A Land of Prison Camps, Starving Slaves and Nuclear Bombs?

By Abt Felix

Readers’ Feedback:

«A compelling departure from the universal story.»
—Noam Chomsky, Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, author of 150 books

«Finally, the truth about North Korea. Felix Abt takes us inside the ‘Hermit Kingdom,’ and he shows us that the caricature we’re fed by the western media simply isn’t true. Do you want to know what life in North Korea is really like? Read this book.»
—John Kiriakou, Former CIA Counterterrorism Officer and former Senior Investigator, US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

«Swiss businessperson Mr. Abt draws upon data and seven years of personal experience living and working in North Korea to demonstrate that nearly everything the Western media thinks they know about North Korea is either passé or inaccurate. A must read for anyone commenting on the Hermit Kingdom especially the mainstream media and their so-called 'expert' sources.»
—James Hyams, journalist and film maker, founder of the 'Watchdog Film Festival' — the first and only film festival that screened investigative films diving into worlds otherwise unknown.

«Abt concludes his book by noting that, 'given the dominant U.S.-centric North Korea narrative, with no other voice to offer balance or express the true reality, it is hard to blame the general global populace for accepting the situation as America and its supporters wish it to be viewed.'
Perhaps if more Americans learned about the history of the Korean War and its barbarism, they might show some empathy for North Koreans and try and better understand the country’s policies; or perhaps, if more foreign exchanges are established, they might press their government to end the brutal sanctions and to pursue a formal end to the Korean War.
Until that time, we can expect that North Korea will be continuously invoked as a reference point for tyranny and its leader ridiculed, in quasi-racist fashion, as a clownish dictator.»
—Jeremy Kuzmarov, book author and managing editor of 'CovertAction Magazine', an investigative magazine with a focus on the activities and abuses of the CIA and other issues such as surveillance technology, prison system, U.S. wars and the environment.

«When it comes to North Korea we are usually fed Western propaganda, or shown the excesses and often lies about what North Korea represents. Once again Felix Abt has created something nuanced that only someone who has spent so much time in the country could produce. But it is also much more than just opinions about North Korea, this book offers some stark realties of what might befall us if policies don’t change as we waltz into Cold War 2.0»
—Gareth Johnson, founder and CEO of Young Pioneer Tours, a travel company specializing in tourism to countries including North Korea, Cuba and Iran.

«North Korea exists in international discourse as a land where cartoon villains keep millions of tragic innocents trapped in a huge, country-sized prison. While criticisms can certainly be made about the country, the extreme demonization is grotesquely unfair. Felix's message that these are real people in a real society is extremely important»
—Nury Vittachi, writer based in Hong Kong, editor of Fridayeveryday.com, news of Asia without the Western lens. He authored dozens of fiction, non-fiction and children’s books.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abt Felix
• Release date: Apr 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005460037

Abt Felix

Felix Abt is a serial entrepreneur and, periodically, a coach, trainer and consultant. During his career, he has developed and managed a variety of businesses in different countries. He worked as a senior executive at multinational corporations such as the Swiss-Swedish ABB Group, a global leader in automation and power technologies; the F. Hoffmann-La Roche Group, a global leader in healthcare and the Zuellig Group Inc., a leading Asian distribution and trading group. He also worked with smaller and medium-sized enterprises, in both mature and new markets.He also feels privileged to have had the opportunity to strengthen his expertise as an investor and director of multiple companies. Thus far, he has lived and worked in nine countries, including Vietnam and North Korea, on three different continents.His basis for going abroad was to learn and observe, not to pass judgment and not to propagate his personal views or to lecture – or even “liberate” – other people.Furthermore, he is glad that he could gain experience in capacity building, by organizing and carrying out a diverse range of training courses, from Spain to Egypt to Ivory Coast to North Korea and Vietnam. He was pleased to see a number of his former employees in these countries become successful entrepreneurs in their own rights.He also became a lobbyist (against all odds) as president of the first foreign chamber of commerce in North Korea, advocating for reforms and a level-playing field for all businesses and against strangulating sanctions by foreign powers. His first book 'A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom' echoes his experiences there. It was both the most exciting and the most challenging period of his career. It was also highly rewarding to witness first hand, and sometimes even contribute to, MANY FIRSTS that nobody would have expected from the world 's most isolated, under-reported and misrepresented country:The first fast food restaurant selling happy meals, the first café selling Western gourmet coffee; the first miniskirts and high heels; the first Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty bags; the legalization of markets and advertising; the first North Korean debit card, with which he went shopping; the first technocrats, rather than party committees, running state-enterprises; the first robot, at a foodstuff company, made by ABB, a multinational group for which he was the chief representative in Pyongyang; the multiplication of all sorts of small private business; the development of private farming; the emergence of a middle class and a drop in poverty; cosmetic surgery in the capital, even though it was illegal, people watching foreign movies and reading foreign books, despite censorship; the first business school, which he co-founded and ran; the first e-commerce, set up by North Korean painters and himself, selling their paintings around the globe; the first North Koreans dancing Rock and Roll, with him; the first foreign chamber of commerce, which he co-founded and chaired; the first North Korean enterprise, a pharmaceutical factory which he ran as CEO, winning contracts in competitive bidding against foreign companies; the first quality pharmacy chain which he launched; the first software joint venture company exporting award-winning medical software, which he co-founded, and many more.His biggest disappointment in North Korea was that his pet project, electrifying North Korean provinces far from the capital to lift millions of North Koreans from poverty, was thwarted by the actions of foreign powers.His biggest satisfaction was to have contributed to the prevention of accidents and to save the lives of miners by helping to modernize North Korean mines and to save countless more lives of North Korean patients thanks to locally made quality medicine at affordable prices, before foreign-imposed sanctions sabotaged these endeavors.Felix Abt was a shareholder of several legitimate Joint Venture companies in North Korea (medicine, food, garments and software) which have been driven into bankruptcy by so-called U.N. sanctions from the mid-2010.Abt considers himself a politically neutral businessman and, therefore, does not share partisan views about North Korea. He is, however, critical of biased North Korea reporting and does what he can to contribute to a more objective view of the country. He knows, from direct personal experience, the true state of affairs in North Korea much better than the journalists, bloggers, podcasters and pundits who love to prate about it, often with little factual basis to their commentary.To try and balance the narrative he has written not only ‘A Capitalist in North Korea’, but also a second book ‘A Land of Prison Camps, Starving Slaves and Nuclear Bombs?’

