Ooh this is such an interesting take and I can see how you'd get there! I think Jake could be allegorically North Korean; to be honest I based his "country" as a not-real province in Korea that was cut off from the rest of the world. Where he's from is made up because I don't actually know enough about North Korea/ Korean history in general to have made that a specific choice. I'm actually basing a lot of this story off of what I know of Cuba finally opening it's borders and stories from my Cuban friends' families about what it was like adjusting / moving out of Cuba / having people come in etc.