How one man escaped from a North Korean prison camp

[MachineGhost]

The South Korean government estimates there are about 154,000 prisoners in North Korea’s labour camps, while the US state department puts the number as high as 200,000. The biggest is 31 miles long and 25 miles wide, an area larger than the city of Los Angeles. Numbers 15 and 18 have re-education zones where detainees receive remedial instruction in the teachings of Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung, and are sometimes released. The remaining camps are “complete control districts”? where “irredeemables”? are worked to death.

Shin’s camp, number 14, is a complete control district. Established around 1959 near Kaechon County in South Pyongan Province, it holds an estimated 15,000 prisoners. About 30 miles long and 15 miles wide, it has farms, mines and factories threaded through steep mountain valleys.

http://www.utsalumni.org/news/how-one-m ... camp-3549/

[k9]

That's interesting. Thanks for the link.

[Peak2Trough]

Fascinating.  Oddly enough, I just ran across another interesting North Korea article...

https://sites.google.com/site/WiseOneinnorthkorea/

[MomTo2Boys]

Interesting that China didn't return him.

Can't fathom what he had to go through to get from China to South Korea. To exit China? For South Korea? With no documentation - ?

[MachineGhost]

Is anyone else horrified that an ongoing Orwellian nightmare literally exists?  It is no longer in the realm of the theoretical, or something that can be swept under the rug.  We all like to worry apathetically about encroaching tyranny here in the West, but it sure seems like ridiculous infantalism in comparison to NK.

For all the rhetoric from the NeoCons and the military-industrial complex, I really don't understand why we haven't invaded NK for "regime change" instead of goofing off on family honor adventures in the Middle East.  No place is more begging for it on just about any pretense imaginable.

[edsanville]

Is anyone else horrified that an ongoing Orwellian nightmare literally exists?  It is no longer in the realm of the theoretical, or something that can be swept under the rug.  We all like to worry apathetically about encroaching tyranny here in the West, but it sure seems like ridiculous infantalism in comparison to NK.

For all the rhetoric from the NeoCons and the military-industrial complex, I really don't understand why we haven't invaded NK for "regime change" instead of goofing off on family honor adventures in the Middle East.  No place is more begging for it on just about any pretense imaginable.

This is a great point.  Any country that prevents its own citizens from leaving justifies an external regime change, if you ask me.  As far as I know, Iraqi citizens could actually leave Iraq under Saddam Hussein, correct?

[Pointedstick]

I think there are a few big reasons why North Korea isn't a grease stain beneath American tank treads:

1. They're ultimately backstopped by China, and nobody knows how far China would go to protect them in the event of war. Nobody wants to wake that sleeping bear.

2. South Korea is a close American ally and they're now so advanced that they don't want to absorb a bunch of skillless North Korean refugees who have known nothing but brutality and repression. Political will for unification falls year by year as politicians fear the economic effects of absorbing North Koreans into their workforce/welfare system.

[MomTo2Boys]

Interesting that China didn't return him.

Can't fathom what he had to go through to get from China to South Korea. To exit China? For South Korea? With no documentation - ?

IIRC, the border between North and South Korea is a heavily guarded DMZ and would be extremely difficult to penetrate directly.

Yes, I understand - what I meant was - I cannot fathom the documentation/paperwork side of things. For example, I'm an American with flawless paperwork (passport and Chinese visa), and yet when exiting China things are still, I don't know, looked at very closely. But this man would have appeared in China and had no paperwork, no documentation (everything and I do mean EVERYTHING in China is based on documentation), no nothing, so how he navigated the paperwork nightmare that would have come from crossing from North Korea (with no identity) and going all the way to the United States (via many stops), I cannot fathom. I was commenting on the paperwork/bureaucracy nightmare of such an endeavor.

[Pointedstick]

I would imagine that he avoided the paperwork and bureaucracy entirely by simply staying out of official channels in the time-honored tradition of refugees, smugglers, fugitives, and all others who wish not to be found.

[Kriegsspiel]

Pretty intense article. 

[CA PP]

Is anyone else horrified that an ongoing Orwellian nightmare literally exists?  It is no longer in the realm of the theoretical, or something that can be swept under the rug.  We all like to worry apathetically about encroaching tyranny here in the West, but it sure seems like ridiculous infantalism in comparison to NK.

For all the rhetoric from the NeoCons and the military-industrial complex, I really don't understand why we haven't invaded NK for "regime change" instead of goofing off on family honor adventures in the Middle East.  No place is more begging for it on just about any pretense imaginable.

There is no short term gain from invading NK (industry has been idle/decaying for decades now... It looked like a Mad max environment when I traveled the country 10 y ago, no interesting natural resources) and risks are tremendous for SK population and a potential invader (China).  It just does nt worth it.

[MachineGhost]

Was it worth to invade the Middle East?  I've never seen concern for economic effects as a rationale for going to war.  History shows it's always some pet project or egotistical issue.

So we're just going to continue to ignore the human rights abuses?  By that logic, we should have never invaded Germany.

[Kriegsspiel]

So we're just going to continue to ignore the human rights abuses?  By that logic, we should have never invaded Germany.

What?