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==See also==
==See also==
{{portal|biography|human rights|Korea}}
{{portal|biography|human rights|Korea}}
* [[Human rights in North Korea]]
* [[Human rights in North Koreaaa]]


==References==
==References==

Revision as of 20:49, 2 October 2013

For other people named Shin Dong-hyuk, see Shin Dong-hyuk (disambiguation).

Template:Korean name

Shin Dong-hyuk
Chosŏn'gŭl
신동혁
Hancha
Revised RomanizationSin Dong-hyeok
McCune–ReischauerSin Tonghyŏk

Shin Dong-hyuk (born 19 November 1982 as Shin In-geun)[1] is a North Korean defector living in South Korea.[1] He is the only person known to have successfully escaped from a "total-control zone" grade internment camp in North Korea and lived to tell about it.[1] He is also believed to be the only person to have been born in a North Korean prison camp to escape from North Korea.

He is 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, sometimes accompanied by Harden, has given talks to audiences around the world about his life in Kaechon internment camp (Kwalliso No. 14) and about the totalitarian North Korean regime to raise awareness of the situation in North Korean internment and concentration camps and North Korea.[2][3] 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.[4]

North Korea life

Shin Dong-hyuk was born in Kaechon internment camp ("Camp #14"), a slave labor camp where prisoners usually stay for life and die by age 45. He was born from an arranged marriage of two prisoners, who were allowed to sleep together for a few nights a year as a reward for good work.[5][6] Shin rarely saw his father, who lived elsewhere in the camp, and lived with his mother until he was 12.[5] According to Shin, he saw his mother as a competitor for their insufficient food rations,[6] and consequently had no bond of affection with his parents or brother.[7] The North Korean government officials and camp guards told him he was imprisoned because his parents had committed crimes against the state, and that he had to work hard and always obey the guards; otherwise he would be punished or executed.[8] Shin experienced considerable violence in the camp,[9] and witnessed dozens of executions every year.[8] Part of Shin's right middle finger was cut off by his supervisor as punishment for accidentally breaking a sewing machine.[10] He also saw adult prisoners and children beaten every day,[11][12] and many prisoners dying of starvation, illness, torture and work accidents.[8]

He learned to survive by any means, such as through eating rats, frogs and insects, and reporting on fellow inmates for rewards. When Shin was 13, he overheard his mother and brother planning an escape attempt. Shin told the guards, informing was something he was taught to do from an early age, and he hoped to be rewarded.[5][6] Rather than reward Shin for turning his family members in, the guards tortured him for four days to extract more information, believing him to be part of the plan to escape.[5][6] According to Shin, the guards lit a charcoal fire under his back and forced a hook into his skin so that he could not struggle which caused many large scars that are still visible on his body.[13][14] On 29 November 1996, after approximately 7 months spent in a tiny concrete prison cell, he was released and joined by his father who he realized had also been imprisoned. They were driven back to the main camp wearing blind folds and their hands tied behind their backs. Camp officials then forced Shin and his father to watch the public execution of his mother and brother, and he understood that he had been responsible for the execution.[6][15][16] Shin said that in that moment, he thought his mother deserved to die, but later in life the death of his family would haunt him.[5][6]

While working at a textile factory, Shin became friends with a 40-year-old political prisoner from Pyongyang named Park, who was educated and had traveled outside North Korea.[5] Park told him about the outside world, such as stories about food that Shin had not experienced before.[5] According to Shin, nearly every meal he had eaten up to that point had been a soupy gruel of cabbage, corn and salt, with occasional wild-caught rats and insects. He was excited by the idea of being able to eat as much food as he wanted to, which Shin considered to be the essence of freedom, "I still think of freedom as roasted chicken," he later admitted.[4] Shin decided to attempt to escape with Park.[5] They formed a plan in which Shin would provide local information about the camp, while Park would use his knowledge once outside the camp to escape the country. On 2 January 2005, the pair was assigned to a work detail near the camp's electric fence on the top of a 1,200-foot (370 m) mountain ridge to collect firewood. Noting the long interval between the guards' patrols, the two waited until the guards were out of sight, then made their attempt to escape.[1][17] Park attempted to go through first, but was electrocuted climbing the high voltage fence. Shin managed to pass over the wire using Park's body as a shield to ground the current, but suffered severe burns and permanent scars when his legs slipped onto the lowermost wire as he crawled over Park's body.[5][6]

