North Korea Quotes

Browse through our collection of quotes tagged with North Korea.

I was hungry when I left Pyongyang. I wasn't hungry just for

I was hungry when I left Pyongyang. I wasn't hungry just for a bookshop that sold books that weren't about Fat Man and Little Boy. I wasn't ravenous just for a newspaper that had no pictures of F.M. and L.B. I wasn't starving just for a TV program or a piece of music or theater or cinema that wasn't cultist and hero-worshiping. I was . I got off the North Korean plane in Shenyang, one of the provincial capitals of Manchuria, and the airport buffet looked like a cornucopia. I fell on the food, only to find that I couldn't do it justice, because my stomach had shrunk. And as a foreign tourist in North Korea, under the care of vigilant minders who wanted me to see only the best, I had enjoyed the finest fare available.

Christopher Hitchens

Food Music Books Literature Hunger Cults Kim Il Sung North Korea Kim Jong Il Newspapers Hero Worship Airports Cinema Manchuria

[I]f you think that American imperialism and its globalised,

[I]f you think that American imperialism and its globalised, capitalist form is the most dangerous thing in the world, that means you don't think the Islamic Republic of Iran or North Korea or the Taliban is as bad.

Christopher Hitchens

Capitalism Iran Afghanistan North Korea Taliban American Imperialism Anti Americanism Islamic Republic Globalisation

In a Pyongyang restaurant, don't ever ask for a doggie bag.

In a Pyongyang restaurant, don't ever ask for a doggie bag.

Christopher Hitchens

Funny Dogs Humour North Korea Pyongyang Dog Meat Korean Cuisine

[I]n a place with absolutely no private or personal life, wi

[I]n a place with absolutely no private or personal life, with the incessant worship of a mediocre career-sadist as the only culture, where all citizens are the permanent property of the state, the highest form of pointlessness has been achieved.

Christopher Hitchens

Privacy Culture Worship Sadism North Korea Kim Jong Il Deification Personal Life

Not since North Korean media declared Kim Jong-il to be the

Not since North Korean media declared Kim Jong-il to be the reincarnation of Kim Il Sung has there been such a blatant attempt to create a necrocracy, or perhaps mausolocracy, in which a living claimant assumes the fleshly mantle of the departed.

Christopher Hitchens

Death Media Kim Il Sung North Korea Bolivarianism Exhumation Hugo Chavez Kim Jong Il Media Of North Korea Reincarnation

Obviously, there must be some connection between the subordi

Obviously, there must be some connection between the subordination of actual individuals and the grotesque exaltation of symbolic ones like Kim Il Sung.

Christopher Hitchens

Dictatorship Psychology Cults Kim Il Sung North Korea Subordination