Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden | Goodreads
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Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
by
Blaine Harden (Goodreads Author)
really liked it 4.00 · Rating details · 53,639 ratings · 5,120 reviews
A New York Times bestseller, the shocking story of one of the few people born in a North Korean political prison to have escaped and survived.
North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Very few born and raised in these camps have escaped. But Shin Donghyuk did.
In Escape from Camp 14, acclaimed journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk and through the lens of Shin's life unlocks the secrets of the world's most repressive totalitarian state. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence-he saw his mother as a competitor for food, guards raised him to be a snitch, and he witnessed the execution of his own family. Through Harden's harrowing narrative of Shin's life and remarkable escape, he offers an unequaled inside account of one of the world's darkest nations and a riveting tale of endurance, courage, and survival. (less)
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Hardcover, 205 pages
Published March 29th 2012 by Viking (first published 2012)
Original Title
Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
ISBN
0670023329 (ISBN13: 9780670023325)
Edition Language
English
Characters
George W. Bush, Kim Jong-il, Kim Il-sung, Shin Donghyuk, Kim Jong-un...more
setting
North Korea (Korea, Democratic People's Republic of)
Literary Awards
Dayton Literary Peace Prize Nominee for Nonfiction (2013), Lincoln Award Nominee (2015), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for History & Biography (2012), Green Mountain Book Award Nominee (2015)
Other Editions (76)
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I can understand why China and South Korea have done nothing to put an end to these camps, but why have the United Nations and the United States done so little?
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5 Years Ago
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Charlie Bomberg Nobody know how North Korea works. Nobody outside NK really knows how the internal political structure of Pyongyang works, and those inside NK who know won't ever, ever tell.
So, what should the UN or the USA do? Nuke the country and kill thousands, if not millions of innocent people? The people who, their entire life, have heard that the USA is their greatest, darkest enemy, and now suddenly they come and nuke their great leader? Probably a bad idea.
Should someone try to infiltrate the country? How? NK knows exactly who gets into the country, for how long they are staying and are generally monitoring their every move.
Start a war? Great idea! Look what happened in Iraq or Afghanistan. Those sure a civilized, rich countries without problems now.
Don't get me wrong. I don't support the system in North Korea a single bit and I'd wish there was something we could do, but it's pretty hard just going into a country and, you know, do something because WE think it's wrong. Luckily we are over the times where you could just wander into another country and declare a war, because that hasn't really gotten us anywhere. I don't think anyone has done anything because it would require a huge sacrifice of innocent people.
Also: I don't think anyone will do anything before NK decides to actually attack "the West", which they probably won't do anytime soon because they know the consequences. Yes, they do have nuclear weapons in NK, but they probably would never use them. They can "only" reach countries like China (their only ally so probably a bad idea), South Korea, Japan and Guam; the last three of which would then receive help from the UN and the USA who North Korea knows they can't stop. NK teaches its people to believe they are the superior power in this world, but I'm pretty sure Kim Jong Un and his people know they can't win a war agains, well, anybody.
Also, notable: I'm not sure the world is ready for the huge flow of NK immigrants if the state of NK was suddenly demolished. If you've read Camp 14 or seen any interviews with people escaping NK you will know that integration is immensely hard for them. They haven't learn to think for themselves and suddenly allowing yourself to think is harder than one can believe. And I'm not sure any country is ready to take on the responsibility that comes with that.
Correct me if I'm wrong; this is only my assumptions.(less)
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I read this book but I'm still a little confused about what's true and what's not. I understand that there was some sort of scandal because Shin was not entirely truthful about his story at first. But is everything in this book true? I'd ahte to think I read something that's not.
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4 Years Ago
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Bon Tom And wouldn't you hate it even more if the book was (and it is) true? Well, if somebody told me this book is as true as Harry Potter, that would really make my day. But what I really hate to think is I have read something that's sheds painful and true light at the world we live in. So rest without worries, my friend, you've read testament of truth that might only be false in minor, unimportant details. Everything of substance is out there.(less)
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May 23, 2012Clif Hostetler rated it liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: current-events
Ever wonder why the world didn't do more to end the horrors of Stalin's gulags or Hitler's work camps? Someday our children (or perhaps grandchildren or great-grandchildren) will ask the same question about our world today. Why doesn't the world do more to end the horrible inhumanity imposed on people in the work camps of North Korea? And the political prison camps in North Korea have existed twice as long as Stalins Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps, and there's no end in site of the between 150,000 and 200,000 people who live in those camps.
“Yet while Auschwitz existed for only three years, Camp 14 is a fifty-year-old Skinner box, an ongoing longitudinal experiment in repression and mind control in which guards breed prisoners whom they control, isolate, and pit against one another from birth.”The existence of these camps can be verified by anyone with a computer and internet using Google Earth, and still there's limited awareness among the world's public of conditions in these camps. North Korea's belligerant reputation combined with nuclear weapons has prevented international pressure to be focused on their work camps.
“When North Korea deigns to enter into international diplomacy, it has always succeeded in shoving human rights off any negotiating table. Crisis management, usually focused on nuclear weapons and missiles, has dominated American dealings with the North.”It takes a pretty strong stomach to read this book. I could write a long list of horrible things described by this book, but I've decided to refrain from going there. You can read other reviews for that. The story is not a pretty one, and frankly leaves readers such as myself feeling helpless with the knowledge conveyed. I suggest that at the least, good citizens of the world owe it to the prisoners of North Korea to at least be informed about the existance of their conditions.
Here's a link to my review of "Orphan Master's Son," a novel about life in North Korea.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... (less)
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Dec 25, 2012Petra-X rated it really liked it
Shelves: biography-true-story, popculture-anthropology, 2013-reviews, reviewed, korea
Ostensibly getting rid of families, rather than individuals, considered undesirable by the regime, in actuality slave labour for the State.
A mixture of 1984, Animal Farm and the Nazi Dachau concentration camp. It is the story of North Korea and worse in every single respect than every dystopian novel you've ever read. Here, one is born, lives one's whole life and dies in a vast camp where fear rules through hunger and brutality. One man, only one, escaped and this is his story.
Not an easy book to read, but rewarding. Even if everything in this book has been exaggerated, it would still be the worst nightmare of how people actually live on planet Earth in the 21st or any other century.
4 1/2 stars.
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Apr 06, 2016Cecily rated it liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: biog-and-autobiog, family-parenting, china-japan-asia, unreliable-narrators, solitary-protagonist, bildungsroman, politics
Picture from documentary Camp 14
Imagine the Unimaginable
Imagine growing up with no comprehension, let alone experience of love or friendship, where every day you struggle for scraps of food, rest, and warmth, striving to avoiding abuse, imprisonment, and maybe execution.
