published a long excerpt from the book Escape from Camp 14, which is unfortunately no longer online. One of the more difficult and maddening things I had read in a long a time.