After escaping, Shin broke into a nearby farmer's barn and found an old military uniform.[5] Wearing the uniform, he masqueraded as a North Korean soldier and worked his way northward, surviving by scrounging and stealing food.[1] Shin was unfamiliar with money, but within two days of his escape, he had sold a 10 lb (4.5 kg) bag of rice stolen from a house and used the money to buy cookies and cigarettes. Eventually, he reached the northern border with China along the Tumen River and bribed destitute North Korean border guards with food and cigarettes.[5] After spending some time working as a laborer in different parts of China, Shin was accidentally discovered by a journalist in a restaurant in Shanghai, and the reporter recognized the importance of his story. The journalist brought Shin to the South Korean embassy for asylum,[5] and from there he traveled to South Korea, where he underwent extensive questioning from authorities to determine if he was a North Korean assassin or spy. Afterwards, his story was broadcast by the press and he published a Korean language memoir. [citation needed]

Post-North Korea life

Shin later moved to southern California in the United States, changing his name from Shin In Geun to Shin Dong-hyuk, and worked for Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), a non-profit organization that raises awareness of human rights issues in North Korea and provides aid to North Korean refugees.[1] Shin then moved back to South Korea, where he campaigned for the eradication of the North Korean prison camps.[18]

In August 2013, Shin gave several hours of testimony to the United Nations' first commission of inquiry into human rights abuses of North Korea.[4][19] A member of the UN commission described Shin as the world's "single strongest voice" on the atrocities inside North Korean camps.[4]

Shin described some aspects of his personal life in South Korea in a Financial Times interview, on popular culture saying that "I don't really know anything about music. I can't sing and I don't feel any emotion from it. But I do watch lots of films and the one that moves me the most is Schindler's List".[4] On food he says "I know everything is delicious. I look at the colours and the way the food is presented on the plate but it's very difficult to choose. When I first came to South Korea, I was so greedy that I used to order too much food. Nowadays I try to order only as much as I can handle." Although Shin lives in South Korea, he was adopted by an American couple in Ohio during his time there.[4] He says he maintains the relationship, "I have a good relationship with my US foster parents. I contact them often. Whenever I have a holiday, I visit them. I think of them as good parents and I try to be a good son."[4]

Books and film

In 2012, journalist Blaine Harden published a biography of Shin's life, Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey From North Korea to Freedom in the West. It is based on interviews of Shin by Harden. The book reveals, among other things, that Shin was the one who had reported his mother and brother, a fact he had not included in earlier accounts.[20] Harden also gave a one-hour interview about the book on the C-SPAN television program Q&A.[6] Executive Director of the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, Greg Scarlatoiu, said the book played "an important role" in raising wider public awareness of the North Korean camps.[21]

A German documentary Camp 14–Total Control Zone, directed by Marc Wiese, was released in 2012.[22][23] It includes interviews with Shin Dong-hyuk and two former North Korean officers: the first, Hyuk Kwon, was a guard in Camp 14 and brought out amateur film footage (the only known footage of Camp 14), and the second, Oh Yang-nam, was a secret policeman who arrested people who were then sent to camps.[23] Supplementing the film are animated sequences of the camp created by Ali Soozandeh.[23] On December 2, 2012, Shin was featured on 60 Minutes during which he recounted to Anderson Cooper the story of his life in Camp 14 and escape. Shin said "when I see videos of the Holocaust it moves me to tears. I think I am still evolving — from an animal to a human."[24]