Where you view your own mother as “competition for survival”, rather than a source of love, security, and comfort.
Where “redemption through snitching” and hard work is essential for survival, and you are inured to the punishment and murder of others, because it’s commonplace and always deserved.
Where you are too broken, ignorant, and worthless for the authorities to bother brainwashing you with political propaganda.
I hope that is almost unimaginable for you, but that was the life of Shin Dong-hyuk, born and raised in a North Korean “complete control district” labour camp. Extreme deprivation and brutality were all he knew.
The Sins of the Forefathers
Shin's “crime”, in this godless place (not even The Dear Leader was known to him) was a version of original sin: that his blood was tainted by the alleged sins of an uncle. The camp had to cleanse three generations.
Escape? Why? To What?
For prisoners with no knowledge of anything beyond the camp walls, the desire, let alone the possibility of escape, rarely arises. It is literally unimaginable.
Those who do escape are likely to find themselves in either China or South Korea. And then what?
In China, they have to hide from the authorities, lest they’re sent back to NK. So much for hard-won freedom.
In SK, only the language is familiar, and even that has diverged significantly in recent decades.
How can North Koreans comprehend, let alone make a life in the fast-paced, neon-lit world of what is arguably the most competitive, consumerist, stressful society on the planet, when they’ve lived without electricity, furniture, and running water, never sat an exam, have no friends - and don’t even know how to make any?
Truth, and the Telling of it
This is a true story. Probably. Mostly.
There are many defectors from NK, some of whom escaped from prisons or labour camps, but Shin is thought to be the only person born in a camp to escape from that camp, which makes his experience more extreme.
This should be a really exciting, but agonising story. Unfortunately, I didn’t find it so. The writing was flat, with long chunks of geo-political history breaking up Shin’s story: ten (yes, ten) pages about NK’s global insurance fraud, three pages about the history of dams and so on. And because Shin was raised amoral and psychologically damaged, and his lack of trust make him reluctant to accept advice, he wasn’t always as sympathetic a character as his suffering should merit.
More fundamentally, the book’s power was diluted by extraordinary luck at crucial moments, made less credible by inconsistencies in the story. Furthermore, Shin changed other aspects of his story during the writing of the book, and again after it was published. Some of the reasons are understandable (if you’d betrayed your mother, leading to her death, you would discover that was shocking to people outside, and ultimately find it a guilty burden). But as a reader, I was left unsure of the truth.
The book ends with half a dozen “Sketches from Shin’s life in Camp 14”, though whether they’re drawn by Shin or from his descriptions is unclear.
The Big Picture
Harry Harlow’s rhesus macaque experiments on maternal deprivation are rightly considered unethical today. (See also John Bowlby on attachment theory.)
But far worse has been going on in NK, for twice as long as the Soviet Gulags, with hundreds of thousands of human victims. And it’s not a secret. NK may not have a campaigning figurehead like the Dalai Lama or Aung San Suu Kyi, but the world has known something of the number, scale, and brutality of these camps for many years, from escapees’ accounts and satellite imagery. International pressure is half-hearted at best.
SK provides money and practical support to defectors for a limited time, including three months in the Orwellian-sounding “House of Unity”. But the culture shock is so extreme, and the rest of SK society so at odds with these newcomers (and often resentful), that it’s woefully inadequate. Paranoia is the norm in defectors, and a real barrier to assimilation. Unemployment, depression, and suicide are shockingly high in refugees from NK.
I don’t know what the answer is. Nor do Shin or Harden. How do you force a nuclear power to do anything? Should aid to starving people be conditional on improved human rights? Perhaps that impasse is the greatest tragedy, the greatest failing.
As for Shin, he has struggled to adapt to life outside, but he is now a campaigner who has “harnessed his self-loathing and used it to indict the state that had poisoned his heart and killed his family”. That’s within sight of a happy ending.
The Ten Laws of Camp 14
1. Do not try to escape.
2. No more than two prisoners can meet together.
3. Do not steal.
4. Guards must be obeyed unconditionally.
5. Anyone who see a fugitive or suspicious figure must promptly report him.
6. Prisoners must watch each other and report any suspicious behaviour immediately.
7. Prisoners must more than fulfil the work assigned to them each day.
8. Beyond the workplace, there must be no intermingling between the sexes for personal reasons.
9. Prisoners must genuinely repent of their errors.
10. Prisoners who violate the laws and regulations of the camp will be shot immediately.
The devil really is in the chilling details, not included above.
Overall, 2* writing, but 3* for its importance.
It's real life contemporary dystopia: I think that's part of the fascination of books like this. Maybe there's a similarity with children loving dinosaurs: the thrill of them being real monsters, but we're out of reach. With dinosaurs, time keeps us safe, and with NK, it's geography.
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Mar 29, 2012Diane rated it it was amazing
Shelves: nonfiction, north-korea, prison, survival
When I hear the term "labor camps," I think of the Nazis. The Holocaust. Concentration camps -- something that happened decades ago and surely -- surely -- doesn't still exist. Right?
Wrong. Even though North Korea publicly insists that prison and work camps don't exist, evidence has been seen on satellite photos and on Google Earth. Additionally, numerous North Koreans who have witnessed the camps have defected and have testified to the hellish conditions there.
Shin was unlucky enough to be born in Camp 14. His father was a political prisoner because his brothers defected to South Korea in the 1950s. According to state law, if a family member tries to escape or defect, everyone else in that family will be punished, even if they knew nothing about it.
Because he was raised in the prison camp, Shin knew nothing of the outside world. He did not even know that China existed, because camp children were only taught basic reading and math -- nothing else of the world. Shin went through his childhood constantly hungry because there was never much food, and he was always prepared to snitch on another prisoner, usually in a ploy to get extra food or to spare a beating.
It wasn't until Shin was a teenager that he heard another prisoner talking about how good the food was out in the real world. After hearing the man's stories, Shin began to imagine what it would be like to escape the camp. After several weeks of planning, Shin was able to escape through the electrified prison fence and eventually found his way to China. After that, a journalist helped him get to South Korea, where he went through rehabilitation and counseling, and finally he moved to the United States.
Shin's story is an amazing one, but I also appreciated this book for its insights into North Korea and how the state uses propaganda, fear, beatings and a caste system to try and control its citizens. I would recommend this book to everyone.
