Pyongyang (comics)

Pyongyang (published in English as Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea) is a black and white graphic novel by the Canadian Quebecois author Guy Delisle published in 2004.

Overview

"Pyongyang" documents Delisle's experiences in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, where he stayed for two months. Acting as the liaison between a French animation producing company (Protecrea working for TF1" [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/IA20Ad01.html An animator's novel experience] : Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea and Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China by Guy Delisle", reviewed by Fraser Newham, Asia Times, 20 January 2007.] ) and the SEK Studio (Scientific Educational Korea) company, he struggles with the difficulties of outsourcing and the bureaucracy of the totalitarian closed state.

The book has 176 pages, two of them drawn by a French colleague.

It was drawn in Ethiopia," [http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/newsList.php?item=a43204677c3785 Rogue statements: Guy Delisle's behind-the-scenes account of life in North Korea's capital almost didn't see the light of day] ", J. Kelly Nestruck, National Post, September 07, 2005.] where Delisle's wife was working for Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Plot

Travel Items

In addition to the items that he was authorized to bring in the country, he also brought a copy of George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" that he judged appropriate for a totalitarian state, CDs of Aphex Twin and reggae, and presents like Gitanes cigarettes and Hennessy brandy.

People He Meets

He met with earlier workmates working at SEK on an adaptation of Corto Maltese comics. He also met with foreign diplomats, NGO workers in the World Food Programme, and business men such as French engineers installing a HDTV transmitter.

He twice fantasizes about torturing North Korean women, once when being brought water and the second time while in the Museum of Imperialist Occupation (pages 44 and 169).

Places He Visits

During his two months, he stayed at the Yanggakdo Hotel, but he visited other foreigners in the Koryo Hotel.Accompanied by his guide, he visited the Kim Il-sung statue, the Pyongyang Metro, the legation quarter, the Diplomatic Club (former Romanian embassy), the Arch of Triumph, the Juche Tower, the Friendship Museums, the USS Pueblo, the enormous Ryugyong Hotel, the Taekwondo Hall, the Children's Palace, and the Museum of Imperialist Occupation.

Observations Made

He was surprised by things like reverse walking, the absence of disabled people, North Korean music propaganda, the cult of personality for past leader Kim Il-Sung and current leader Kim Jong-Il, the required presence of his translator and guide, nearly-expired water from the South, Coca-Cola and kimjongilias. He also noted the extreme level of brainwashing apparent in the citizens of Pyongyang. When questioned regarding the lack of disabled people in Pyongyang, his guide asserts-and seems to genuinely believe-that North Korea has no disabled, and that the children of the "Korean race" are all born healthy, strong and intelligent.

Genocide Denial

In the Museum of Imperialist Occupation his North Korean guides confront Delisle with pictures and other information about US atrocities in the Korean War, and try to get him to acknowledge them. Delisle first imagines torturing his Korean women guides, then he implies that all atrocities against Koreans by the United States during the Korean War are invented by the North Korean government, dismissing all evidence as "a few blurry photographs". Among other evidence available from outside the North Korea, five years before his book came out the Associated Press and BBC published solid evidence of deliberate mass atrocities by the US, including documents with orders from US commanders to " [k] ill them all" referring to Korean civilian refugees." [http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1462352042000320592 Kim, Dong Choon (2004) 'Forgotten war, forgotten massacres -the Korean War (1950-1953) as licensed mass killings', Journal of GenocideResearch, 6:4, 523 - 544] also [http://www.informaworld.com/index/713672299.pdf] "] (530) The intentional slaughter of unarmed civilians is massacre by definition and is genocide according to some definitions.(532, 542)

Delisle does not expect to return to North Korea, writing "I don't think I would be welcome there anymore."" [http://www.drawnandquarterly.com/newsList.php?item=a43204677c3785 Rogue statements: Guy Delisle's behind-the-scenes account of life in North Korea's capital almost didn't see the light of day] "]

ee also

*Shenzhen, an earlier black and white graphic novel, with Delisle working in Shenzhen, Southern China.

References

External links

* [http://www.lilibeko.com/animation_delisle.htm Intervalles Shenzhen Pyongyang] , exposition on Delisle's work for French-speaking audiences, scenography by Bekir Aysan.
* [http://www.guydelisle.com/pyongyang/pages/index.html Guy Delisle web page] , link to Pyongyang graphic novel on Guy Delisle's web page.