[Share] [Review Group Recruitment (until the 6th)] I'm a Rookie Employee Spy (Novel) / Alkongdalkong Ddungddang Family / Good Land (20 people)

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Source_ [Review Group Recruitment (until the 6th)] I’m a Rookie Employee Spy (Novel) / Alkongdalkong Ddungddang Family / Good Land (20 people) by Indiecat

I'm a Rookie Employee Spy

Author Alkongdalkong Ddungddang Family

Publisher Good Land

Pages 272

Publication date 2026.01.15

Korean Novel

『I’m a Rookie Employee Spy』 is a novel about an elite North Korean spy who goes undercover as a new employee at a South Korean public institution. The protagonist, ‘Seo Spy’, comes down with a mission to map out the South’s administrative network — but what he runs into is not a free and rational society, but a bossy, old-school workplace culture ruled by hierarchy and custom.

The setup — a character raised in the authoritarian society of North Korea being even more shocked by the authoritarian workplace culture of the South — is what creates this novel’s irony. The new-employee training camp that’s no different from a children’s talent show, the company dinners where drinking and toasts are forced on you, the top-down customs — these familiar scenes of Korean society call to mind North Korean culture like ‘Arirang performances’, building a black-comedy tension.

Written based on the author’s own experiences, this work captures the vivid reality that office workers of this era face. Behind the laughter-inducing story hides a sharp awareness of how easily individual dignity is damaged under the name of the organization.

Author Alkongdalkong Ddungddang Family

A hopeless person who had never even written anything but went ahead and recklessly wrote a novel anyway.

Growing up together with two children and hoping to record the family’s precious memories,

they run the YouTube channel ‘Alkongdalkong Ddungddang Family’.

Actually founded a labor union at a public institution, and got fired.

Table of Contents

Author’s Note

Chapter 1. Ryomyong Street

Chapter 2. Arirang Performance

Chapter 3. Omuljae

Chapter 4. Revolutionary City

Chapter 5. Nongtaegi

Chapter 6. Doen-geokjeong

Chapter 7. Ttejil

Chapter 8. Occupational Union

Chapter 9. Digging Out Bones

Chapter 10. Getting the Doen-bang

Chapter 11. Kkari

Chapter 12. Yeokjeon Igim

Chapter 13. Jikseunggi

Publisher’s Review

The Shocking K-Bossy Culture That Even a North Korean Spy Found Baffling

A Vivid Workplace Black Comedy Based on Real Experience

『I’m a Rookie Employee Spy』 starts by twisting the premise of “a North Korean spy’s infiltration of a South Korean workplace” in a completely different direction. In this novel, the core of the conflict is not North-South confrontation or espionage. Rather, the story places at its center the everyday violence inside South Korean society — specifically within the closed organization of a public institution — such as bossy culture, corrupt labor unions, workplace bullying, and unfair dismissal.

The protagonist, Seo Spy, is an elite North Korean hacker. He is a man tamed by the regime, but also a man who coolly recognizes the rules of that regime. The first emotion he feels after coming down to the South is bewilderment. An organizational culture where the boss’s mood is the rule is strangely similar to the North Korean system he left behind. The novel raises the question of why this landscape repeats itself in a society that professes freedom and democracy.

『I’m a Rookie Employee Spy』 also faithfully follows the aesthetics of black comedy, provoking laughter and discomfort at the same time. Excessive loyalty to superiors, bizarre company dinner culture, and the rice-bowl-style trash can antics draw laughter at first, but as the scenes repeat, the reader at some point begins to wonder, “Is this really something to laugh at?” At that point the novel expands beyond satire into a social question that every office worker of this era cannot help but relate to.

Based on the author’s real experience, this novel is also a record containing an insider’s view of Korean workplace culture. At the same time it works as a device that shines a light on the South through the mirror of the North, making the customs we have taken for granted feel unfamiliar. 『I’m a Rookie Employee Spy』 is a refreshing, cider-like story dedicated to every ‘office worker’ living in this society today — especially those hanging on inside a bossy organizational culture.

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I'm a Rookie Employee Spy

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