My rating: 4.5 stars rounded up to 5
Update January 2015
I read an article in The New York Times in which Shin has recanted parts of his story. It is not clear yet which parts are not true, but it sounds like he didn't spend all of his life in Camp 14, but at some point was transferred to a different labor camp that wasn't as restrictive as 14. I am of two minds on this issue. First, I am disappointed whenever I hear such a retraction. These losses of credibility hurt everyone. Second, I wonder how much it actually matters. So many people have complained about the labor camps in North Korea, and Shin was one of those voices. The fact that the timeline or certain details were manipulated doesn't change the horrible conditions for political prisoners there. It is unfortunate that the title of the book is Escape from Camp 14, but I hope this development doesn't damage human rights efforts in that country. (less)
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Sep 08, 2012Adrienne rated it liked it
Shelves: informational
I think Shin's story is an important one, but the way that it's presented makes it a little tough to really connect with. Shin, born and raised in a North Korean labor camp, was the first person actually born in a camp to escape. Having had no prior knowledge of the outside world, he was raised, in his own words, as an animal, taught to rat out others, to feel little more than fear, with no affection for anyone. He does some pretty horrible things as a result and while I can logically understand why he would act like he does--since that's all he's been taught--it's still hard to process emotionally. The same with once he has escaped--he doesn't really take any initiative or responsibility in his own life, doesn't want to listen to anyone who is willing to help him, etc.--which again, makes sense, given what he has lived through but it makes it hard to go beyond an intellectual concern to an emotional concern. The author, in his acknowledgements, calls Shin an "amazing person", and I think I can agree with that mentally, but my heart isn't as touched as I thought it would be. That could perhaps be due to the style of the book; there are a lot of times when the author interjects information from other sources, I think to provide evidence of the veracity of Shin's story, but the fact that he keeps constantly trying to prove it and takes us away from Shin creates a distance that can be a little jolting. Or, I could just be too hard-hearted and other people are completely touched by it. I think I'm touched by Shin's story, but not so much the presentation. And as an American who can't even imagine what it would be like be born and raised in an environment of such hatred and fear, I am probably biased in ways that I don't even understand. Anyway, like I said at the beginning, I do think it's an important story--the world needs to know about North Korean labor camps and how they affect people. (less)
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Jun 11, 2019Ahmad Sharabiani added it · review of another edition
Shelves: historical, biography, non-fiction, literature, united-states, korean, 21th-century, memoir
Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West, Blaine Harden
Shin Dong-hyuk (born Shin In Geun, 19 November 1982 or 1980) is a North Korean-born human rights activist. He is reputed to be the only known prisoner to have successfully escaped from a "total-control zone" grade internment camp in North Korea. He was the subject of a biography, Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey From North Korea to Freedom in the West, by former Washington Post journalist Blaine Harden. Shin has given talks to audiences around the world about his life in Camp 14 and about the totalitarian North Korean regime to raise awareness of the situation in North Korean internment and concentration camps and North Korea. Shin has been described as the world's "single strongest voice" on the atrocities inside North Korean camps by a member of the United Nations' first commission of inquiry into human rights abuses of North Korea. In January 2015, he recanted aspects of his story, but a majority of experts continued to support his credibility as a victim of North Korean human rights abuses.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز دوازدهم ماه ژانویه سال 2016 میلادی
عنوان: فرار از اردوگاه (چهارده) 14: داستان واقعی فرار اديسه وار مردی از كره ی شمالی به سوی آزادی؛ نویسنده: بلین هاردن؛ مترجم: مسعود یوسف حصیر چین؛ تهران، نشر چشمه، چاپ اول و دوم و سوم 1394؛ در 229 ص؛ شابک: 9786002293282؛ چاپ چهارم و پنجم 1395؛ چاپ هشتم و نهم 1396؛ چاپ دهم و یازدهم 1397؛ موضوع: کار اجباری و سرگذشت و زیستنامه شین دونگ هیوک از نویسندگان امریکایی - سده 21 م
عنوان: فرار از اردوگاه (چهارده) 14: فرار اديسه وار مردی از كره ی شمالی به سوی آزادی در غرب؛ نویسنده: بلین هاردن؛ مترجم: الهام افسری؛ تهران، آسو، 1398؛ در 272 ص؛ شابک: 9786008755944؛
ماجرای این کتاب، داستان واقعی شین دونگ هیوک است. مردی که در اردوگاه زندانیان سیاسی به دنیا میآید و زندگی در فضای وحشتناک و رعبآور اردوگاه، از او جاسوسی خطرناک و انسانی خالی از تمام عواطف و احساسات بشری میسازد؛ تا جایی که برای بدست آوردن غذا مادر خود را به پای چوبه ی دار میفرستد. شین که هیچ آگاهی و دانشی پیرامون جهان زیست خود ندارد، به تدریج در معاشرتهای به شدت محافظه کارانه با زندانیان پیرامون خود، که گاه از رده های بالای حکومتی بودند، و یا جهان بیرون را دیده بودند، آغاز به ادراک این مفهوم میکند، که دنیایی فراتر از قفس مخوف او وجود دارد. دنیایی به نام جهان آزاد، که در آن انسانها حق و حقوقی، و قدرت انتخاب دارند، و میتوانند هرقدر که خواستند غذا بخورند! همین موضوع انگیزه ای میشود برای او، تا یکی از بزرگترین، و غیرممکنترین فرارها را در تاریخ زندانهای سیاسی کره شمالی رقم بزند. نقل از متن: «آزادی در ذهن شین، کلمه ای مترادف با گوشت بریان بود. » پایان نقل. «بلین هاردن» نویسنده این کتاب که راوی داستان از زبان «شین دونگهیوگ» است. در پیش گفتار، نویسنده ماجرای فرار و چند خاطره را سریع بیان میکند و در مقدمه به صورت مختصر به توصیف اردوگاه کره شمالی، نحوه نگارش کتاب و یک سری از مسائل حقوق بشر میپردازد. ا. شربیانی (less)
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May 03, 2014Doug Bradshaw rated it it was amazing
I rate this book five stars not because it's beautiful literature or great story telling, but because it is a huge eye opener and important information. There are approximately 200,000 prisoners kept in camps or virtual prisons in North Korea. Many of the cellmates are the children and grandchildren of people who broke "the law" in Northern Korea. The theory is that it takes at least three generations of purging to get rid of the bad seed of law breakers. The description of the horrible control and treatment of these poor people rivals or even beats the Nazi exterminations and treatment and it has gone on for over 50 years. Women are regularly beaten, raped, humiliated, they live on watery cornmeal mush, rice a rare and incredible treat, they are rewarded for snitching, they don't live with their parents, they are forbidden to have sex, many die of malnutrition, and woman getting pregnant, even from guards, are put to death, etc. etc. etc.
