Life in North Korea: Everyday Life in the Juche Country

Main Ideas

• The book reveals the paradoxical duality of North Korean everyday life, where behind the façade of total control and ideological rigidity lies a surprising flexibility in human relationships and survival strategies.
• The author skillfully shows how the Juche ideology, which saturates all spheres of life, becomes not only a tool of power but also a kind of cultural code that shapes the thinking and actions of millions.
• Lankov explores the phenomenon of North Korean society through the prism of daily life: from collective rituals to private, almost intimate expressions of individuality that break through the regime's strict boundaries.
• Special attention is given to hidden mechanisms of adaptation—informal economic practices, black markets, and personal connections that become islands of freedom in an ocean of official prohibitions.
• The book is filled with reflections on the nature of fear and hope, on how people learn to navigate between the demands of the state and their own desires, maintaining dignity and inner freedom even in the most constrained circumstances.