ABSTRACT
Kurimchaek reading is a popular – often too popular – activity among North Korean children in Adong Munhak (children's literature) stories of the mid-2000s. This chapter considers how children's relation to kurimchaek is rendered in 14 short stories and other literary genres published in Adong Munhak in the period 2005-2009. It provides an analysis of how children's fiction portrays the kurimchaek reader, then ventures into an inquiry into actual kurimchaek readers on the basis of interviews and conversations the author had with refugees, migrants and defectors from North Korea presently living in Seoul. A possible explanation is the role of memory and the political context in the act of refugee reminiscence of life in the North. The chapter is based on interviews and conversations with refugees from North Korea now living in or around Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Kim Hyok's life in South Korea is closely intertwined with the memoralization and narration of life in the North.
