If you place any value on the idea of universal human rights then you need to read this book. These forced labour camps are still in existence now in North Korea and an estimated 150,000 – 200,000 political prisoners are being held there – they can even be seen on Google Earth and yet the regime deny that they exist.
The book tells the unbelievably harrowing story of Shin, a boy born into one of the Gulags about 24 years ago – his crime? Having parents who had been incarcerated for “guilt by association” with an uncle who had escaped to South Korea. Kim Il Sung believed that three generations must be punished in order to wipe out the “seed” of deviancy – be it thinking the wrong thoughts or having the wrong background. There is no defence and most inmates remain in the camps for life – incommunicado.
Shin spent his childhood learning how to survive in unforgiving and dangerous circumstances with little food and no love. Each individual is taught how to “snitch” on the others. Shin was so dehumanised, having witnessed beatings and death regularly that he even betrayed his mother and brother to the authorities. They were both executed in front of him and his father but at the time he believed what he had done was right – he was able to look his mother in the eye moments before she died. Shin’s survival technique was a basic animal instinct to simply find food, shelter and avoid pain. This changed when he spent time in a prison cell with a wise and caring old man who talked to him about the outside world. He began to understand not only how kindness felt, but what he was missing. Again, later, a fortuitous meeting with another prisoner gave him the strength he needed to plan his incredibly lucky escape.
It isn’t the best written book and it is very hard to read, but it is an important book. The North Korean gulag has persisted for twice as long as its Soviet counterpart did and yet the world looks away. The South Koreans don’t seem to be very sensitive to the situation (according to the book) so there is an urgent need to understand and recognise the plight of a terrorised people and do something about it. China needs to stop repatriating North Koreans and the Red Cross and the UN should be allowed into border areas. America and South Korea must press harder on human rights issues.
More and more information is being released about what is going on – and perhaps a nerve is finally being hit. “Nothing To Envy” by Barbara Demick provides information on refugees who have managed to escape and there is also a new book entitled “Please Look After My Mother” that has already sold 2m copies in South Korea. These crimes against humanity are happening right now and we should all be ashamed.
