Horrific but interesting story of a young woman who grew up in North Korea near the border with China. She eventually leaves NK and China and told the story to a translator in Canada. ( )

Further Proof of a Despicable Regime

"Stars Between the Sun and Moon" is a book in two overlapping parts. The first part deals with life in North Korea. The second deals with life as a trafficked North Korean woman in China. Both parts ring true and provide the reader with the depressing details about daily realities for North Koreans both in and out of the country.

Lucia Jang and Susan McClelland met weekly for a year while Jang told her story. Soohyun Nam translated for the two during their meetings and what emerged was this memoir. Perhaps the number of cooks is the reason that dialogue is somewhat stilted, or perhaps better yet, somewhat unrealistic. There are several passages where Jang and McClelland describe events happening in North Korea more pedantically than casually. In conversations, the authors slip in details about the country rather haphazardly. This might be beneficial to readers new to the subject of North Korea, but it is not enough to engage them in a meaningful way.

What this book adds to our knowledge of North Korea through such memoirs is its descriptions of both the cross-border transit and the details of human trafficking. Jang crossed the border several times and sent remittances to her family, connecting herself with a network of traders and being forcibly repatriated after being caught in a raid by Chinese police. In China, human traffickers and even one "passerby" took advantage of her status to transit her as one of many thousands of North Korean women sold to witting Chinese men from poor backgrounds. Jang includes some inner-dialogue that shows her conflict between leaving starvation but entering a slave-like existence as a trafficked person.

The picture that emerges from Jang's book is the ubiquitous picture from all memoirs and accounts of North Korea; it is a country driven so mad by manipulative despots that its citizens are desperate to get out. The state has such contempt for its own citizens that nearly everyone is oppressed to the point that not even starvation and disease can bring about a change in leadership.

Despite not offering much in the way of academic information or new insights, "Stars Between the Sun and Moon" gives the world further proof that this despicable regime should no longer exist. In addition, it makes the case for why the world needs to demand that China change its policy of repatriating North Korean refugees. ( )