Shin Dong-huyk is the only person known to have escaped from a North Korean prison camp. He was born into a life of enslavement and torture inside Camp 14, where he was starved, beaten and forced to watch the executions of his mother and brother.
His body bears many scars — his finger was chopped off by guards who also stuck a hook through his stomach and suspended him over a fire.
Why don’t more people escape? “People don’t know about the outside world. There’s also the systematic brainwashing — ‘I’ve been born as a criminal, I have to live as a criminal until I die and that’s my fate’.”
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifes...orean-to-escape-from-prison-camp-7696913.html
His father, whose fate is unknown, became a prisoner for being the brother of two young men who fled south during the Korean war. What is known is that Kim Il Sung had his own interpretation of the power of three, stating that “enemies of class, whoever they are, their seed must be eliminated through three generations”.
Shin’s response to the outside world shows just how institutionalised he’d become. “The most shocking moment came the day after I escaped and saw North Korean society for the first time. I thought it was paradise! People were walking around without guards. This was the moment that changed my understanding of the world.” He couldn’t believe how the impoverished North Korean villagers lived; how they moved freely without being beaten.
North Korea goes about expanding its prison camps — satellite images show several have grown dramatically in recent years. It’s estimated that up to 200,000 people are held within them.
His body bears many scars — his finger was chopped off by guards who also stuck a hook through his stomach and suspended him over a fire.
Why don’t more people escape? “People don’t know about the outside world. There’s also the systematic brainwashing — ‘I’ve been born as a criminal, I have to live as a criminal until I die and that’s my fate’.”
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifes...orean-to-escape-from-prison-camp-7696913.html
His father, whose fate is unknown, became a prisoner for being the brother of two young men who fled south during the Korean war. What is known is that Kim Il Sung had his own interpretation of the power of three, stating that “enemies of class, whoever they are, their seed must be eliminated through three generations”.
Shin’s response to the outside world shows just how institutionalised he’d become. “The most shocking moment came the day after I escaped and saw North Korean society for the first time. I thought it was paradise! People were walking around without guards. This was the moment that changed my understanding of the world.” He couldn’t believe how the impoverished North Korean villagers lived; how they moved freely without being beaten.
North Korea goes about expanding its prison camps — satellite images show several have grown dramatically in recent years. It’s estimated that up to 200,000 people are held within them.
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