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https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-north-korea-public-executions-20190610-story.html

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https://www.history.com/news/north-koreas-devastating-famine

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http://www.asiapress.org/rimjin-gang/2019/01/recommendations/homeless-disappear/

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https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2018/06/16/north-korean-defector-sungju-lee-school-trip-execution-sot-newday.cnn

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https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/09/world/kim-il-sung-dead-at-age-82-led-north-korea-5-decades-was-near-talks-with-south.html

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One day, a strange man comes to visit Sungju's grandparent's house, claiming he knows Sungju's dad. He hands Sungju a letter that was written by his father. The letter read that Sungju's father was living safely in China and wants Sungju to come back to him with the help of his friend. At first, Sungju doesn't believe it's really a letter from his father, but after inspecting the letter more closely, he realizes it really was written by his father. He agrees to go to China with this man to be reunited with his father. He says goodbye to his brothers in the gang, although he couldn't tell them the real reason he was leaving. To get into China, Sungju crosses the Duman River. After crossing the river, the duo go to a shed, where it is revealed the man that took Sungju on this journey was not actually his father's friend, but is instead a broker, someone who smuggles people across borders. At the shed, the man switches places with Sungju's father's real friend, who will take him the rest of the journey to his father. He takes Sungju to the airport so he can fly to his dad. However, after the plane lands, Sungju is unable to find his father and is instead dragged into a room by men at the airport who noticed his passport was fake. Inside the room, they question him about things such as where he came from and how did he get there. After spilling that he is from North Korea, the men reveal to Sungju that he is in South Korea, not China. The men then take him to the investigation center for people from North Korea. It is there where he is reunited with his father. Together, they live in South Korea.

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The gang goes back to Gyeong-seong to search for their families. Giving up hope, the gang is about to leave Gyeong-seong when Chang runs into his grandfather at the train station. His grandfather takes the gang back to his house where Chang is able to reunite with his grandmother. They gang stays at their house for a little bit before announcing that they will be moving back to Gyeong-seong to live at the train station. Chang, who's name changed back to Sungju, is heartbroken, but he agrees as he also wants to get to know his grandparents better.

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The gang decides to steal from a government potato farm. However, while they are stealing the potatos, Young-bum is captured by a guard. The gang, after hearing Chulho whistle the their sound for danger, immediately start booking it out of the farm. However, Chang notices Young-bum isn't with them, so starts looking around for him. A guard eventually spotted him and told him to leave before shoving a heavily beat up Young-bum into his arms. Young-bum quickly died from his injuries. This sparked a turning point in Chang's life. He becomes very angry and bitter.

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Chang and his gang take up a job offer in Hwaesong after a merchant proposes a deal to them. The deal stated that if they could steal pears from a farm called Iho, then they could keep half the stock they collect for themselves while the merchant will buy the other half for thirty won per kilogram. The gang agrees to go through with this idea, much to Chang's dismay. However, during their first operation to steal the pears, they mess up the plan and the boys get captured and brought to the guhoso (a detention center for kotjebi). Inside the guhoso, conditions are awful. The floor was covered with dirt and bugs and many of the younger kids would go without food. One day, the guards pick of Young-bum to go to the market and steal alcohol and cigarettes for the guards. Chang, thinking he could use this as an escape route, volunteers his gang to help out with the stealing. However, the guards already knew how the gang operated, so they would send half the gang to the market while the other half stayed behind. Eventually, the gang came up with a plan to successfully escape the guhoso. Using this plan, they are able to break out of the prison.
Quote: "In the day, I could see that the little ones were so malnourished that their skin hung from their bodies like oversize T-shirts, but their stomachs shot out in front of them like they were pregnant women." (226)

