My Friend Kim Jong Un

내 친구 김정은

Nae Chingu Kim Jong-Un

Award-winning cartoonist Keum Suk Gendry-Kim sheds light on the enigmatic North Korean leader. A woman trips over a thin black line, splitting her in two—one half becomes North Korea, the other South. From Ganghwa Island, a seemingly peaceful rural haven just an hour from Seoul, North Korea lies only miles away, visible from Gendry-Kim’s home and studio. It looms over her as she walks her dogs through the rice paddies. Artillery fire, helicopters, and sirens from a nearby military base fill her soundscape. Gendry-Kim has written extensively about the pain and heartbreak of Korea’s recent history in her award-winning books Grass and The Waiting. In My Friend Kim Jong-Un, she turns from the past to the present—to the man now responsible for maintaining the national divide. Tracing his path to power and revealing his human side, Gendry-Kim explores the life of the supreme leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: from his birth and international education to his tastes, hobbies, and relationships. She weaves her personal accounts throughout the book, using her signature approach to personal nonfiction by including interviews with former South Korean president Moon Jae-in, North Korean defectors, researchers, journalists, Kim’s former chef, and a friend from his boarding school days in Switzerland. My Friend Kim Jong-Un carries a message of peace and tries to make sense of a terrible chapter in Korean history. Translated by the award-winning Janet Hong, it is a cautionary tale and an education on what creates a dictator, at a time when these lessons are more relevant in the West than ever.

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