The main character, Shin, having seen his mother and brother hang for planning an escape, spends many years suffering ridiculous torment and miserable conditions, is one of the only known escapees. He was lucky enough to find people there who opened his eyes to the outside world. He was always so hungry and miserable, that his whole goal in life, his main fantasy, was waling into a restaurant to eat some grilled meat. I guess he was tired of living on raw rat flesh.
In the meantime, Kim Jong-un and the elite crowd live in ridiculous wealth and virtually steal everything worthwhile and extort monies from countries, charitable organizations and others trying to be helpful.
It's a mess that no one seems to know how to handle, including their well off neighbors, the South Koreans. So, what should we do about it? No good answers. This book at least starts to open our eyes about the situation, not only in the camps, but in North Korea as a whole. I wish the Chinese, the South Koreans, the Japanese and the US would ban together and come up with a plan to liberate North Korea. But it's not going to happen, each government having different ideas about what life should be like. What a nightmare world. It's hard to believe and a cause I would love to somehow do something to help.
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Nov 04, 2016Melanie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
5 stars...not because it's a "classic" but because I learned so much about North Korea. I knew North Korea was a horrible place but I had no knowledge of the prison camps. The conditions are horrific. For example: A classmate of Shin's (the man who's story is being told) was beat to death by a teacher in front of the class for having a few kernels of corn in her possession. Shin's mother and brother were hung, while Shin watched on, for having an escape plan. Shin is the one who reported them to authorities for discussing the escape, because this is what the people are told to do. Shin's father was put in the camp because a family member of his escaped from North Korea to South Korea. Subsequently Shin and his brother were born in the camp and knew no other existence. Shin's escape is nothing short of miraculous. Since escape Shin struggles to exist in a free society.
On a side note: Dennis Rodman befriended Kim Jong-un? Is he an idiot or just ignorant? (less)
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May 14, 2012Mo Shah rated it liked it
Shelves: read-in-2012
I'm split on this book.
On one hand, the subject matter is utterly compelling. Little is heard in mainstream media about these detention camps that hundreds of thousands of prisoners live in for (literally) generations. Entire Families are doomed because of the real or imagined actions of one, and apparently treason must be wiped out over three generations. So children are born in these camps between assigned parents and never learn filial love or even learn any emotional state higher than the animal need for basic survival.
But the writing is somewhat frustrating.The facts are recited and researched well enough, but the way the story is told gets in the way of having more impact. Interspersed within the personal story of Shin the author throws in history and sidebar. Useful for context, I suppose, but it takes away from the powerful personal nature of the story. It's akin to reading the Diary of Anne Frank but having a narrator interrupt with voiceover explanation. And ultimately, it does a disservice to the obvious need for the world at large to become more personally outraged as to what's going on over there.
I suspect the author is right when he says that sometime in our future our children will be asking us why the rest of the world didn't do more to intervene with what was going on inside North Korea. I'm not entirely sure what I'd tell them.
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Apr 15, 2012Elizabeth B rated it it was ok
This was not at all what I was expecting. From the marketing material, I expected a story of survival from the North Korean camps that, until now, has been largely untold. Knowing a little about the atrocities of the camp, I expect to this to be an emotionally charged book but, unfortunately, I found it quite the opposite.
From the beginning we learn that Shin is an unreliable narrator. The author is quick to point this out and explain to us how Shin has changed his story repeatedly over the years. The book goes on to prove this by repeatedly telling us Shin's lies and then correcting them. However, by this time, you already have learned not to believe what you read and we have absolutely no reason to believe the "corrected" version is the truth and that Shin won't recount it later. It's pointed out how Shin's previous publication of his story was a dismal failure and perhaps, someone should've taken note on that: it wasn't lack of interest in his story it was an unwillingness to be continually lied to. The author is quick to defend Shin's actions, even using definable psychological terms to explain away Shin's untruths. Unfortunately, most readers (including myself) aren't going to care. Lie to me once, shame on you. Lie to me twice, shame on me.
Aside from being an unreliable narrator, Shin is just not likeable. Unlike so many other stories that have come from tragic world events, Shin has learned nothing from his captivity by the end of the book. He blames the rest of the world, takes advantage of those who offer him assistance, blames his financial failings on those around him rather than taking responsibility for himself. Once in America, he expects people to do for him constantly and, honestly, he just comes off as an ungrateful brat. I don't mean to demean what he has been through - I am certain he has had a horrific life that none of us can imagine. But millions have had tragedies and what makes a story marketable is not the event itself but what the person has taken away from it or what they can teach us from it. In Shin's case by the end of the book, he has learned only to lie continually and be ungrateful...which is not at all a marketable approach to his story.
A bigger problem was the writing style. The author is a journalist by trade so I expected the dry writing of a news article and, in that, I wasn't disappointed. That's exactly what I got. Even in the most dramatic of moments I was left feeling nothing because of the writing style. Before you think this is a story all about Shin, you should know this isn't the case. For each chapter, there is a brief paragraph or two (sometimes we are treated to a whole page!) of Shin's story and then the author spends 7-8 pages telling us facts and figures about something Shin mentioned. It disengages you and reads like a history text rather than an emotional memoir of Shin's journey. Shin's story is merely a catalyst to launch us into a history lesson - not the focal point of an chapter or the book itself as we are lead to believe.
The biggest problem of all, however, is the failure of the author to disclose his own agenda at the beginning. While we are told early on about Shin's untruths, we are not told until midway through the book that the author has a goal of his own with the publication of this novel: clearing up his name. Apparently, the author published a piece on Shin years ago and, it turns out, the information was false. Mistakes happen all the time in journalism and I appreciate that dedicated journalists want to set the record straight once they know they have printed something false. It's a testament to the author's honesty that he wants to correct the misinformation once he learned of it. However, this is not disclosed in the book until midway through. We, as readers, aren't told of the author's own agenda which makes the revelation feel like a complete betrayal of our confidence. This could have been easily fixed: had the author discussed it at the beginning, he would have put the reader on the same footing as himself. We would have felt empathy for him - he put his name on the line, his reputation on the line, and was taken advantage of by the unlikeable Shin. Unfortunately, that never happened. Instead, midway through we are thrown the curve that the author messed up and is now getting the "real" story out there.
So...let's recap. We have a narrator that lies repeatedly and now an author that has his own agenda to clear up the lies he unknowingly wrote years ago. Sound like a mess? Yeah, it is. And messy doesn't equate to good, legitimate reading. This book could have made an interesting newspaper article, I suppose, but as a book it's lacking, biased, and misrepresented. Check it out from the library if you must but don't waste your money on purchase as you may find yourself a regrettable enabler to this whole sordid tale.
