I am an editorial writer at The Korea Times, focusing on foreign policy, North Korea and domestic politics. My key areas of interest include North Korea, foreign interference in elections, election integrity, cyberattacks and human rights. Prior to joining the Editorial Board, I served as both Politics Desk editor and Culture Desk editor. During my career, I have reported on the Presidential Office under the Lee Myung-bak administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Assembly.
Second-class citizens fighting in vain for life with dignity
Best-selling author Cho Nam-ju's “Sakha Mansion” published by Mininum Publishing Group / Courtesy of the publisher
By Kang Hyun-kyung
'Sakha Mansion' depicts minorities gnashing their teeth at corporate greed
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Cho Nam-ju's new book “Sakha Mansion” is a report on minorities in the guise of fiction.
Released four years after Kim's international best-seller “Kim Ji-young Born in 1982,” the author explores minorities gnashing their teeth at unbridled corporate greed and its fallout on their lives.
Tenants of the urban slum housing complex, Sakha Mansion, in the fictional city state are all social outcasts. Illegal immigrants, people with criminal records, sexual minorities and disabled people flock to the abandoned housing complex to live.
They are helpless and grappling with the dire reality which forces them to choose between fighting in vain for life with dignity, or accepting the reality that they have no option but to exist as second-class citizens as long as they live there.
“Sakha Mansion” begins with the journey of two siblings ― Jin-kyung and her younger brother Do-kyung ― to the southern city state owned by a global IT and semiconductor giant.
The siblings chose to escape from their homeland after Do-kyung killed the cold-blooded, greedy employer of a removal company who tried to cover up the cause of his mother's death. Do-kyung's mother, who was an employee of the company, died after she accidentally fell from the rooftop of a high-rise building during work.
Fearing the effect of her death on his business, the employer covered up the industrial accident and claimed she committed suicide.
Infuriated by the employer, Do-kyung killed him. To avoid arrest and prosecution, he and his sister secretly cross the border toward the city state and find home in Sakha Mansion. They live in flat #701 as undocumented immigrants.
Do-kyung's life takes a turn after he meets and falls in love with a female pediatrician, Soo, from an upper-class family. He finds his talent in painting and his girlfriend helps him make money by finding buyers for his works.
Soo and Do-kyung move in together in a flat in Sakha Mansion. After work, Soo treats sick children in the poor neighborhood with medication she brought from her hospital located in the wealthy district.
Soo is caught and loses both her medical license and her citizenship. Facing deportation, she is worried about how this will affect her family.
Feeling immense pressure, Soo and Do-kyung choose to commit suicide together. Parking her car in a park near the housing complex, Soo takes three poisonous pills mixed with another medication and encourages her boyfriend to follow suit. Do-kyung takes some pills but seeing his dying girlfriend, he feels scared and flees without taking the rest.
Their relationship is fabricated by the biased media. In the news, he is wrongfully accused of being a criminal. According to media reports, Do-kyung was a stalker and a sex offender who killed the pediatrician after a rape attempt. He is caught and reportedly executed.
His forbidden love with Soo is painted by the biased upper-class as a high-profile criminal case, sparking an uproar among the residents.
Worsening public opinion calls for the destruction of Sakha Mansion as the neighborhood is depicted as a haven for criminals. Such sweeping statements reflect the bias of the upper-class people. Although the Sakha Mansion neighborhood houses underprivileged people, it is not a dangerous place.
Those in power respond to the angry citizens by unveiling a set of measures to fight crime.
In the face of her brother's reported death, Jin-kyung becomes a warrior to right the wrong. She later learns her brother is still alive somewhere and tries to find him.
Jin-kyung arms herself and intrudes into the Prime Ministers' Office to learn about her brother's whereabouts.
She threatens an old man who claims to be the secretary-general of the prime ministers handling overall state affairs following guidelines from his unidentified bosses, demanding he tell the truth about her brother's whereabouts.
“Sahka Mansion” ends with the revelation that unlike what was thought by the public, there was no oligarchy and thus no seven prime ministers. The city state is run on the whims of a single hidden man whose identity is not revealed.
In “Sakha Mansion,” the city state is the symbol of corporate greed.
In the past, the city was a fishing village and most of its residents earned their income through catching and selling fish.
The village underwent a drastic change after a conglomerate made a key business decision to invest into the creation of a small city, establish assembly lines and the headquarters of other affiliate companies.
Welcoming the massive corporate investment with open arms, local government officials provided the global giant with a lavish package of benefits, including a tax break. The local government's decision backfired.
The conglomerate's business thrived; but there were no trickle down benefits for the local economy. The local government went bankrupt and was “sold” to the conglomerate. After taking over the small city, the founder and business tycoon in his 80s declared its independence and ran it as a city state with its own sovereignty.
Like Cho's “Kim Ji-young” which alludes to women on career break and their struggles against gender inequality, her new work pushes readers to revisit issues of the recent past that rattled Korea.
The disappearance of a cargo ship with numerous passengers onboard near the city state is a reminder of the tragic sinking of the passenger ferry Sewol that took place off the southwestern island of Jindo in 2015.
In the story, there is no news about the ship. Unlike in the Sewol tragedy case where some of the dead bodies were retrieved, no missing people are found. The tragic event fueled the families of the missing people to take to the streets. The city state in the story, however, turned a deaf ear to their outcries.
In “Sakha Mansion,” angry rallies against the “government” become a civic revolt, just as protesters gathered in Gwanghwamun to urge then President Park Geun-hye to step down to take responsibility for all the dysfunction her administration created following her swearing in as president in 2013.
“Sakha Mansion” articulates the frustration of ordinary people.
Unlike the impeachment that followed in real-life Korea after the uprising, there is no government change in the book. Korea is a democratic country where the head of state is elected every five years without a second term. But in the story, the city state is ruled by seven prime ministers who are in charge for life.
Author Cho stays impartial while delving into the deep-seated frustrations of minorities. She tries not to sympathize with those who are suffering, rather delineating apathy throughout the work, as if reminding her readers of the harsh reality all people are struggling with.