Under the Same Sky: From Starvation in North Korea to Salvation in America

In this powerful account of a nightmarish struggle for survival, Kim relives his childhood in North Korea and the horrors experienced by the country during the Great Famine that began in 1995, when he was five. Kim doesn’t hold anything back as he details how millions of people slowly descended into a neverending battle to stay alive, doing whatever it took to stave off starvation. He describes his father’s death, his mother’s imprisonment, his sister being sold into marriage in China, and his own years as one of the homeless kotjebi, or street children. Against all odds, he lives long enough to escape to China, where he’s able to start a new life, which ultimately brings him to America. There’s something riveting about his honesty; he portrays the bleak conditions, dwindling resources, eternal uncertainty, and loss of dignity with an unashamed matter-of-factness almost at odds with the desperate circumstances: “I noticed something in the toddler’s hands: corn chips... Instantly I felt a wild desire to steal the treats out of the baby’s hands and devour them. Hunger is humiliation. But hunger is also evil.” Kim’s tale is a vital insight into a little-understood country and a modern-day tragedy. [em](June) [/em]