hankyoreh

which was given by her daughter Lee Sang-young to the Hankyoreh. (photo provided by Lee Sang-young)

By Choi Hyun-june, staff reporter

That evening, Jang Bo-hyun, went to bed much the same as she always had. But the next morning - Mar. 9, 2010 - she didn’t wake up. The 57-year-old had died of sudden heart failure.

Jang had run a shop and restaurant at the Mt. Keumgang tourism complex in North Korea until July 2008, when tours to the mountain were discontinued. After that, she complained how she felt frustrated and insecure about making a living. Twenty months after her business shut down, her life came to an end.

Jang’s journal - which the Hankyoreh acquired on Mar. 25 - depicts the mental anguish of an ordinary small business owner.

Over the course of 66 journal entries - running from Jan. 1 to Mar. 7, 2010 two days before she died - Jang wrote about Mt. Keumgang around 30 times. Hopes and expectations alternated with heartache and disappointment.

In her journal entry for Jan. 14, Jang wrote, “Why in the world did I end up doing work that is related to the government? It’s really strange. If it was up to me, I would quit in an instant. But since I’ve done this for nine years, I don’t have any other good options. It’s so frustrating.”

Jang had been doing business at Mt. Keumgang since 2002, running a tent bar, shop, and restaurant with her husband Lee Chang-hee, 62. They poured all of the money they had saved running a restaurant for construction workers into the business and took out a bank loan of 800 million won.

It would be hard to find anyone who loved Mt. Keumgang more than Jang. She felt proud to be one of the few people to have the opportunity to work in North Korea.

A picture of Jang Bo-hyun’s family

The business itself was incepted when the couple took a trip to Mt. Keumgang in 2001. Sensing that there weren’t enough places for visitors to relax, the couple contacted Hyundai-Asan, the company operating the tourism complex, with a business proposal.

The store and restaurant were popular with visitors, who were won over by the husband’s knack for cooking and the wife’s friendliness. But the good times did not last forever. Tragedy struck when tours to Mt. Keumgang were canceled following the death of a South Korean tourist in July 2008.

This took a big toll on Jang, both emotionally and financially. She wrote about the anguish she was feeling in a number of journal entries. “I haven’t been able to get to sleep lately even after working out” (Jan. 6). “It’s not that serious, but these days I just feel weighed down when I’m eating or sleeping” (Feb. 7). “Every day is a living hell” (Mar. 5). “I can’t even pay the bus fare. Why is life so difficult for me?” (Mar. 6).

On Feb. 8, 2010, authorities from North and South Korea sat down to discuss whether to reopen tours to Mt. Keumgang, Jang was hoping for positive results, but the talks fell through. “After getting back from exercising, I saw on the news that the negotiations broke down,” Jang wrote in her journal that day. “How long is this going to go on? I may not be educated, but I’ve always tried to live right. I guess I’ve reached my limit.”

At the time, South Korea had said that three conditions had to be satisfied before it would reopen tours to the complex, including a thorough investigation into what had happened to the woman who died. North Korea retorted that it had already disclosed the facts, promised to guarantee the physical safety of tourists and guaranteed that such an incident wouldn’t happen again.

“God, if you’re really out there, please hurry and open up the doors,” Jang prayed in her Mar. 2 entry. A few days later, and after 20 months of waiting for a resumption of tours to Mt. Keumgang, she passed away. Two weeks after Jang died, the Cheonan warship sank, bringing inter-Korean relations to a freeze. Four years have now passed.

Jang’s daughter Lee Sang-young, 33, who returned to South Korea from her studies in the US upon the news of her mother’s passing, gave the journal to the Hankyoreh. “It’s like Mom had some kind of revelation. She didn’t use to keep a diary, but she started writing in 2010,” the daughter said.

The once happy family suffered another loss with the sudden death of the Lee Gwang-mun, Jang’s son. Twenty-nine years old, Lee Gwang-mun died at his workplace in Nov. 2013.

Inspired by his father, who had been a cook, Gwang-mun had dreamed of becoming a first-class chef. But when the family ran into trouble, he took a job as a dispatch cook at LG Chem’s factory in Ochang. He was working there when he unexpectedly passed away.

“I wish I could run a business once more at Mt. Keumgang, just like my wife so earnestly desired,” said Lee Chang-hee, whose family has been reduced to two people with the loss of his wife and son. “President Park keeps talking about ‘jackpot unification,’ and I think it’s time that she reopened those tours.”

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]