The Orphan Master's Son

Jun Do is brought to an airbase, where he meets Doctor Song and a younger man, Comrade Buc. Because Jun Do needs a suit, one of the drivers undresses and hands Jun Do all his clothes. The men have to help him with the tie. Dr. Song examines the stitches from Jun Do’s shark bite, wondering if it is better to have “one of their doctors” remove the stitches or to do it themselves. Dr. Song comments on Jun Do’s tattoo, and in response Jun Do praises Commander Ga. This upsets Comrade Buc, who lives next door to Ga and Sun Moon.

Aboard the plane, Dr. Song introduces Jun Do to his driver, who they will address as “Minister” during the trip to confuse the Americans. Dr. Song explains that they are flying to America to discuss diplomatic issues, particularly the fact that Americans are boarding North Korean fishing vessels. It is Jun Do’s role to repeat his false story of heroism.

Dr. Song shows Jun Do a cooler of beef, which they will tell the Americans is tiger meat to test their moral standards. Dr. Song tells Jun Do that his story will be “the tougher meat to chew” (123). As they get closer to their destination, Dr. Song educates everyone on board about American culture, including treatment of the “American Negro,” sentimentality toward dogs, and football.

Comrade Buc’s role on the trip is to procure thousands of DVDs and other American products to take back to North Korea. He tells Jun Do that because of political rivalry between the Dear Leader and Commander Ga, Sun Moon no longer gets movie roles.

In Texas, the group is greeted by a Senator and his aides, Tommy and Wanda. Their visit involves stereotypically Texan things, such as trying on cowboy boots, visiting a ranch for fishing and target practice, and attending a barbeque at the Senator’s home, hosted by his wife. They exchange gifts: The Selected Works of Kim Jong Il and an iPod with country music. Alone with Wanda, Jun Do gives her the name of the Second Mate, to see if she can learn anything about him.

While Dr. Song and the Minister engage in talks with the Senator, Jun Do’s wounds are examined by the senator’s wife, who removes his infected stitches. Not knowing how else to explain his tattoo, Jun Do tells them that it is of his wife, Sun Moon, and repeats what Comrade Buc told him about her. The women are sympathetic, with the Senator’s wife offering to call and speak to Sun Moon. The women are concerned do about the tiger meat, and Jun Do tells them to throw it out and replace it with flank steak, saying that no one would know the difference.

The Senator’s wife shows Jun Do to his room and gives him a Bible. He explains that it is illegal in his country, and he cannot accept the gift. He looks through a phone book, amazed at how easy it is to find a person in America. Then he tears out a page from the phone book and makes a list of all the people he has kidnapped, titling it “Alive and Well in North Korea” (146). Before dinner, Wanda tells him that she was not able to find any information about the Second Mate. Jun Do gives her the list of kidnap victims.

At dinner, Jun Do asks about the American rowers, and learns that they met a bad end—their boat was found partly burned, with traces of one of the girl’s blood. Then Jun Do repeats the fake story of what happened to the Second Mate—how the American sailors threw him to the sharks and Jun Do himself was attacked by a shark. The Americans, particularly the Senator’s wife, refuse to believe it.

Later, Wanda tells Jun Do that she knows his true identity: he is Commander Ga, the husband of Sun Moon. She tells him it would be a difficult situation politically if he were to defect but suggests that it may be possible. He explains his idea of freedom based on his time in the tunnels—that a person feels alive in the moment he emerges from the tunnel, and therefore feels more alive in a place like North Korea than America. Before they part, Wanda gives him a satellite camera that will transmit photos to her cell phone.

In the morning, the Senator’s wife gives him a puppy to take home to his wife, although Jun Do explains that canines are not legal in Pyongyang. The Senator insists on driving alone with Jun Do to the airport. He tells Jun Do that he has figured out that the Minister is no one important, and that Jun Do himself is the important person. He is angry about the games the North Koreans have played, and tells him that no North Korean boats will be safe, and that the Dear Leader will not get his “toy” back.

On the plane, Jun Do repeats this conversation to Dr. Song, and learns that the “toy” is a radiation detector that the Dear Leader intended to use to locate uranium deposits, but was intercepted by the Americans. On their return to North Korea, Dr. Song, Jun Do and the Minister plan to tell the debriefers that the American president quashed their negotiations. However, when they see the vehicles waiting to meet the plane, Dr. Song panics and changes the story. Now they will say that the Americans never intended to negotiate and instead merely humiliated and embarrassed their guests. Comrade Buc disembarks with his cargo of DVDs and two motorcycles, and Jun Do gives him the puppy to pass on to Sun Moon.

In the airplane hangar, Dr. Song, the Minister and Jun Do are interrogated separately. Jun Do is asked to tell his story multiple times and to write it down. With each telling, Jun Do becomes more confused about what is true and what is a lie. Eventually, he is told that his story checks out, and he is allowed to leave with two medics in the back of a Russian “crow” cargo truck. They travel eastwards for hours and arrive at a squalid prison camp, where the medics drain blood from near-dead patients in the infirmary. A female photographer named Mongnan introduces herself as someone who takes photos of arrivals and departures. She takes photos of the patients as they are dying, and then takes Jun Do’s photo as well. She gives him some instructions about taking boots off a dying man and finding the barracks before it gets dark. It takes Jun Do a long time to understand that he is one of the arrivals—that he has been assigned to this camp.

The final words of the chapter—and of Book I—are: “from this point forward nothing further is known of the citizen named Pak Jun Do” (175).