North Korean Killer Girls

The Amazons, assassinettes, beauties, cannibal girls, debutantes, deities, divas, dominas, dream girls, Empusae, feminists, freedom fighters, Furies, ghoul girls, giantesses, girls in boots, goddesses, gun girls, hanging houris harridans, heroines, hitwomen, houris, playful housewives, Lamia, Maenads, pert politicians, pioneers, priestesses, riot grrls, shrews, sirens, spitfires, tormentrices, uniformed killers, vampires, vamps, villainesses and viragoes of North Korea.

"For an herbal medicine doctor who calls herself Kim Jin Hui, it began in July 1994 with the death of North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung. Kim Jin Hui was 28 at the time. When Kim Il Sung, known in North Korea as the Great Leader, died, Kim Jin Hui’s father declared that life had lost its meaning."

"The female owner of the noodle restaurant confessed that she had served noodle to the children and had invited them to stand by a stove to get warm. When they fell asleep, she killed them with an axe."

"Hannah" and "Naomi" are the noms de liberté of the women who were willing to savor a taste of their new freedom by meeting an American journalist. Even so, they remain fearful for the safety of the families they have left behind in North Korea. The relatives of defectors can simply disappear--sent to the gulag or worse. "North Korea has many spies," says Naomi, through an interpreter. Even, it went unstated, in this country."