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The gang goes back to the Pohwan market where they run into a gang full of older men. The leader of the gang, a man who they call Big Brother, offered to help the gang grow stronger in their skills. The gang agrees to join forces because they know they wouldn't be able to survive with the ruthless gangs that were now invading the markets in North Korea. After joining forces, Chang and his gang build up their skills and learn to use new weapons, such as metal chopsticks. By 1999, the gang had reached their full potential. Although still young, they were no longer just scrawny, struggling boys. One day, when Big Brother and his gang randomly disappeared, Chang and his gang decide to go to the Eodaejin market. With the new skills they learned from Big Brother, their reputation skyrocketed and they easily become on of the most successful gangs in their area.
Quote: "By winter solstice 1999, my brothers and I were strong, just as strong as the men." (207)

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The gang eventually moved onto the city of Rajin-Seonbong, where they experience their first major gang fight which involved the entire gang. They end up winning, however, they experience their first major encounter with death. During the battle, Myenongchul is badly injured, and later dies in the night due to his injuries. The gang, deeply saddened by the loss of their brother, leave Rajin-Seonbong.
Quote: "He had died sometime in the night." (193)

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The gang travels to the city of Pohwang. While exploring the markets in the town, they run until another kotjebi gang, although this time Sungju is prepared to fight. He ends up winning the fight, and the losing gang, not wanting to leave town, agrees to work under their gang. During this time, Sangju changes his name to Chang so if members in his gang ever were to get captured they wouldn't reveal his secrets.
Quote: "'We cannot leave here,' he said, in between catching his breath. 'We will stay and work for you.'" (173)

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The gang decides to leave Gyeong-seong after it started getting too hard to steal food due to the amount of new kotjebi that had come into the town. Together, they boarded a coal train headed to the outskirts of Cheongjin. Once the arrive in Cheongjin, they explore in Ranam, one of the town's markets. While exploring, they run into another gang who tell them to leave as there was no room for them in the market. They present that gang with an option: Either leave, or have the leaders of both gangs fight to see who wins the territory. Being chosen to be the leader of the gang. Sungju chooses to fight the gang leader instead of leaving. However, Sungju loses the fight and has to leave the territory. This was the gang's first fight.

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Young-bum and Sungju suspect someone in the gang is a thief after they realize the gang was bringing home less profits than usual. At first, they suspect it's Chulho, since he was constantly disappearing, but after falling him around for a couple days, Sungju confirms Chulho is not the thief. After following Unsik for a couple days, Sungju finds out Unsik is the thief. He decides to confront Unsik about the stealing. Unsik confesses and Sungju punches him, angry that he had broken the pact. Young-bum stops him from continuing the fight, reminding Sungju that they all agreed they wouldn't fight each other. This experience brings the gang together.
Quote: "'We made a pact,' Young-bum continued. 'We would never fight against each other, no matter what.'"

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Chulho officially joins the gang. The gang finalizes their rules and creates a pact, signaling their loyalty and brotherhood to each other. The pact states that as brothers, they must protect and trust each other and share everything, such as food and money. To obtain this food and money, they will steal from markets and other people in the town. With the pact, they also agree to never fight or abandon each other and to always take care of each other if one person is down.

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One day, when Sungju visits his old house, he notices a bunch of new items in the house. He becomes excited, thinking his parents came back. However, after entering the house, he runs into an unfamiliar family in his home. He then finds out a family moved into his house because a binjibpali, a person who finds empty houses and sells them, sold his house. The family kicks him out of his house. He and the rest of the gang move in Young-bum's house after his grandmother passed away.

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Young-bum and Sungju have the idea to create their own kotjebi gang. They recruit four new members for their gang at the train station: Sangchul, a street performer who sings for money, Myeongchul, a street performer who acts money, Min-gook, a very muscular and athletic boy, and Unsik.

