As the world again stares toward North Korea in the wake of Kim Jeong-eun’s decision to execute his uncle, we turned to UCSB’s Suk-Young Kim for her perspective on that, Dennis Rodman’s upcoming visit, and other issues facing the Communist country.
A professor in UCSB’s dance and theater department, Kim was born in South Korea in 1970 and lived there for 25 years before coming to the United States for graduate school. She is the author of three books: Illusive Utopia: Theater, Film, and Everyday Performance in North Korea; Long Road Home: Testimony of a North Korean Camp Survivor; and, coming out in 2014, DMZ Crossing: Performing Emotional Citizenship Along the Korean Border.
She answered a few of my questions this week via email.