ARC Galley Proof
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Jan 27, 2019Jo rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: inspirational, non-fiction
I've read a few books now, focusing on North Korea and about the atrocities to humans, and to their own people in fact, that are allowed to be carried out. I have to say, the North korean regime makes me feel an incredible repungence towards them, and what actually makes this worse in every sense, is that the world does not seem to care.
Everything we know about about North Korea is worse than we could possibly imagine. Sure, there's brainwashing, but this book explores the utter horror that Shin lived through, and really, is still suffering from the impact of it all today. Shin lived the majority of his life in camp 14, where he was abused, starved, and was forced to watch the executions of his mother and brother, their punishment for attempting to escape the camp. The harrowing treatment of people at the hands of these leaders of the camps, is almost unbelievable. I also cannot understand, how even outside of camp 14, people are still starving to death, because there is no food. The way money always comes first, before basic human rights is pretty much beyond me.
I have given four stars not due to the writing, but purely the content. I think this is a very important and powerful book. (less)
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Jan 24, 2013Melinda Worfolk rated it really liked it
Shelves: non-fiction, 2013, memoir
4.5 stars.
This is an incredibly gripping book. While I was reading it, I was so immersed in the story that it took a while to come back to the real world.
I am glad I read Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy before reading this, because I already knew how bad the situation is for ordinary citizens in North Korea, and it was all the more powerful to realize that there are people who live even worse lives in the country's prison camps.
This is the story of Shin Dong-hyuk, a young man born and raised in a North Korean prison camp. Through sheer luck, he managed to escape to South Korea and the US. Reading about his experiences as a child and a young adult, I felt as though I were reading a dystopian work of fiction--except these prison camps really do exist.
Blaine Harden's writing is spare and relatively unsentimental, which suits the subject matter. Although its tone is quite matter-of-fact, it is not unsympathetic, and the condemnation of North Korea's human rights abuses certainly comes across. Shin is a hard person to like--he was raised to be an informant on his family and friends, and he was responsible for some brutal violence. But in the context of the world he was raised in, it is completely understandable. I had to feel sorry for him as he slowly realized that the way he grew up was not normal, and he had to deal with the horrific things he had done.
My main criticism of the book is that it is not long enough. I would have liked to read more about Shin's experiences in the Hanawon (resettlement centres in South Korea where North Korean refugees learn to adjust to life in the outside world), for example. But this is a very minor gripe.
Overall, I'd recommend this to anyone interested in North Korea, who is not put off by graphic details and brutal descriptions. I would not say I enjoyed this, but I thought it was well worth reading. (less)
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Jun 05, 2012Jake Miller rated it really liked it
Shelves: favorites
“High School students in America debate why President Roosevelt didn't bomb the rail lines to Hitler's camps. Their children may ask, a generation from now, why the West stared at far clearer satellite images of Kim Jong Il's camps, and did nothing.”
No more brazen and poetic meaning could be found than reading this line from the book, once upon a time seems almost pertinent to this book. But once upon a time gives the semblance of fiction, and while this book eerily reminds one of a few George Orwell novels; this book my friends is not fiction.
This is the life and hardship of Shin Dong-hyuk, his meandering through camp 14 that he was born to, the camp he once called home. A home that left all forms of humanity in the rut and taught nothing but animalism "no pun intended :)" and like any totalitarian society its machination is bred and fulfilled through the manipulation of the future generation, by no choice or even differing awareness they learned to snitch, steal and to see your own parents as rivals for food.
Shin did all this without a care in the world, it was all he knew; this was home to him. In time he grew to resent his mother, this repugnance would soon lead to a chance encounter with an outsider who would open Shins mind to a world beyond the vile fence. A world filled with as shin said "cooked meat", he would no longer have to eat rats and insects to survive, no longer would he dig through feces to find kernels of corn to make it through the winter... no longer
and so the journey to escape was born in Shins mind. This book presents another interminable moment given to us on a platter that man can look back and ask such a simple and profound statement, why?
I was enamored with this book by Blain Harden and I still am, the moment I started reading it I couldn't stop; Shins journey is both inspiring and disturbing.
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May 21, 2013Michael Gerald rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
When North Korea ever pops up in the news, the items usually covered are about a buffoon-like dictator, the absurd show of brainwashing (real or staged) of many of its people, and the threat of it getting a nuclear bomb. But the truth is far more serious. Because the grim reality is North Korea is the world's biggest prison and the inmates are the majority of its people. It is a slave state. And the world bears a responsibility for not doing anything to liberate the oppressed North Koreans.
This ...more
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Aug 29, 2017Jason Koivu rated it really liked it
Shelves: non-fiction
The story of a man escaping a prison camp would pique my interest at any time, but add the detail that it's a North Korean camp and I'm definitely interested. After all, North Korea's been in the news lately. Perhaps you've noticed.
Shin Dong-hyuk was born into a prison labor camp. It's totalitarian rules and draconian punishment was life to him. He barely knew his father and viewed his mother as competition for food. He was raised to snitch out his fellow prisoners to the guards. This included family. Spying and reporting on others was the only way to receive kind treatment at the prison. Working hard and never screwing up merely kept one from being beaten.
Thousands have fled the destitute country, but few have escaped from one of these prisons and successfully navigated their way into China and then South Korea, an especially difficult undertaking for a young man who knew next to nothing about the world beyond his prison walls. This is what made me hesitant to read Blaine Harden's Escape from Camp 14. How could this seemingly impossible tale be true? Then I heard that Shin had lied about certain details regarding his story and I thought, oh boy, here we go...
However, Harden did a good job in allaying my fears. It turns out Shin's lies did not change the details of his escape or the horror stories of his confinement. No, his lies were for self-preservation. He lied out of shame for the deaths he had caused as a boy who knew nothing of compassion.
This is a truly remarkable story and a nicely constructed book. It is compact and sticks mostly to the prison camp aspect of the situation in North Korea. Some pertinent recent history and political information is relayed in order to frame Shin's story, but this is not the book you are looking for if you seek out a well-rounded and deeply detailed account of...well...how the hell North Korea got so fucked up. I did come away with a better understanding, however, and it made me want to find out more.
One last thing before I finish up. This is a tough read. It's brutal. "Heart-wrenching" ain't the half of it. To put it into perspective, these camps are akin to the Nazi concentration camps and the Soviet gulags, and they have been in operation since the 1950s. The prisoners within them are now mostly the children and grandchildren of those who fought for the South during the Korean War, because political prisoners of this nature are doomed to this life for three generations before the family is deemed to have paid the price of their transgressions. Only humans could create such a Hell. (less)
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Oct 10, 2013Ash Wednesday rated it really liked it
Recommends it for: aspiring dystopian writers
Recommended to Ash Wednesday by: Petra-X
Shelves: foreign-setting, young-adult, heartbreaking, disturbing-good, dystopian, review, non-fiction
4 STARS
”Tibetans have the Dalai Lama and Richard Gere, (the) Burmese have Aung San Suu Kyi, (the) Darfurians have Mia Farrow and George Clooney. North Koreans have no one like that.
