Prison Camps
Prison camps have existed in North Korea since the rule of Kim Il Sung for the purpose of detaining and punishing North Korean defectors. The primary reason for the inaction by the international community is that North Korea denies their existence, but will not allow independent investigation.
"There is no "human rights issue" in this country, as everyone leads the most dignified and happy life." |
"You need people to fear something awful to continue to tolerate their current conditions... as long as the Kim regime continues its currently brutal form of rule, the camps aren't going anywhere."
- Chris DeRusha, Department of Homeland Security
Shin Dong-Hyuk
This is the story of Shin Dong-Hyuk, a refugee from North Korea who was born in a prison camp and lived there, oblivious to the outside world, until he escaped at 23.
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"If you escape, you would be shot. If you try to escape, or plan to escape, you would be shot. Even if you did not report someone who was trying to escape, you would be shot." "The prisoners were fed the same thin gruel of cornmeal and cabbage day in and day out. They were so hungry, Shin says, they ate rats and insects to survive." |
Three Generations of Punishment
"The internment camps operate under a “guilt-by-association” system (yeon-jwa-je), which means that extended family members of the accused – for up to three generations – are also punished. This punishment-by-lineage system exploits the significance of familial bonds and personal sacrifice within Korean culture, and empowers Kim Jong Il’s regime to persecute by birthright and to exert discipline and control through fear of such persecution." |
The Escape
Shin got his chance to escape collecting firewood one day by the edge of the camp.
"Let's run!" he yelled. |
"It was not meaningful to him that North Korea in the dead of winter is ugly, dirty, and dark, or that it is poorer than Sudan, or that, taken as a whole, it is viewed by human rights groups as the world's largest prison. |
"I am evolving from being an animal. But it is going very, very slowly. Sometimes I try to cry and laugh like other people, just to see if it feels like anything." |
Mike Kim
The sight of North Korean refugees near the North Korea-China border changed Mike Kim’s life. Kim ... became an activist who risked his life to help North Koreans escape to freedom. ... A 34-year-old second-generation Korean-American, Kim led hundreds of North Koreans out of the repressive regime through the 10,000 kilometer “underground railroad” that runs from Pyongyang to Bangkok. He is the author of “Escaping North Korea," written based on his four-year experience of helping feed, shelter and free the North Korean refugees at the Chinese-North Korean border. "I met Mike in December 2003. He had just returned to the States after a year of working with North Korean refugees at the China-North Korea border. ... In July 2001, Mike took a two-week vacation to China and met with North Korean refugees for the first time. ... He was so deeply moved by those encounters that he returned to the States and quit his financial planning business to prepare to move to China. ... Throughout the course of that first year, Mike assisted North Korean refugees by providing food, clothes, medicine, and shelter. His efforts eventually gave birth to Crossing Borders, a nongovernmental organization that has set up multiple shelters and orphanages for North Korean refugees in China." |
Jon Stewart: "What are they like? Are these North Koreans aware of the outside world? How sequestered are they?" |
Mike Kim: "North Korea's the last state like this, with that level of control on these minds - it's unbelievable. But the country is changing, as these refugees come into China, return to North Korea, they begin to tell people about what they learned in China, the truth about the world." Mike Kim: "One of the things North Korea does is they will send spies, agents, posing as refugees to infiltrate networks." |