First thoughts on A Corpse in the Koryo

So, I finished The Devil You Know but with the holiday, I haven't been able to post yet. If I'm not too lazy after I work out, I'll do so tonight.

I'm now reading A Corpse in the Koryo which is James Church's first book about a policeman named Inspector O in Pygongyang, North Korea. After I started reading, it belatedly occurred to me that I might not enjoy reading something from a North Korean policeman's perspective (because working for that regime, the ratio of things done for the good of your fellow man has to be low to zilch.) It also was hard to fall into the rhythm of the book but I think it will make much more sense by the end. North Korea is such a wack country that I've had to approach it like I was reading a sci-fi space opera.

There is no corpse yet. The book starts out with Inspector O being asked to take a picture of a car on a road outside of Pyongyang in the early morning. He sees the car speeding thru the countryside sans license plates but can't take a picture because the camera battery is dead (a recurring theme of North Korea living in a strange limbo of a society with 20th century technology but lacking the resources to consistently power it.) This leads to some kind of vague trouble for Inspector O with Military Security and someone named Kang from the Investigations Department (this seems to have something to do with the Party.) The book is disorienting as you are joining a conspiracy already in progress. I suppose that is the intention.

I like the little touches like Inspector O complaining that the Police don't have their own thermos anymore so he can take tea with him on stakeout. They don't have a thermos? I wonder what Kang is up to and if he and Pak are both really dead (the story is alternated with an after the fact interview O has with MI6 somewhere in Eastern Europe. How the hell does he end up there? I guess I'll find out. And more to the point, since he doesn't seem to have a family, why does he even go back to Pyongyang?)

Several things I've had to look up:

• The Koryo is a hotel in Pyongyang. It is a luxury hotel, particularly by North Korean standards, but from what I've read you won't be confusing a stay there with the Ritz. Several reviewers on a travel site made a point of noting how weirdly thin and small the towels there are. Also, guests are not of course allowed to wander the grounds. It is a 45 story twin tower and probably is a striking landmark on the Soviet era-style crumbling Pyongyang skyline. Here are some more pictures of it, showing its best sides. BTW, I was curious about what they charge so I tried to investigate rates on Trip Advisor. For any style room and a variety of dates, they told me nothing is available. Perhaps due to recent Korean Peninsula hostilities there are no rooms at the inn for Americans. 
• Totally beside the point, but one reviewer made a point of saying they didn't recommend getting a massage in the hotel facility but they didn't elaborate. I'm really curious now. Why??
• There is also a Koryo Museum in Kaesong. Koryo refers to a dynasty that ruled Korea during the Middle Ages.
• Kaesong is right on the 38th parallel almost. You can't help feeling extra sorry for the people who live there. They just barely missed escaping the shit-tastic Kim regime.
• Inspector O meets Kang at the Juche Tower. Here are some more Google images of it. It's kind of pretty when it's lit up at night except for the tacky top. It is kind of ass ugly during the daytime. Kim Jong-Il is credited officially as its designer so perhaps that makes sense. 
• Juche refers to the ideology of Korea-centric isolationism that the DPRK ascribes to. It was originally put forth by Kim-Il Sung. 
• Inspector O mentions asking for a transfer to Kanggye and then fleeing there to escape whatever the hell is happening in Pyongyang. He also goes to Manpo later. They are both located in the mountainous Chagang Province on the border with China.  There is little information about it online however you can find a Wiki map of the military base there. 
• As an aside, this area was considered part of the legendary MIG alley
• The border with China is partially demarcated here by the Yalu River. Yalu is a Chinese word meaning "the boundary between two countries." Here is a great picture of the broken bridge across the river, taken on the Chinese side.
• Oh, this is interesting. The Chinese offered to rebuild the bridge if Pyongyang would open their economy instead of being freaks. Not much luck on that, yet. Interesting the Chinese are leading the way in diplomacy with North Korea though, favoring economic aid over sanctions.

North Korea is of course famous among other things for a famine in the 90's where possibly millions died. The tacky monuments everywhere.....I wonder if anyone there is bothered by it. Every show I've seen on North Korea reflects back a brainwashed, robotic populace who was taught that the Great Leader made the sun rise every morning. Curiously, it still rises without fail although he died in 1994. Of course not everyone can be that content because people clearly try and do defect. There would probably be more except for the fact that the defector's families are thrown into concentration work camps. 

I also remember when I was in Syria and we visited the Quneitra Memorial in Damascus. Quneitra being a town in the Golan that was destroyed in the two wars with Israel (1967 and 1973.) It is now in a DMZ occupied by the UN. When we got to the Memorial, one of my classmates pointed out that a North Korean flag was flying there (double props to him for being able to identify that. I need to work on learning my world flags one day.) We asked our guide about it who was a friend of ours. I wish I could remember his name. He was carrying out his mandatory military service by working as a guard at the Memorial (pretty lucky draw for him.) He said that the North Korean people were so moved by the plight of Syria and the Golan they helped pay for the Memorial. It's a pretty elaborate setup with a diorama and a building that looked like it could have been a Smithsonian annex. Now, the North Korean government obviously doesn't give a shit about the Golan Heights and surely doesn't have money to spare. I wonder what the story is about that.  I have a certain affection for Syria having studied there and I really wish they wouldn't join hands with possibly the most vile regime on the planet (it's a tie between that and Iran-oh wait, they cozy up to Iran too.) Sigh, get it together Assad.