Actually North Koreans have imgur, Dennis Rodman and Ken Jeong in Stevie Wonder glasses.
A couple of months back, Petra recommended this book to me after posting this link in Booklikes. I’m the least literate person I know when it comes to world politics but human depravity is always fascinating even within the ...more
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Apr 05, 2012LeeAnne rated it it was amazing
Shelves: non-fiction, survivor, fav-non-fic, memoirs-bios
Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
Background
Camp 14 is a North Korean labor camp (gulag) with a security level of “Total Control Zone”.
Camp 14 is as large as a city with 40,000 prisoners.
Camp 14 has the highest security level (Total Control Zone) which means whoever lives in this camp will never leave it alive. Inmates remain imprisoned until they die. There is no parole. There are no release dates. Most inmates will never make it to their ...more
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Aug 20, 2019Cody rated it liked it
Shelves: north-korea
“I escaped physically,' he said. 'I haven't escaped psychologically.”
“High School students in America debate why President Roosevelt didn't bomb the rail lines to Hitler's camps. Their children may ask, a generation from now, why the West stared at far clearer satellite images of Kim Jong Il's camps, and did nothing.”
What makes Escape from Camp 14 an exceptionally important story to tell is it gives voice to the atrocities of a North Korean prison camp through the eyes of Shin Dong-hyuk, the rare subject who managed to flee and survive to tell the tale. The Orwellian country of North Korea is such a bizarre curiosity to those who live outside it's rigid system. Shin, being born inside the camp, knows nothing of the outside world. He wasn't like most North Koreans who are forced to worship the Kim dynasty. The outside world didn't exist. He knew nothing of world, that it was round, or even the capital city of Pyongyang was only a short distance south of Camp 14. Shin only knew survival by any means necessary, even by ratting out his own family to the guards running the camp. He was beaten by other students and participated in the very same beatings, used to dish out on prisoners children deemed taunted by the actions of their elders and extended family. His remarkable circumstances barely kept him alive, and eventually his escape to the border with China, South Korea, and eventually the United States is at the same time heartfelt and heartbreaking, giving all he went through (even if his story has come under question).
Blaine Harden's biography of Shin is good, although it feels somewhat rushed and lacking in spots. Given the controversy over Shin's reported story here (what is true and what is fictional) has hampered his overall story and made him an unreliable narrator. It's nearly impossible to data mine what is true and what isn't given how closed of North Korea is. There are other books about subjects that survived the North Korean regime that offer better insight into the psychological, sociological, and economic aspects of living under such hardships, but for what it's worth, Camp 14 is an essential read in terms of further understanding the country, its human rights violations, and young men and women in North Korea like Shin. (less)
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Apr 22, 2012Anastasia Fitzgerald-Beaumont rated it liked it
A picture is worth a thousand words, even when that picture is an amateurish drawing. The drawing in question shows a fourteen-year-old boy, stripped naked and suspended above a charcoal fire. He is secured to the ceiling by a rope tied around his wrists and a chain around his ankles. As he writhed in agony away from the flames, he was secured in place by one of his tormentors by means of a steel hook through his abdomen.
The boy’s name is Shin Dong-hyuk. The time is 1996. The place is North Korea, a concentration camp, to be more exact. Shin was born there, the product of a casual liason orchestrated by the camp guard to provide more slave labour. His mother and brother were planning to escape. Debased and dehumanised, he informed the guards of their plans. No matter; he is being tortured to find out how much more he knew; he is being tortured for the pleasure of the torturers. Later, with all of the other inmates, he was forced to watch his mother hanged and his brother shot.
We know all of this because Shin is the only person ever to have escaped from a ‘no exit’ camp. His particular story is now the subject of Escape From Camp 14:One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea To Freedom In The West, written up on the basis of numerous interviews with the subject by Blaine Harden, a journalist who works for the Washington Post. It invites comparison with Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea, which I reviewed here last year. I’m going to hold off on this for a bit, though.
For over twenty years Shin knew nothing but hunger, cruelty, torture and callous brutality. This was a kwan-li, a camp for political prisoners from which death was the only mode of egress. When I say ‘political prisoners’ I should make it clear that we are not dealing with forms of ‘dissidence’ that any normal person might understand. This is not the world of Kafka; this is not the world of Orwell; they are far too sane to describe real life in North Korea
In 1972 Kim Ill Sung issued an edict, ordering that the sins of the fathers be visited upon the sons and the sons and the sons. In other words, three generations of the same family had to be punished to wipe out the “seed of class enemies.” Whole families, including tiny children, were sent to concentration camps for the most minor of offences. Crimes included not wiping the dust off the portrait of the ‘Great Leader’. Wrong doing, wrong thinking, wrong knowledge, wrong background; it all went in to the metaphysical stew.
The conditions Shin and the others had to face are almost beyond comprehension. The Nazis in their lexicon of death had a particularly sinister phrase – extermination through labour. The North Korean Nazis show commendable zeal in the same process. Inmates in the various camps work fifteen hour days. Inadequately fed, they die of starvation or simple exhaustion.
That is when they are not murdered by the guards. In Shin’s camp there were eight rules which, if infringed, resulted in immediate shooting. Any woman falling pregnant was ‘shot immediately’. This included those who were raped by the guards. I say rape, but there was no crime here; for the guards were at liberty to have sex with any woman they chose, just as they were not at liberty to resist. This is a world without love, without comfort of any kind. Hell could not be so cruel.
It’s a world where Shin saw his first execution at the age of four. The victim had his mouth stuffed with pebbles just in case he tried to say anything ‘unpatriotic’ prior to death. When he was six years old Shin saw a girl of the same age being beaten to death by a prison teacher for having a few grains of corn in her pocket. This is a world where people had so little food that they would pick through cow dung for corn.
Escape from Camp 14 is an important testimony and a harrowing read. Shin’s story is one that needs to be told. There are clearly many other such stories among the estimated 200,000 people who have disappeared into night and fog. If you enjoyed Nothing to Envy you will be moved by this account of blighted lives. I’m reluctant to say anything that might put people off reading. However, as a work of reportage I thought it far less assured than Demick. Stylistically it’s not that engaging. It’s repetitive and heavy-handed at points. Above all it is far too self-conscious, the story of Harden as much as Shin.
