|
N. Korea: Faith remains alive |
|
NORTH KOREA (BP)--In college, Yong* learned the questions to ask when meeting a foreigner: "What is your name? What do you do for a living? What is your religion?"
He asks questions to get a glimpse of life beyond the borders of North Korea, one of the world's most isolated countries.
Yong asks tourists one more question: "Do you believe in God?"
The young father has never seen a Hollywood movie, talked on a cell phone or surfed the Internet. Working at a government-assigned job, he goes home to the three-bedroom apartment he shares with his parents, brother, wife and child.
He doesn't own a car. To get to work he stands in a queue with fellow North Koreans waiting for an old-fashioned electric bus.
He wears a portrait of his country's "eternal leader" Kim Il Sung pinned over his heart, a sign of allegiance to a man dead for 13 years. In many ways, Kim still reigns over the land Yong repeatedly refers to as "my country."
Related Items:
|