Inside the Hermit Kingdom

Closed to the West for more than forty years, North Korea is an isolated and alien land. When Yi Sun-Kyung traveled there in the summer of 1994-the first Western journalist ever allowed in for an extended visit-she found a nation ruled by fear and a people yearning for reunification with the South. More than just a travelogue of a strange and foreign culture, however, Inside the Hermit Kingdom is in fact the story of two journeys-the first a journey to a place seldom seen and only vaguely understood, the second a journey of self-discovery for the author.