I wrote this response to a review of my second North Korea book in 2022 on chollima.org, but since the site no longer exists, I’m republishing it here.
David Tizzard, an academic based in Seoul, published a hit piece on NKNews, a Seoul-based media outlet, targeting my North Korea book titled “A Land of Prison Camps, Starving Slaves and Nuclear Bombs?”
Cover of the book reviewed by David Tizzard
Below are the key quotes from Professor Tizzard’s book review along with my responses:
● “Abt declares that conglomerates in North Korea are run by affable gentlemen, and that women hold various positions of power unlike in the more oppressive South Korea.”
No, I didn’t! I knew other North Korean conglomerates who were not necessarily run by affable gentlemen. And where did I talk about the “more oppressive South Korea”?
● “He describes himself as a ‘handsome Prince making everything right only to be stopped by the ‘evil witch of foreign-imposed sanctions. ”
No, I didn’t! It was about the “fairy tale” PyongSu, not about me. Tizzard intentionally “misunderstood” it.
● “Abt disparages serious academics and writers such as Dr. Remco Brueker, a man whose knowledge and understanding of Korea is surely not questioned among scholars.”
Tizzard conveniently overlooks the fact that Prof. Breuker—correctly spelled,not Brueker as he initially wrote and later amended, seemingly in response to my public critique—is more recognized as a public figure and political activist than as a distinguished scholar of Korea. He, the supposedly respected “scientist” who is apparently averse to the marketplace of ideas and definitely not a champion of free speech outside of North Korea, publicly denounced the media for giving me space to express my experiences and views about this underreported and misrepresented country.
Breuker made a name for himself when he led a campaign against North Korean “forced labor” and urged Western and other countries and companies to deny work permits to the estimated 100,000 North Koreans employed abroad. Many have been intimidated by his campaign. The UN has officially imposed a ban on all North Koreans from seeking employment overseas. Another scholar, Andrei Lankov, dismissed Breuker’s assertion of “slave labor,” and I also critiqued Breuker’s campaign in my book (in the section titled “Small Businesses Opened by Returning North Korean Expats”). While Breuker’s campaign significantly impacted North Korean workers and their families instead of the ‘regime’, I refrained from disparaging him for it.
Additionally, Tizzard fails to recognize that Prof. Breuker collaborated closely with Jang Jin-sung, a defector who asserted he was the favored poet of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Il. Yet, when regular defectors were asked about him, they were unaware of his elite standing. Questions have been raised about the extent of his access to Kim Jong Il and the privileges Jang described as part of his supposed elite status. Some defectors and analysts argue that parts of his narrative were exaggerated to appeal to a Western audience or to dramatize and promote his story. Celebrity defectors have the potential to rake in tens of thousands of dollars for each speech and their books can become New York Times bestsellers and sell countless copies in multiple languages, even if their stories contain major falsehoods.
In 2015, Breuker extended an invitation to Jang to serve as a guest lecturer at Leiden University in Holland. He translated Jang’s book “Dear Leader” into Dutch as well. During a prominent event hosted by Breuker at his university in 2014, Jang delivered a public lecture outlining his argument for the imminent collapse of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the
anticipated removal of Kim Jong Un from power within a span of 5 to 7 years. Eight years on (in 2022), he remains in power. Jang asserted that the Organisation and Guidance Department (OGD) serves as the true power hub of North Korea, positioning Kim Jong Un as merely its “puppet.” Breuker not only
embraced that claim but also actively promoted it, despite the skepticism from other academics. Jang’s reputation took a nosedive when the individual who claimed the title of “North Korea’s poet laureate” was accused of being a rapist by a North Korean defector and another woman in South Korea.
● “Abt also spends a great deal of time contradicting the claims of award-winning author Barbara Demick, particularly in reference to her 2010 book ‘Nothing to Envy’. These frequent and shallow attacks on respected writers on North Korea demonstrate the author’s interest in denigrating many of the field’s leading figures.”
Tizzard’s description of my book reads like a masterclass in character assassination: “misleading, unreliable, dishonest, frequent and shallow attack on respected writers, denigrating many of the field’s leading figures.” Naturally, he failed to provide any proof that I have disparaged “the respected writers”
Barbara Demick, Adam Johnson, and others. In my analysis of their writings and shortcomings, I aimed to maintain a factual and civil approach, providing evidence to support my points while steering clear of the personal attacks that Tizzard directed at me.
Professor David Tizzard (Photo: Koreami.org)
Tizzard acknowledges that Abt “had a number of positive and rewarding experiences” in North Korea, yet deliberately overlooks the numerous negative aspects I detail extensively in my book, which are a result of foreign-imposed sanctions. Consider two striking examples: the devastation of the pharmaceutical industry and the daunting challenge of elevating millions of impoverished North
Koreans in remote provinces, where power supply remains a distant dream—issues that seem to hold no significance for academic Tizzard in his comfort zone.
Sanctions: just an academic topic for discussion among scholars in their cozy surroundings
● “Academics debate the effectiveness of sanctions and their moral implications” explains Tizzard in his piece. And that’s all he had to say about the sanctions.
Tizzard clearly demonstrates a deep empathy and compassion for fellow academics and “respected authors,” irrespective of their work. However, there is a stark absence of compassion for North Korean miners, painters, fishermen, patients, textile workers, and others I have mentioned in my book. Many of
these individuals have faced the loss of their livelihoods, suffered fatal accidents in mines, or perished due to a lack of available pharmaceuticals to treat their infections—all as a direct result of harsh and indiscriminate “sanctions.”
● “Does the author write with an agenda?” Tizzard asks rhetorically.
Indeed, I admit it. Specifically addressing the topics that he and many other Western scholars and journalists tend to sidestep. In academic and journalistic environments, where career and survival instincts often take precedence over objective and balanced analysis, it is certainly not advisable not to trash North Korea – a reality that I can understand. Tizzard enhanced his piece with three
captivating photos: In his review, two pictures show North Korean soldiers, while another captures seemingly desperate North Koreans at a bus stop, suggesting average North Koreans and trying to give a sober picture of authentic North Korea – as opposed to my view after seven years of living there. He
decisively wraps up his review by advising “anyone who wants to learn about North Korea to look elsewhere,” just as he himself does. What more can you expect from someone who looks up to colleagues who are keen to ban perspectives that don’t match their own?