In the Foreign Service of Pakistan, two stations – Sudan and North Korea – are known as very hard places, not because of any security problem but due to the lack of education and health facilities, rest and recreation, entertainment, attractions and distractions. While filling any vacancy in our Missions in Khartoum and Pyongyang, the administration surveys the list of Sindhi, Baloch, and Pashtun officers serving at Headquarters or in our Missions abroad who are due for posting. This practice is faithfully followed.
Since 1980, seven Sindhi-speaking Ambassadors have served in Khartoum. I was one of these lucky gentlemen. I know at least three Sindhi and Baloch officers assigned as ambassadors to Pyongyang, including Syed Hassan Habib. I enjoyed my stay in Khartoum, interacting extensively with our troops stationed as peacekeepers in Sudan. Unbelievably, Khartoum was a crime-free capital during the long rule of President Al-Bashir.
Late Ambassador S.M. Korejo had two consecutive postings in Khartoum and completed the manuscripts of his two landmark biographies of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and G. M. Syed, which were later published by Oxford University Press. Ambassador Zafarullah Shaikh is an admirer of Sudan. Khalid Ahmed Yousfani volunteered as Ambassador to Sudan. I was posted on the untenable ground that I had served at two A-stations.
Many friends believe that Pyongyang is harder than Khartoum because the local population is forbidden to interact with foreigners, especially foreign diplomats, who are the most watched, most pursued and most monitored community, and cannot move out of their residences without being stalked by spooks. Many officers returned from Pyongyang with impaired mental health.
While shedding sporadic light on North Korean society, Syed Habib writes that about 10 per cent of the population lives in some sort of prison; 16 per cent are in the compulsory service of the armed forces, and the rest work, directly or indirectly, for the state. The regime not only tightly controls all systems of communication, it has also enacted severe punishments for unauthorised interaction with foreigners or irrelevant elements within the country.
Ambassador Syed Hassan Habib, as I know him, is a man of pleasant, affable and highly balanced disposition, who remains undaunted even under challenging circumstances. He faced the rigours of Pyongyang with his strong will, steely nerves and wise and rational approach to life, and returned home with a sound mind and sharp intellect to take up the challenging job of teaching in this august institution in 2016.
Only an author of the calibre and courage of Syed Hassan Habib can take up his pen to write on an enigmatically complex subject such as North Korea
Syed Hassan is known for his simple and honest disposition, hard work, intellectual strength, analytical prowess, and deep understanding of complex international affairs. This book adds another feather to his cap as a skilful writer. Syed Habib deserves all laurels for rendering invaluable services to the country and to our children at the Institute of Business Management.
This is a small book of over 200 pages, divided into 14 short chapters dealing with the history of the Koreas, the Korean War of 1950–53, and the rise of the Kim dynasty beginning with Comrade Kim Il-sung, nuclear weapons, United Nations sanctions, and life under the shadow of hacking, control, and espionage. There are chapters on North Korea and the United States, as well as the author’s observations.
The author has appropriately called North Korea the “Hermit Kingdom”, probably referring to the period of the Joseon dynasty from 1392 to 1910, in which Korea intentionally restricted contact with foreigners to preserve the purity of its culture.
The term applies perfectly to North Korea because of its extremely enigmatic political and economic governance and social isolation – highly restricted contact with foreigners, travel, the spread of knowledge, and minimal diplomatic representation of foreign states.
The Korean rulers claim that they follow a self-reliance ideology. I call it an enigma, where the population lives under siege, yearning for the dawn of free, independent, and dignified living. Without socialisation, a human society cannot remain healthy, stable and vibrant.
The country has an outmoded and broken system of public transport, public health, public education, and public utility services. There is no private sector to provide such facilities. No inter-city transport is allowed. The supply of commodities of daily use, mostly imported, is erratic and highly frustrating. Diplomats may travel to China to buy foodstuffs and toiletries.
The diplomatic community is very small. There were 25 diplomatic missions and international agencies when the author was posted there. This must be a closely knit community, socialising with each other more frequently.
In contrast with North Korea, Sudan at the time was a comfortable station. Khartoum was welcoming, bustling with hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and good meat shops owned by Turkish men. The country was abundantly provided with food, local and imported fruits, and reasonably good public utility services. Alcoholic drinks were prohibited.
I used to take solace from my evening walks along the paved bank of the Blue Nile, which converges with the White Nile on the other side of the city near Omdurman. The British-era bridges on the Nile River used to soften my nostalgic longing for Sindh, reminding me of the Lansdowne Bridge of Sukkur, designed by Sir Alexander Meadow Rendel and erected by Engineer Robertson in 1889.
The River Indus and the River Nile were tamed and controlled by British engineers through the construction of bridges, barrages, and water headworks on them. On the River Indus, they constructed bridges at Attock (1880), Sukkur (1889), Kotri (1900), and the Kotri–Hyderabad Railway Bridge (1900).
The book is interesting in the sense that it tries to give readers some insight into this Hermit Kingdom, or the enigma. Only an author of the calibre and courage of Syed Hassan Habib can take up his pen to write on an enigmatically complex subject such as North Korea. My salutations to him.
Praise be to Allah.