Book preview

Table of Contents

Test Your North Korea Knowledge!

One of those Images the Western Media didn’t want you to see!

The Driving Force Behind the World’s Oldest Propaganda War

The Forgotten War that became America’s Longest ‘Forever War’

A Brief Outline of the Western Sanctions, a Form of Economic Warfare, Against North Korea

False Portrayals of North Korea in the West

Books Full of Fiction and Horror Tales Distorting North Korean Realities

All Resources are used for the Elites and for Building Nukes and Rockets!

North Korea’s Battle against Famine

Private Farming Helps the Fight Against Famines

Another Great Famine is Looming

A Government that Starves its People?

Are North Koreans Really Denied the Luxuries and Treats that Bring Color into our Lives?

Life Needs Color!

Hello Hello Kitty

North Korean Youths Joyless Automatons?

Is North Korea Denying its Citizens Pizza?

Help, Unhappy North Koreans are Deprived from Sweets!

The North Korean Bomb Threat

North Koreans - Depressed Gulag Inmates and Slaves

Service with a Smile – in North Korea!

The Smiling Slaves

Slaves on the Beach!

An Excursion into North Korea’s World of Business

A Fitness Program for North Korean Managers

Small Businesses Opened by Returning North Korean Expats

Foreign Trade and Investment Made a Difference

A Different Big Boss – One From North Korea

Woman Power

Female Bankers – a New Generation of Leaders in the Financial Industry

North Korea’s Reliable Female Chief Financial Officers (CFO)

Modern Banking in North Korea

The Effect of Sanctions on Banking and the Ability to do Business

Microcredits from Christian Entrepreneurs for North Korean Entrepreneurs

North Korea, a Relic from the Past?

The North Korean Software Company that Fooled an Anti-North Korean Giant

The North Korean Painters that Just Wanted the Same Acceptance as their Counterparts in Other Countries

No Power to the People!

Driving Legitimate Business Out of North Korea

An Honest Journalist!

The Fairy Tale Where the Principals Didn’t ‘Live Happily Ever After’!

Discrimination against North Korean Food and Medicine Producers

North Korean Miners’ Lives Don’t Matter

Building Bridges to the Outside World – Before their Demolition

The Foreigners and the Foreign Goods that are Kept Out.

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Author’s Profile

Readers’ Feedback

Test Your North Korea Knowledge!

Dear Reader,

I invite you to find out how much you have been misled and lied to about North Korea by the media, pundits and activists. I’m happy to share insight and a more balanced view of the world’s most isolated, under-reported and misrepresented country.

I thank you for recommending and sharing it with your friends. Your feedback on pages where it is published or discussed is much appreciated.

Felix Abt

Author of A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom

March 2022

North Koreans, as imagined by Western media consumers.

North Korean students discussing business with the author.

One of those Images the Western Media didn’t want you to see!

Apart from planned encounters there were also unplanned ones like this spontaneous, friendly invitation by ordinary North Koreans offering beer and food to Felix Abt and his wife Huong (sitting on the floor) during a national holiday.

Compare that with what Western media, such as The Atlantic, keep telling you: As you view images {from North Korea}, keep in mind that the photographers are strictly limited, only able to capture pre-approved subjects in sanctioned settings (…) in a tightly controlled society.

Copyright © Felix Abt

All photos and illustrations are the property of the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing and photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the author.

The Driving Force Behind the World’s Oldest Propaganda War

For decades the United States has been waging a vitriolic public-opinion war against North Korea. It is a necessary bogeyman to persuade the American taxpayers that the mammoth defense budgets for the benefit of one of its largest and most profitable industries, is justified.

The