A perk to working in North Korean tourism is access to the fascinating literature of the DPRK. Rarely read by foreigners or made available online, we’d like to share some. Here is an unedited excerpt, taken from the book “Anecdotes of Kim Jong Ils Life, Part 1” (2012 Foreign Languages Publishing House, Pyongyang, DPRK). 

One March day in 1987, an official went to the office of
Kim Jong Il, bringing a document the latter had asked for. He
found Kim Jong Il writing. Shortly after he entered the office, the
phone rang. Motioning to the official to take a seat, Kim Jong Il
told him to wait a moment. After hanging up, he asked the official
to read the document, and resumed writing.

The document was an important report on the international
situation. So the official remained silent in his chair, waiting for
him to finish writing.

“I’m all right. Please read it,” he said to the official, without
lifting his eyes.

The official stood up and started to read. At one moment
Kim Jong I1 said that he had already known what he was being
told, and at another moment he asked the date of the information,
analyzing and assessing the various items of information. He was
writing all the time.

Writing a speech and analyzing a situation report are both
intellectually demanding. It is next to impossible to write and talk
about different things at the same time, especially when one is
engaged in writing something important, as Kim Jong Il was. Yet
he was writing a report on intensifying ideological education.

Read more anecdotes:

• • “It’s Quite Strange” – Anecdotes of Kim Jong Il

• “Profound Knowledge of Poultry” – Anecdotes of Kim Jong Il