On the Grand Peoples’ Study House

I ask you — what site that has better readers than this blog? In response to Enzo’s question about the Grand Peoples’ Study House, a reader and friend sends this response:

This so-called NK’s central library (“Inmin Dae Hakseup Dang”) opened in April 1982 to mark the Great Leader’s 70th B-Day. It is open to the NK public (adults) as well as foreigners. You can find several good photos of the building and its interior on the web, including a giant chalk-white statue of the GL. The library boasts of 1300 volumes by the GL, and 700 vols by his son, DL. Clearly, the collection is focused on the North Korean official narrative of Korean history (great epochs of cultural achievement–all destroyed by the Japanese–resurrected in socialist/nationalist splendor by the GL & DL).

There are reportedly works by non-Koreans available–Tolstoy, Goethe, Shakespeare, Homer, even Mark Twain, etc. To what extent they are available to be checked out by North Koreans I am not sure. I assume they are mostly translated versions, and those in the original language would be more freely available to non-Koreans. I’ve also heard that most foreign books have been donated by Russia and its ilk and nations of South America and Africa. I doubt the library has copies of the WSJ or links to One Free Korea for its patrons. Seriously, why would they spend the little money they have to buy Western books/periodical that they will do their best to guard from the public?

I believe that European classics, novels, etc. or even Western history (save for Russian) have been eased out of the middle school curriculum since the mid-1960s, when idolization of the GL reached full flower.

Here are some photos of the building:

http://blog.ohmynews.com/cornerstone/154551