A North Korean will instantly recognize that the young man called Pak Jun Do was raised in an orphanage; the name is a generic one given to the country's orphans, being the same as one of 114 Grand Martyrs of the Revolution.
Probably not coincidentally, and certainly not without good reason, Jun Do's name also bears close resemblance to "John Doe." To be an orphan with no family ties is as close to being a non-person as it gets.
More than John Doe, however, the protagonist of this brilliant work of fiction by Adam Johnson turns out to be the North Korean equivalent of Forrest Gump, since lots of things happen to Jun Do over the book's 464 pages. After military training as a member of the shock brigade whose task in the event of war would be to infiltrate the south via tunnels under the DMZ, he is assigned to a team of agents who cross the sea by submarine to abduct Japanese. Later while imprisoned at a labor camp, Jun Do somehow manages to kill North Korea's leading Taekwondo champion — quite an accomplishment for an emaciated inmate — after which he takes on the champion's name and identity, which no one dare question since Dear Leader has decided to go along with the farce. (And challenging Dear Leader's assertions does not bode well for one's continued existence.)