This episode contains some mild swearing.

Welcome to The Guardian Long Reed,

showcasing the best long-form journalism covering culture, politics and new thinking.

For the text version of this and all our long reads go to the Guardian.com

forward slash long read. I repeatedly failed to win any awards. My doomed Korea as a North Korean novelist,

by Kim Juzong. Since its founding, North Korea has always had an elaborate bureaucracy for artistic

production. for artistic production, organized within the Korean Workers' Party's agitation and propaganda department.

This framework was set up in emulation of the Soviet system under Stalin.

Over time, this artistic bureaucracy has been increasingly adapted to promote the cult of personality surrounding the first leader Kim Il Song and his descendants.

Among the many cultural products designed to promote the regime, one of the most important is literature.

Aspiring writers in North Korea must register with the Korean Writers Union, KWU, and participate in annual

writing workshops.

The KWU has offices in every province in the country.

KWU editors evaluate each work on its ideological merits

before allowing its publication in one of the party's own literary journals.

There are particularly strict rules regarding how the leaders and the party may be depicted in literature.

A writer's life is highly competitive.

Literary success means becoming a professional revolutionary,

with lots of perks.

A three month creativity leave every year,

permission to travel freely around the country. three month creativity leave every year,

permission to travel freely around the country,

...