Escape from Camp 14

Shin Dong-hyuk - Not my photo

I was at the library last Friday and I happened upon this book, Escape from Camp 14. It's about a young, Korean man named, Shin Dong-hyuk. He's believed to be the only person to escape from the political prison in the remote hills in rural North Korea and make it to the West.

The story is absolutely horrific. If there were a stronger term I'd use it. The way the detainees are treated there (and many of them are young children) is unfathomable. They are slaves who are beaten, starved and abused in ways that are unimaginable. Their sense of reality is so distorted by the mistreatment of the "teachers" there that it's a wonder how escapees ever learn to adjust to life outside the electrified, barbed wire enclosure (if at all).

Shin Dong-hyuk was born in the prison in 1982. His mother, Jang Hye Gyung, was a prisoner there as was his father, Shin Gyung Sub. His father was given his mother as his bride by the guards as a reward for being a good worker there. Husbands and wives live in separated barracks. They were permitted to meet a few times a year. There is virtually no contact (verbal or otherwise) between prisoners of opposite sex. Penalty for breaking camp rules is death.

Shin Dong-hyuk had an older brother, He Geun, who was born in 1974. Both He Geun and his mother were publicly executed at the camp because they plotted to escape. Other prisoners were made to watch as Jang Hye Gyung was hanged and He Geun was shot multiple times until dead.

Shin's father was imprisoned because two of his brothers escaped to South Korea. According to the "three generations of punishment" law instituted by North Korea's first dictator Kim Il Sung, relatives of "perpetrators" were sent to these, in effect, concentration camps to wipe out the lineage of the entire family. If you were cursed to be born there you were treated as barbarically as if you yourself committed an offense against the regime.

Prisoners are slaves who are beaten, tortured, starved and regularly murdered. It's incomprehensible how a so-called leader could do this to anyone let alone the citizens of his own country, the ones he purports to hold so dearly to his heart.

In the book you'll get a glimpse into what "life" is like inside the camp as well as outside. You'll see the distorted view of the world bestowed upon the young minds there. You'll follow Shin's journey of discovery where he learns there is a completely different reality outside the prison walls. And you'll follow his incredible journey to freedom – and it is incredible.

This story is not for the faint of heart. But, it is essential it be heard. Former "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il is dead. He died from a heart attack in late 2011. May he rot in hell. His youngest son, Kim Jong Eun, has succeeded him and assumed the role of supreme leader. It is of foremost importance that he and his cronies be held responsible for their roles in the torture and murder of the citizens of North Korea.