Still, it’s a timely reminder of the terrible injustices in the world. It’s also an indictment of hypocrisy, the hypocrisy of governments that seem alert to human rights in some places (mostly those with oil) and blind to them in others. It’s an indictment of those who repeatedly condemn the alleged human rights abuses of the Israelis and remain silent about North Korea. It’s an indictment of all those who see virtue in any ‘anti-imperialist’ cause no matter how wicked and perverse. It’s an indictment of stupidity in all of its manifold forms.
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Sep 27, 2019Connie G rated it really liked it
Shelves: biography, non-fiction, book-club, history, north-korea
"Escape from Camp 14" is a disturbing account of the life of Shin Dong-hyuk, a North Korean who was born in a political prison camp and knew nothing about the outside world. Every day brought hours of constant labor with the hope that he managed to find enough food to survive and avoided beatings by the guards. The children had no idea that love or morality existed, and were taught by the guards to snitch on everyone, including their families. People had been imprisoned for three generations for ...more
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Apr 12, 2017Ana rated it liked it
Shelves: about-murders, law-abiding-citizen, history, non-fiction, of-life-and-death, of-self, somehow-societal, economy, author-biographical
I'm not sure how one should rate a journalistic account of some of the worst attrocities happening at this very second in our world, but I'll give it three stars... a sort of neutral ground. The writing is definitely not groundbreaking - it is the story that matters. Shin was born and raised in Camp 14, one of the worst of the 18 that NK has. He, obviously, suffered from brainwashing, but it was not the kind of it where your head is filled with mush about the ideology of the ruling party, but rather the one that strips any sign of basic humanity from you. He was taught to spy and tell on the other childre, he watched his mother's death without blinking and he was tortured in horrible ways for supposedly knowing about her attempted escape. He did know about it - he was the one who told the guards she was going to escape. And now he lives with that. Sure, what you get from this book is information about how - pardon my french - fucked up NK is, but that's not the most interesting thing I got out of it. The most interesting thing was the long term psychological damage that Shin exhibits (probably) to this day: up to the point of being hurtful, vengeful and downright ignorant to the people and world around him. That, more than anything, shows how easy a person is locked out of their own brains by use of a metaphorical bludgeon, if for the first years of their formation they adhere to a repressive, torture-driven code. I hope, during my lifetime, I'll live to see Kim and his entire Politburo burn to ashes. I hope it won't get replaced by something worse... if that worse actually exists. (less)
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Dec 19, 2011Meg - A Bookish Affair rated it it was amazing
Shelves: politics-history, non-fiction, 2012
4.5. Oh man, this book is really, really good. North Korea is such a strange country. Some of the things that you hear about it sound like they'd have to be fiction. This country is still mostly a mystery to most outsiders. The government keeps a very tight rein on what information gets out about the country. This book tells the true (true being the operative word, as this story is so unbelievable) story of Shin, a young man, who has lived his entire life in Camp 14, one of the infamous work camps. So what did he do to be put in the work camp? Absolutely nothing except being related to his uncle who displeased the North Korean government and defected. The government has a belief that in order to restore order to society, the families of those they deem criminals must be punished as well in order to wipe away the "badness." It's a really crazy philosophy.
In his latter 20s, Shin was able to escape from Camp 14. He's one of the very, very few that was able to do so. He makes his way through China, South Korea, before finally landing in the United States where he works as part of a NGO to draw attention to the plight of the North Koreans. His story is truly fascinating.
The book does not just cover Shin's story. It also covers North Korea's history and present (both are equally as strange). It covers the issue between North Korea and South Korea (did you know that when polled, most South Koreans want unification but don't want it until after they die?). It covers the trouble that people have when they leave North Korea (freedom is not always that easy to deal with).
This is definitely a story of human triumph. You can go through a lot of bad things but still come out okay in the end. The book doesn't end on a necessarily happy note but it does end on a hopeful note. If you are looking for a book that talks about the North Korea issue from a human aspect, this is a great book.
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Apr 16, 2012Zöe Yu rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: korean
I am surprised to find this book at the last glance to the bookstore in Hong Kong International Airport. I know it is already in my To-Read section in Goodreads. This is the only book I finished reading within 12 hours while I’m sitting next to beautiful clouds.
Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy introduces us how ordinary North Koreans escaped from DPRK, but Blaine Harden’s Escape from Camp 14 tells us how a criminal who was born in Camp 14 completed the mission impossible.
The world hasn't settled the Racism problem yet, that by that time our planet will have only class left. If so, would the class-emphasized society turn into the way Kim Jong Eun and his forefathers once promised?
Shin was born in the Camp by criminal parents’ granted marriage. He was taught to be self-hatred and self-criticism. Any crimes took placed in Camp 14 seem ordinary to Shin; either the guard beats a teenager girl to death for stealing 5 corns or other trivia.
Uncle in the cell and Park changed Shin’s life. They told him about outside world, Hong Kong, China, Germany, the Soviet Union, and food. Searching for sufficient food is what Shin actually looking for at that time in the camp. Still, he has some expectations. It needs something or someone from outside to bring the idea for people who were born inside of any totalitarianism society, they hardly can realize themselves.
And South Koreans’ impassive attitude about their neighbor in the north is one significant point this book touched. People think about economy and personal lives. There is not even a margin in their minds to consider freedom or democracy for people who share the same ancestors with them.
It’s sad to think about why and how much it costs for the whole world to tolerate such a camp’s existence in a cold blood analytical way.
In 2012, there is still a country that doesn’t have electricity but they have electrified barbed wires.
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Dec 29, 2015Leah rated it it was amazing
I feel so awkward giving this a star rating that I almost didn't.
I just don't know how to accurately review someone's life. Sure, I've read some biographies and nonfiction, and last year around this time, I read The Complete Maus. And it pretty much broke my heart.
This story did the same. It was such an informative and necessary read. I would recommend it to anyone. Harden did a good job at showing the reader Shin's story, while also showing the atrocities that are continuing to go on in North Korea.
It wasn't entertaining, and I didn't find any joy in reading this story. But, it was thought provoking and a reminder to always keep my eyes and heart open, and to never close my mind to the pain and human sufferings that go on all of the world.
When I can, I need to do what I can to help always. (less)
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Aug 14, 2018Diabolica rated it really liked it
Shelves: no-fic
If this was not a biography, the rating would have been a little lower.
But it's not. And for the non-fiction book it is, it's a pretty good read. A short one.
Shin's story is an interesting one, and really sounds a lot like 1984 except written in the perspective of a child born into that society. But I don't want to comment on his life, but rather the style that this book was written in.
A chapter or so into the story, the author makes a reference to themselves. And for me that's big don't do it, at least until the end of the story. But that's just the raisins on this unlikeable written cupcake.
