''Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea'' is a

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

by the Canadian Québécois author Guy Delisle, published in 2004. The novel details the months Delisle spent in

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...

while working for a French animation company.

Overview

''Pyongyang'' documents Delisle's experiences in

, the capital of

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

, where he stayed for two months. Acting as the liaison between a French

animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

producing company (

Protécréa Protécréa is a subsidiary of French broadcaster TF1, based in Paris. Productions from the company include the animated ''The Adventures of Paddington Bear'' (1997), '' The Mysteries of Providence'', and '' The Bellflower Bunnies''and the 1990s C ...

Nestruck, J. Kelly (September 7, 2005)
"Rogue statements: Guy Delisle's behind-the-scenes account of life in North Korea's capital almost didn't see the light of day"
''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

''. working for

TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is par ...

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 Korean April 26 Animation Studio () is a state-owned North Korea, North Korean animation studio, based in Othan-dong, Central District (Pyongyang), Central District, Pyongyang. History The studio started operations in September 1957, as 4.26 C ...

(Scientific Educational Korea) company, he struggles with the difficulties of

outsourcing Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...

and the bureaucracy of the totalitarian closed state. The book has 176 pages, two of them drawn by a French colleague ("Fabrice"). It was drawn in Ethiopia, where Delisle's wife was working for Médecins Sans Frontières. Delisle does not expect to return to North Korea, writing: "I don't think I would be welcome there anymore."

Summary

Delisle arrives in Pyongyang, bringing, in addition to the items that he was authorized to bring into the country, a copy of

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...

's '' Nineteen Eighty-Four'', that he judged appropriate for a

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regul ...

state, CDs of

Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), best known as Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born British musician, composer and DJ. He is known for his idiosyncratic work in electronic music, electronic styles such as techno, ambient music, ambient, and jun ...

, and presents like Gitanes cigarettes and Hennessy cognac. Delisle encounters former colleagues working at

on an adaptation of the '' Corto Maltese'' comics. He also meets foreign diplomats, NGO workers in the World Food Programme and businessmen, such as French engineers installing an

HDTV High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...

transmitter. During his two-month visit, he stays at the Yanggakdo International Hotel, and visits other foreigners in the Koryo Hotel. Accompanied by his guide, he visits the massive statue of Kim Il-sung, the Pyongyang Metro, the legation quarter, the Diplomatic Club (former Romanian embassy), the Arch of Triumph, the ''Juche'' Tower, the

International Friendship Exhibition The International Friendship Exhibition is a large museum complex located at Myohyangsan, North Pyongan Province, North Korea. It is a collection of halls that house gifts presented to former leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il from various forei ...

, the USS ''Pueblo'', the enormous Ryugyong Hotel, the Taekwondo Hall, the Children's Palace and the Museum of Imperialist Occupation. Delisle notes things such as

tightrope walking Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus. Other skills similar to tightrope walking include slack rope ...

, the absence of disabled and elderly people, North Korean music propaganda, the

cult of personality A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader, Mudde, Cas and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira (2017) ''Populism: A Very Short Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 63. is the result of an effort which is made to create an id ...

for past leader Kim Il-sung and his son

Kim Jong-il Kim Jong-il (; ; ; born Yuri Irsenovich Kim;, 16 February 1941 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. He led North Korea from the 1994 death of his father Kim ...

, the required presence of his translator and guide, nearly-expired water from the South,

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

and kimjongilias. He also notes the extreme level of apparent brainwashing in the citizens of Pyongyang, perhaps prompted by the oppressive atmosphere of the area. 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.

Publication

The English version was translated from the French by Helge Dascher, and published by Canadian publisher Drawn & Quarterly. A new English version with new cover design and introduction by Gore Verbinski has been published.

Cancelled film

New Regency Regency Enterprises (commonly referred to as Regency onscreen and copyrighting as Regency Entertainment (USA), Inc. in the U.S. and Monarchy Enterprises S.á.r.l. overseas) is an American entertainment company formed by Arnon Milchan. It was foun ...

was working on a film version of ''Pyongyang'', with

Steve Conrad ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

to write the script and Gore Verbinski to direct the film, and to star Steve Carell, but this was cancelled in December 2014 in the wake of threats made by hackers alleged to be tied to North Korea to movie theaters over the film ''

The Interview ''The Interview'' is a 2014 satirical alternate history action-comedy film co-produced and directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg in their second directorial work, following ''This Is the End'' (2013). The screenplay was written by Dan Sterl ...

'', which mocks the North Korean government. The film started pre-production in October 2014, and at the time of cancellation was still without a title. New Regency revealed that the scheduled distributor, Fox, cancelled their participation in the project after the incidents with ''The Interview''.

References

External links