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After being kicked out of his only source for survival., the market, Sungju goes back to Young-bum's house for help. Young-bum agrees to let him live with him as long as they can work together to steal from the market like other kotjebi (boys who live on the streets) so he can provide for his grandmother as well as themselves.
Quote: "Together we can make a and care for each other and your grandmother." (103)

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One day, Sungju wakes up and notices that his body has become completely swollen. His in parent's absence, he had only been eating salt and drinking water. The salt made his body retain water, which caused his body to puff up and his eyelids to swell shut. He turns to Young-bum for help. Young-bum lets him in and houses him for a couple days while he nursed Sungju back to health. While staying at his house, Young-bum reveals his story and tells Sungju about his grandma and how he has to steal items to sell so he can afford her medicine. Unfortunately, because Young-bum has to take care of his grandmother, he can't take care of Sungju, which means he is forced to live on the streets to survive.
Quote: "I realized with a jolt that the salt I had eaten for a week had made me retain so much water that I had become a beached whale." (83)

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Lee, Sungju, and Susan McClelland. Every Falling Star: the True Story of How I Survived and Escaped North Korea. Amulet Books, 2016.

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Sungju is finally awakened to the fact that life in North Korea isn't as perfect as he once thought it was. Sungju's parents finally open up about North Korea's dark truth. Sungju's mom reveals the truth about the famine in the town and that they only reason they still have food is because Sungju's dad is buying food with the won he saved from his time in the military. She also reveals that family didn't just move to Gyeong-seong, but they were forced to move their because of his father's actions. Together, the family comes up with a plan to beat out of the hunger: Both parents will only work two days a week so they can pick and hunt for food on the other days. Also, Sungju will quit school so he can help them collect food.
Quote: "One the days we don't work, your mother and I are going to the forests to pick and hunt for food, like small animals and herbs, fungus and wild vegetables." (60).

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In March 1998, Sungju's father announced that he was going to China for a week. His plan was to sell enough things to earn won so he could start a business trading good back and forth from China and North Korea. Then, Sungju's mother tells Sungju that she will be visiting her sister, Nampo, in Wonsan for a couple days. She told Sungju that she was visiting to get food, as Nampo's husband was in the navy, so they would still have food the family so desperately needed. Of course, Sungju protests this idea and refuses to let his mother leave without him. However, when he falls asleep that night, she leaves without him. She left behind a note saying she would be back in seven days. However, sadly, neither parent returned, even when their seven days was up.

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When Sungju Lee's family is thrown out of Pyongyang for reasons unknown to Sungju, they are forced to move to a city called Gyeong-seong. However, life in Gyeong-seong was so much different than the family's life in Pyongyang. Not only did people not dress as nice, but Sungju noted people looked sicker and sadder. They family stayed in a house that had no electricity and was much smaller than their old house. This was a huge adjustment for Sungju.
Quote: "Lines of people stretched out before me, but people unlike any I'd seen in Pyongyang. Their skin sagged, their eyes were sinking into their faces, and their complexions were bluish, almost gray, like the clouds that rolled off the East Sea in February." (24)

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One his first day of school, Sungju is immediately appointed student council president based on the fact he used to live in Pyongyang, which was considered the wealthier and superior city in Joseon (North Korea). He meets Young-bum, a happy, peppy boy, and Chulho, a colder and sharper boy. They explain to him the differences between Gyeong-seong and Pyongyang, which shocks Sungju.

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Sungju witnesses his first execution when his school goes on a school-wide field-trip to an execution that was happening in the town that day. Sungju is frightened by this whole experience, but Young-bum, who stood beside him during the execution, forced him to keep his eyes open to watch the execution. Two people were executed that day: A man who was caught trying to cross the Duman River into China with stolen goods, and a woman who met up with a South Korean missionary in China to plan her escape to the South but was brought back to North Korea by Chinese police officers. Each prisoner was shot nine times so their body would collapse into a bowing position. Sungju was appalled at the thought of the government killing people over treason. In Pyongyang, when a person committed treason, they were sent to a labor or political prison camp, not executed. This was a major eye-opener to him.
Quote: "I stared at this so-called criminal, his head hanging on his chest, his body crumpling under his weight, pools of blood bubbling up under his clothes and spreading out at his feet like a tide creeping in."  (48)