Suki Kim: This is what it's like to go undercover in North Korea
سوكي كيم: هكذا يبدو الحال حينما تكون متخفيا في كوريا الشمالية
Suki Kim's investigation, "Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite," chronicles her six months undercover in Pyongyang during Kim Jong-Il's final six months. She worked as a teacher and a missionary in a university for future leaders -- all while writing her book. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
of Kim Jong-Il's life,
في حياة القائد كيم جونج إل-
in South Korea, their enemy.
-عدوهم-.
North Korea a few times.
كوريا الشمالية عدة مرات .
that to write about it with any meaning,
الشمالية
beyond the regime's propaganda,
دعاية النظام،
فيه.
معلمة و مبشرة
في العاصمة بيونغ يانغ.
of Science and Technology
والتكنولوجيا
who cooperate with the regime
الذين تعاونوا مع النظام
of the North Korean elite,
الشمالية ،
which is a capital crime there.
تعد جريمة كبيرة هناك-.
expected to be the future leaders
الذين يعدّون قادة مستقبل
dictatorship in existence.
وحشية و عزلة في الوجود.
of North Korea's original Great Leader,
القائد العظيم الاول ،
shut down all universities,
النظام بتعليق دوام كل الجامعات
and prosperous nation.
ازدهارا.
spared from that fate.
من هذا الامر.
عمل تتظاهر بانها دولة.
is about the Great Leader.
القائد العظيم .
every song, every TV program --
كل اغنية ، و كل برنامج تلفازي..
على الجبال.
of the Great Leader at all times.
تحمل صورته في جميع الاوقات.
with the birth of Kim Il-Sung.
بميلاد كيم إل سونغ.
prison, posing as a campus.
تظهر كانها حرم جامعة.
accompanied by an official minder.
ويكون برفقتهم مراقب رسمي .
to sanctioned national monuments
بزيارة معالم اثرية وطنية
to leave the campus,
and any free time they had
وان كان لديهم اوقات فراغ
their Great Leader.
قائدهم العظيم.
of North Korean staff,
الشماليون على خطط الدرس ،
every room was bugged,
تقرير ، وكان يتم التنصت على كل غرفة،
portraits of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il,
بصور كيم ال سونغ و كيم جونغ ال،
to discuss the outside world.
الخارجي.
many of them were computer majors
كان العديد منهم متخصصون في الكمبيوتر
the existence of the Internet.
of Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs.
would have meant a thing.
لهم شيئا.
when an entire nation's ideology,
نكون ايدولوجية دولة كاملة ،
at the universities,
on the chalkboard,
جملة،
China last year on vacation,"
للسياحة العام الماضي" ،
to leave the country.
مغادرة البلاد .
requires a travel pass.
يحتاج تأشيرة عبور.
some truth about my students,
بعض الحقائق عن طلابي ،
accomplishments of their Great Leader,
قائدهم العظيم الاسطورية ،
a rabbit as fifth graders.
أرنبا عندما كانوا في الصف الخامس.
seemed at times hazy to them.
يبدو مبهما لهم .
the different types of lies;
الانواع المختلفة من الكذبات :
from the world,
and were just regurgitating them.
يرددونها دون وعي .
لانهم اعتادوا الكذب.
nearly impossible.
one's own thesis,
فرضيات واطروحات الفرد الشخصية،
argument to prove it.
لاثبات تلك الفرضيات.
simply told what to think,
سلفا بماذا و كيف يفكرون
was not allowed.
غير مسموح به.
of writing a personal letter,
ان يكتبوا رسالة شخصية
some of them began to write
بدأ بعضهم بالكتابة
their girlfriends.
،و حبيباتهم.
كانت عبارة عن واجب ،و
their intended recipients,
المقصودين.
their true feelings in them.
الداخلية الحقيقة .
up with the sameness of everything.
حولهم.
mentioned their Great Leader.
العظيم.
with these young men.
مع هؤلاء الشباب الفتيين .
played basketball together.
معا.
which made them giggle.
مما جعلهم يقهقهون .
الفتيات.
even in the tiniest of ways,
حتى قليلا ،
of living in their world,
في عالمهم ،
in fact, improve their lives.
حياتهم افضل.
their rotten regime inside out,
انظمة بلادهم العفنة راسا على عقب،
connected through the world wide web,
بالشبكة العنكبوتية العالمية
I was putting them at risk --
اعرضهم للخطر
anything in the open,
what is unspoken.
a student wrote that he understood
to be gentle in life, he said.
في الحياة ،هكذا قال.
2011،
توديعهم وداعا مناسبا .
how sad I was for them.
حزينة عليهم .
a student said to me,
قال لي احد الطلاب :
as being different from us.
but you're the same as us.
think of you as being the same."
مشابهة لنا" .
to my students with a letter of my own,
برسالة مني لهم ،
since I last saw you.
مرة رايتكم فيها .
maybe even as old as 23.
اكبر قليلا في 23 من عمركم .
if there was anything you wanted.
شيئا تريدونه.
the only thing you ever asked of me
الشي الوحيد الذي طلبتموه مني
to share that bond of our mother tongue.
رابطة الحديث بلغتنا الام.
in Kim Jong-Un's merciless North Korea
جونغ ون القاسي لكوريا الشمالية
encourage or even expect
يعرضكم للخطر
someone is always watching.
دائما من يراقب.
what might happen to you.
inspired something new in you,
قد ألهمت شئيا جديدا فيكم
and live long, safe lives.
وعيشوا بامان.
your city of Pyongyang was beautiful,
بيونغ يانغ جميلة ،
to hear that I, your teacher,
مني ،انا معلمتكم
that you are forbidden from,
your lives there a bit more bearable,
تتحملون حياتكم اكثر قليلا،
your capital beautiful.
جميلة.
the rest of the country,
و عبيد.
my lovely young gentlemen,
يا رجالي النبلاء المحبوبين الفتيين
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Suki Kim - WriterSuki Kim's investigation, "Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite," chronicles her six months undercover in Pyongyang during Kim Jong-Il's final six months. She worked as a teacher and a missionary in a university for future leaders -- all while writing her book.
Why you should listen
Suki Kim is the only writer to ever go undercover into North Korea to write a book from the inside. Since 2002, South Korean-born Kim travelled to North Korea, witnessing both Kim Jong-Il's 60th birthday celebration and his death at age 69 in 2011.
Her work sheds a new light on the understanding of the North Korean society by delving into its day-to-day life and provides unprecedented insights into the psychology of its ruling class, about whom the world knows very little.
Kim's novel, The Interpreter, was a finalist for a PEN Hemingway Prize, and her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, Harper's and The New York Review of Books. She is the author of the investigation Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite.
Suki Kim | Speaker | TED.com