As riveting as Shin's story is, there were times where I was tempted to skim, or I wasn't as into the material as his life story allows. The way the story was written left me occasionally looking distractedly out the window.
Halfway through the story, my thought was, Well you have one of the most dystopian like biographical stories that I've ever heard, but even some of the worst dystopian ideas that I've read, had a much more interesting prose.
However, the novel wasn't super long, and was pretty concise, even offering the occasional political perspective and setting at the time. So I can't complain too much.
Either way, Shin's story is one of the most interesting I've read. But even after reading it, there's still not much I can do. While the writing style could have been better, ultimately the novel was pretty interesting. (less)
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Mar 30, 2012Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it
This was another book, that while fascinating because I didn't have much knowledge of North Korea, but horrific as well. The subject matter was at times hard to read, to think that so many people are actually living like this is heartbreaking. Even those considered higher up in the hierarchy are not well off in comparison to the rest of the world, but they do have access to rice and blankets. The only family in any way profiting is the Kim dynasty, they of course have beautiful houses and ...more
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Nov 14, 2015hillary rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: non-fiction, korea
First of all I feel an extreme and complete disgust towards the North Korean regime, but after having read this memoir I'm even more ashamed because the world doesn't care.
Money? Yes, it is involved once again, and it's put in the first place ahead of human rights.
Surely I will continue to read books about this topic. It's good to have information since normally everyone ignores what is still happening in the 2000s in North Korea.
Maybe the news should stop talking and blabbing about the same damn things that involve only the West part of the world, and talk more about the other half. (less)
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Jul 01, 2012Valarie rated it it was amazing
Shelves: biography-memoir, asia
This was an excellent example of how severe conditions and oppression can shape a person's character. Shin, the young man who escaped from a concentration camp in North Korea, was born into the prison and has had trouble adjusting to a free life. The biggest impact that this book had on me was in showing how a single person can alter a prisoner's thinking. In this case, Shin met an old man who showed him compassion in the camp, and this was the first kindness anyone had ever taken toward him. Seeing that people were not made to be evil, Shin starts to make his own choices about his behavior in the camp, which ultimately leads to his escape. Blaine Harden, the journalist who compiled this book from interviews with Shin and others, does a great job of weaving North Korean history and statistics into the narrative without ruining the pacing. Of course, since this is Shin's memoir, I had a problem with the fact that the survivor's name isn't even on the cover. His name, "WITH Blaine Harden" would have been more appropriate for the book, so it seems like Harden is trying to take all the credit for this groundbreaking memoir. (less)
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Jun 04, 2013Petra rated it it was amazing
Shelves: favorites
“High School students in America debate why President Roosevelt didn't bomb the rail lines to Hitler's camps. Their children may ask, a generation from now, why the West stared at far clearer satellite images of Kim Jong Il's camps, and did nothing.”
This is the story of Shin, a man born and raised in a North Korean labour camp, about the worst possible place on Earth.
They work all day, they hardly eat, they are encouraged to snitch on everyone around them, especially their families.They are brainwashed to think that they are worthless,and that they must repent through hard work (which really reminds me of the slogan the Nazis placed over the entrences of concentration camps: "Arbeit macht frei = work will set you free").
The horrors they have to endure is unimaganable, and some things in the book are really hard to read.
Shin manages to escape and tell his story, but you know what? These camps are not some super secret underground establishments, anyone with an internet connection can see them on google earth!!!! and isn't that the worst thing about the whole thing?
“There are six camps, according to South Korea’s intelligence agency and human rights groups. The biggest is thirty-one miles long and twenty-five miles wide, an area larger than the city of Los Angeles. Electrified barbed-wire fences—punctuated by guard towers and patrolled by armed men—encircle most of the camps.”
And for those who say: Why should I care about what happens in North Korea? I say : we are citizens of the world, what happens today in North Korea can happen tomorrow in your country,I am Syrian so believe me I know.
This book is a real eyeopener, everyone should read it.And maybe with enough awareness we can do something about it and not just stand by while one of the worst human tragidies takes place right under our noses.
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Apr 12, 2014Mara rated it liked it
Shelves: non-fiction, audiobooks, library-books, 2014-reads
Shin Dong-Hyuk grew up not knowing that there were other children in other places who were did not have to learn to catch and roast rats in order to keep from starving, or who were not subjected to endless hours of labor while watching for errant behavior of peers to be reported immediately in a sort of sacred duty of snitching. Such other children, however, were not born and raised completely isolated from the rest of society in the confines of Camp 14- an internment camp in the totalitarian state of North Korea reserved for those designated as "unredeemable," a status passed down through three generations to atone for the sin of defection from or speaking out against the North Korean government.
This is book gives us an unprecedented look into the North Korean "gulags." Likewise, it is the story of what happens to a child raised in an environment without hope- one in which a child could dutifully report the overheard escape plans of his mother and brother to an on-duty guard and be filled with anger toward his mother as he watched her be hanged as she, and everyone in the camp, were made constantly aware that, even after their death, the families of attempted escapees would be tortured (as happened with Shin). The image (below) is from thefilm adaptation of his story, Camp 14 Total Control Zone, done for the Human Rights Watch Film Festival.
Shin's ultimate escape (not a spoiler in my mind, as it's in the title) thrusts him into a world of irreconcilable contradictions, one to which he and the rare other escapees are often ill-equipped to adapt.
I came across two interesting collections of images- one a set of North Korean propaganda posters called "Poster Children of the Hermit Kingdom," and the latter a series of drawings done by a defectors from North Korean prisons, and thought their juxtaposition might be of interest.
While journalist/author, Blaine Harden, satisfactorily explores the disorienting and continuing culture shock that has resulted in some dissatisfaction among aid workers with a portion of North Korean refugees, I found myself wanting a bit more political and historical context than was within his intended scope (the book is a breezy 200 pages). I commend him for bringing to light (and to the masses) an ongoing crisis that it is all too easy to ignore. While I am certainly five stars worth of horrified, it wasn't the most compelling read for me- though certainly not a waste of time given its length.
Image notes:
[1] Source: Unseen Films
[2] Kim Jong Il comforts a distraught nation after his father's death on July 8, 1994. In the background is the 66-foot bronze statue of the Great Leader that was erected on Mansu Hill in Pyongyang in 1972. Dark skies in depictions of this period symbolize the growing threat from without.Source:Poster Children of the Hermit Kingdom
[3]A drawing portrays torture inside North Korean prisons. The caption reads "Pigeon position interrogation." (Kim Kwang-Il/United Nations) Source: North Korea's Horrors As Shown By One Defector's Drawings (less)
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