Awards and honours

In June 2013, Shin received the Moral Courage Award given by the Geneva-based non-governmental organization UN Watch.[25][26]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Harden, Blaine (16 March 2012). "How one man escaped from a North Korean prison camp". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 March 2012. Retrieved 29 March 2012. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Korean gulag escapee speaks out". UNHCR Refworld.
  3. ^ "I was a Political Prisoner at Birth in North Korea". Life Funds for North Korean Refugees (NGO).
  4. ^ a b c d e f g David Pilling (30 August 2013). ""Lunch with the FT: Shin Dong-hyuk"". Financial Times. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harden, Blaine (29 March 2012). Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West. p. 224. ISBN 9781101561263.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Blaine Harden discussed his historical narrative Escape From Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West. Q&A with Blaine Harden, April 11, 2012. C-SPAN video library.
  7. ^ "The Hidden Gulag – Exposing Crimes against Humanity in North Korea's Vast Prison System (pp 48-51)" (PDF). The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. Retrieved 20 September 2012.
  8. ^ a b c Blaine Harden (16 March 2012). "How one man escaped from a North Korean prison camp". The Guardian.
  9. ^ "Political Prison Camps in North Korea Today" (PDF), Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, 15 July 2011, retrieved 30 May 2012 {{citation}}: |chapter= ignored (help)
  10. ^ "Political Prison Camps in North Korea Today" (PDF), Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, 15 July 2011, retrieved 30 May 2012 {{citation}}: |chapter= ignored (help)
  11. ^ "Political Prison Camps in North Korea Today" (PDF), Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, 15 July 2011, retrieved 30 May 2012 {{citation}}: |chapter= ignored (help)
  12. ^ "Political Prison Camps in North Korea Today" (PDF), Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, July 15, 2011, retrieved May 30, 2012 {{citation}}: |chapter= ignored (help)
  13. ^ "Born and Raised in a North Korean Prison Camps". ABC News. 30 October 2007. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
  14. ^ "Medical Report and History of Shin Dong-hyuk". Life Funds for North Korean Refugees. 9 July 2007. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
  15. ^ Choe Sang-Hun (9 July 2007). "Born and raised in a North Korean gulag". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 29 March 2012. Retrieved 29 March 2012. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ "Escapee Tells of Horrors in North Korean Prison Camp". Washington Post. 11 December 2008.
  17. ^ "Escape from 'Total Control Zone' - North Korea's Papillon". The Daily NK. 11 May 2007.
  18. ^ Hinson, Tamara (30 April 2012). "I thought the outside world was paradise, says the only North Korean to escape from prison camp". London. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
  19. ^ Ju-min Park (20 August 2013). "Horror of North Korean prison camps exposed at U.N. panel hearing". Reuters. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  20. ^ "Review of Escape from Camp 14". The New York Times. 11 April 2012.
  21. ^ Esther Felden (18 June 2013). "Tortured, beaten, starved: life in a North Korean gulag". DW. Retrieved June 21, 2013.
  22. ^ "Camp 14 - Total Control Zone". Retrieved October 18, 2012.
  23. ^ a b c Jay Weissberg (August 14, 2012). "Camp 14 -- Total Control Zone". Variety. Retrieved October 18, 2012.
  24. ^ Staff writer (December 2, 2012). "Becoming human: Shin's new life". CBS News. Retrieved December 2, 2012.
  25. ^ "Today: Top Russian & North Korean Dissidents to Appear at UN Rights Council, Win Awards". UN Watch. 4 June 2013. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  26. ^ Stephanie Nebehay (5 June 2013). "North Korean defector's "impossible" dream of closing prison camps". Reuters. Retrieved 21 June 2013.

Further reading

  • Harden, Blaine (29 March 2012). Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West. p. 224. ISBN 9781101561263.

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