{"id":2242,"date":"2012-04-14T12:04:12","date_gmt":"2012-04-14T12:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/?p=2242"},"modified":"2012-04-14T12:04:46","modified_gmt":"2012-04-14T12:04:46","slug":"out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire-escape-from-camp-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/2012\/04\/14\/out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire-escape-from-camp-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Out of the frying pan, into the fire “Escape from Camp 14”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Korea Times featured this article about the North Korea escapee\u00a0Shin Dong-hyuk and his harrowing struggle for freedom with a focus on the recently published book Escape from Camp 14 which describes that experience. The book was written by the American journalist\u00a0Blaine Harden.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ironically, the cover photograph presents the author and the refugee standing in front of a\u00a0Louis Vuitton advertisement in downtown Seoul. Perhaps this photograph is supposed to suggest the world of prosperity that\u00a0Shin Dong-hyuk \u00a0has found in Korea. The tragic experiences of many North Koreans who try to adapt to South Korean life suggests that such an \u00a0encounter is rarely a happy one. More importantly, the grasping material culture embodied by such advertisement is its own form of hell, eating the souls of many alive with a rapacity that would delight the guards of a North Korean prison camp.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

US journalist uncovers horrors of world’s toughest prison camp<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Do Je-hae<\/p>\n

The international community has been concerned with the dire human rights conditions in North Korea.<\/p>\n

But the Communist state has been in adamant denial, as seen from an announcement from its state broadcaster. \u201cThere is no \u2018human rights issue\u2019 in this country, as everyone leads the most dignified and happy life,\u201d according to the North Korean Central News Agency on March 6, 2009.<\/p>\n

Former North Korean prisoner Shin Dong-hyuk\u2019s story is a convincing testament to the falsity of Pyongyang\u2019s position.<\/p>\n

During a forum in Washington D.C. this week, Shin spoke on his experience in a North Korean concentration camp and urged more international support for the political prisoners in his former homeland.<\/p>\n

But even before the forum, his story has been gaining press attention, following thepublication of the book \u201cEscape from Camp 14.\u201d The book will be released Sunday.<\/p>\n

The publication date coincides with the April 15 centennial of the birth of Kim Il-sung, the late North Korean leader.<\/p>\n

Former Washington Post correspondent Blaine Harden penned the book based on extensive interviews and meetings with Shin.<\/p>\n

Blaine contends that Shin\u2019s story is unlike any other from North Korea, in that he was born and raised in one of the prison camps in the North. So prison is the only world Shin knew, until he made his escape to South Korea at age 23.<\/p>\n

Shin\u2019s case is also unique in that he\u2019s the only North Korean prisoner known to have escaped what is called the \u201cspecial control zone,\u201d a special system within the prison camps where inmates are expected to spend their whole lives. He\u2019s the only one who managed to come out alive out of there and has been able to tell his story.<\/p>\n

Uncovering political implosions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shin had previously published a Korean-language memoir, but it failed to gain much press attention here.<\/p>\n

But Blaine\u2019s version of Shin\u2019s unique odyssey to the free world has gripped some international media, policymakers and human rights organizations.<\/p>\n

\u201cEscape from Camp 14\u201d is a BBC Radio 4 \u201cBook of the Week\u201d selection and Foreign Policy named it one of the 21 books that will matter in 2012.<\/p>\n

Behind the early success of the book is the utmost professionalism of the writing of a vivid, detailed and credible account of a North Korean prisoner.<\/p>\n

The author personally visited North Korea, talked to many officials and experts and sat down with Shin on many occasions over a span of two years to complete this book.<\/p>\n

For more than 30 years, the focus of Blaine\u2019 journalistic career has been political implosions in failed states. His career is a fine example of in-depth journalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitical implosion had become my specialty. For the Post and for the New York Times, I spent nearly three decades covering failed states in Africa, the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the breakup of Yugoslavia, and the slow-motion rot in Burma under the generals,\u201d Blaine wrote. \u201cFrom the outside looking in, North Korea seemed ripe \u2014 indeed overripe \u2014 for the kind of collapse I had witnessed elsewhere. In a part of the world where nearly everyone else was getting rich, its people were increasingly isolated, poor and hungry,\u201d Blaine wrote in the introduction.<\/p>\n

The author currently serves as a reporter for PBS Frontline and a contributor to The Economist.<\/p>\n

Privilege and privation<\/strong><\/p>\n

To make the plight of the likes of Shin more vivid for readers, Blaine makes an interesting comparison between Shin and Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and new leader of the Communist state.<\/p>\n

\u201cShin is roughly the same age as Kim Jong-un, the chubby third son of Kim Jong-il who took over as leader after his father\u2019s death in 2011,\u201d Blaine said.<\/p>\n

Of Kim, Blaine wrote: \u201cBecause of his parentage, he lives above the law. For him, everything is possible. In 2010, he was named a four-star general in the Korean People\u2019s Army despite a total lack of field experience in the military.\u201d<\/p>\n

But about Shin, Blaine says: \u201cBecause his blood was tainted by the perceived crimes of his father\u2019s brothers, he lived below the law. For him, nothing was possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old said he had been forced to witness the public execution of prisoners twice a year, while trapped in Camp No. 14, about 88 kilometers north of Pyongyang.<\/p>\n

His parents had met in prison. Shin has confessed his mother and brother were executed in Camp No. 14 because he tipped the authorities of their wrongdoings.<\/p>\n

As an inmate, Shin suffered horrendous conditions, including back-breaking labor, starvation and no education, for 23 years before jumping over electrified fences and escaping to China. He settled in South Korea in 2006.<\/p>\n

North Korean prison camps have been in operation for more than five decades and have existed twice as long as Stalin\u2019s Soviet gulags and 12 times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Twelve-to-fifteen-hour workdays are mandatory until prisoners die, usually of malnutrition-related illnesses before the age of 50.<\/p>\n

High-resolution satellite photographs, accessible on Google Earth to anyone with an Internet connection, show vast fenced compounds sprawling through the rugged mountains of North Korea, according to Blaine.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International has mentioned construction of new camp sites in 2011 and expressed concerns that the inmate populations may be increasing, perhaps to deter possible unrest due to a sudden power shift from Kim Jong-il to his young son.<\/p>\n

Through his book and a recent book tour, Harden has urged more interest from the international community to the issue of North Korea\u2019s human rights. Blaine has been on a five-city book tour in the U.S., which will conclude in Portland, Oregon, on April 16.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter Shin\u2019s plight was first made public through Blaine\u2019s story in The Washington Post, the paper ran an editorial saying that the brutality Shin endured was horrifying, but just as horrifying was the world\u2019s indifference to the existence of North Korealabor camps,\u201d Blaine wrote.<\/p>\n

Seoul estimates that there are between 150,000 and 200,000 people currently being held in prison camps in North Korea.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Link to article in the Korea Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Korea Times featured this article about the North Korea escapee\u00a0Shin Dong-hyuk and his harrowing struggle for freedom with a focus on the recently published book Escape from Camp 14 which describes that experience. The book was written by the American journalist\u00a0Blaine Harden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9296425,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[68971,4333,10990001],"tags":[802839,82337964,34830729],"class_list":["post-2242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-relations","category-north-korea","category-today-in-korea","tag-blaine-harden","tag-escape-from-camp-14","tag-north-korea-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9296425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/green-liberty.org\/circlesandsquares\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}