The Orphan Master's Son

As the son of an orphan master, Jun Do grows up in an orphanage, where the worst tasks and punishments are reserved for him, as proof that he is not receiving special treatment at the hands of his father. After the floods of “Juche 85,” the country is hit by famine. Jun Do and the remaining orphans are forced to join the army. Jun Do never sees his father again.

Eight years later, Officer So finds Jun Do patrolling the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in the disputed area between North and South Korea. Jun Do has been chosen for his ability to fight in the dark tunnels of the DMZ, and he now finds himself part of a small team sent across the sea to Japan, where they will be kidnapping civilians. When them is Gil, a translator, who teaches Jun Do a few Japanese phrases. Jun Do’s first victim is a man on a beach, whom he drags back to the fishing boat. Jun Do wonders what will happen to the man they kidnapped, and Officer So tells him to stop asking stupid questions.

One kidnapping mission goes horribly wrong when they attempt to snatch a woman off a pier and she falls into the water below, drowning before the boat can reach her. Jun Do finds her phone and sees a picture of her child.

Before their most important mission—to kidnap Rumina, an opera singer—Jun Do and Gil make their way through North Korea to Chongjin and stop at Long Tomorrows, the orphanage where Jun Do grew up. Jun Do explains that he was named after Martyr 76, Pak Jun Do, a man who hung himself to prove his pure bloodline to his comrades. Jun Do calls his namesake’s suicide the “ultimate loyalty test” (25). Back in Japan, Jun Do and Gill attend an opera and wait in a bar until dark, when they can kidnap Rumina from her bedroom. Gil is very comfortable in the bar, flirting with the bartender and patrons.

Later, they sneak into Rumina bedroom. During a violent struggle, Rumina wets herself. They zip her into a large bag, and Jun Do drags the bag to the beach. Along the way, Gil disappears. After stowing Rumina in the boat, Jun Do returns to the bar and finds Gil there. He puts a leash around Gil’s neck and leads him back to the boat. Gil protests that this is Jun Do’s chance to defect, too.

In the boat, Rumina gives Jun Do a penetrating stare. Jun Do thinks that she knows everything about him, including the decisions he made at the orphanage which ended up hurting some of the boys. “What choice did I have?” (38) Jun Do asks her, and in response, she kicks him in the mouth.

After years of kidnappings, Jun Do is assigned to a language school for a year, where he learns to transcribe English. He is then posted aboard the fishing vessel Junma, where he listens to radio transmissions from his hidden quarters. He overhears regular broadcasts by Chinese prisoners and the families of inmates. Occasionally he receives a “ghost broadcast” in English, Russian or Japanese, but is unable to trace the signal. He also follows the nightly broadcast of an American woman who is rowing around the world, taking the night shift while her partner sleeps. 

Each member of the crew is married, with a picture of his wife tattooed on his chest—a reminder of their commitment to family, who would suffer if the fisherman defected. Jun Do is the only man on board without a tattoo; he has no wife. The Captain and crew are initially cautious around him, since his presence means that foreign vessels could apprehend the Junma for espionage.

Jun Do forms a bond with the Second Mate, who is fascinated by the arrogance of the American rowers. If he rowed around the world, the Second Mate said, he wouldn’t be content to return to North Korea.

Once, when the ship’s hold is full of sharks, the Captain is given a new order—to find live shrimp, which are considered a delicacy in Pyongyang. With no other choice, the crew heads north. In a lagoon, they find hundreds of Nike shoes floating on top of the water and collect them in the fishing net, intending to keep some for themselves. After loading up with shrimp, the Junma is boarded by the crew of an American ship, which includes a South Korean officer named Pak. Suspicious of Jun Do because he has no tattoo, Pak orders him to empty the shrimp net. When Jun Do cannot competently complete the task, Pak claims they are spies and should be arrested. The Americans search the ship, then send rude broadcasts over the Junma’s radio and remove the portraits of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung. Pak warns the Americans that the missing portraits could send the fisherman “to their graves. They need to be detained and questioned, not condemned” (61). When the Americans leave, Lieutenant Jervis slips Jun Do his officer’s card.

When they are once again alone, the Captain chastises Jun Do for failing the test with the shrimp net. Knowing they will get in trouble for allowing the Americans to remove the portraits, the crew plans an alternate story to tell the authorities. Jun Do suggests that they tell them that the Second Mate pulled a knife on the Americans when they removed the portraits and fought them off heroically. The crew disposes of the Nikes and the life raft the Americans gave them before returning to shore. When their stories are verified, the members of the Junma's crew are hailed as heroes. Drunk, the Second Mate visits Jun Do in his room in the abandoned cannery, which was shut down when some of the peaches were contaminated with botulism. The Second Mate is considered a national hero for his false story of courage.

On their next trip to sea, the Junma is fitted with a large lifeboat and a hand grenade to protect the Second Mate, the resident hero. In order to avoid a repeat of the previous situation, the Captain decides to tattoo Jun Do’s chest. Since he is unmarried, the Captain chooses a picture of Sun Moon, the national actress, for Jun Do’s chest.

That night, Jun Do picks up a final transmission from the American rowers. The last thing he overhears is that their guidance system is broken, and they have fired a flare that bounced off the side of a ship without lights. The next day, he overhears the ghost transmission again, and discovers that it is coming from space. The broadcast becomes clearer as the antenna is aimed at a point of light streaking across the sky.

During the night, the Second Mate inflates the life raft and is in the process of abandoning the Junma when Jun Do finds him. He escapes. In the morning, the crew gathers to figure out how they will escape punishment a second time. Jun Do suggests that they tell the authorities that the Americans returned for the Second Mate and threw him to the sharks. The Captain says that for it to be convincing, one of them would need to bear shark bites as a sign of the struggle. This task falls to Jun Do, who proffers his arm.

Back on shore, it seems that the officials believe their story, but Jun Do is followed home by an old man who interrogates him and beats him badly to try and learn the truth. However, Jun Do sticks to his story. Finally, the old man tells him that the Second Mate was picked up in his life raft and implies that he has been killed. Nevertheless, Jun Do’s story is “certified” and Jun Do himself is now a hero.