Quotes by Andrei Lankov

“There are no visible signs of economic reform, Theres a big difference.”

“The 2002 reforms were just a recognition of changes that had happened already. Its not reform in any meaningful sense, there was just a disintegration of the state.”

“For decades, this country was second only to Albania, or even second to none, for keeping out all information about foreign countries. But the old state supervision, where the police would do random checks looking for things like radios, collapsed over the last decade. It was too expensive to run.”

“They (the U.S.) could do nothing but wait until the regime collapses, or they could attack, which could be a very bloody war.”

“There are very few cases of a young, educated, middle-class North Korean defector who would get a good South Korean education and then make what would seem as a normal career in the South.”

To not have your suffering recognized is an almost unbearable form of violence.