Little Pyongyang

There is perhaps one thing that unites radicals and revolutionaries from all countries, and most ages: London. At some point or another, most of the great political dissenters and activists, Voltaire, Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Sun Yat-sen and even Ho Chi Minh have found themselves on the streets of our capital, plotting and writing in tiny back rooms. For 300 hundred years, it has been famous for its political tolerance in a temperamental and oppressive world. And as I’ve discovered, London is once again a home to revolutionaries; to defectors from the planet’s most oppressive regime.

November

I am sitting in a small underground room lit by a dingy orange lamp. A small group of North Korean exiles sit around me. It is the first meeting of their new resistance group and at the head of the table is Kim Jooil, their leader. He is talking about how to overthrow the Communist regime in Pyongyang. I listen as they try to organise themselves.

‘Our opposition must be based in Europe.’ That much at least they all agree on. ‘The number of our defectors in Europe is growing. We must organise events in Europe.’ Why Europe, I ask. Most defectors are based in South Korea; surely that is the best place to organise a rebellion? There is a general tutting of disagreement.

‘Europe is not the enemy of North Korea,’ Kim explains to me. ‘If the North Korean government learned that we were based in South Korea or America, then they would use us as… as…’ — he struggles for the right word. ‘Propaganda,’ says a man in the corner, in a low growl.