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23 Years in a North Korean Prison Camp

Escapee, born in prison, tells of routine, stunning torture

By Jason Farago, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 11, 2008 7:27 AM CST

(Newser) – There are 14,431 North Korean defectors living in South Korea, but only one, Shin Dong-hyuk, who escaped from a Northern prison camp. In an interview with the Washington Post, Shin describes the daily horrors of life inside Kim Jong-Il's gulags, from fire torture to mutilation. He committed no crime—he was born in the camp—and is struggling to adjust to life in the South 3 years after his escape.

Guards cut off the tip of Shin's middle finger for accidentally dropping a sewing machine at the factory where he performed slave labor. Later, he was dangled over a fire and pierced with a steel hook to force him to confess to an escape plot he knew nothing of. He spent 7 months in an underground cell, to be released only to watch his mother hanged and brother shot to death. Shin escaped over an electric fence and made his way to China and then South Korea—where he worries that "rapid growth and prosperity has made them forget."

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (1)]

14,431 people have defected from Kim Jong-Il's North Korea to the South. (©Borut Peterlin)

Shin Dong-hyuk (Getty Images)

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I have recently discovered that I am lonely. I realize you really need a family.
- Shin Dong-hyuk

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 3 comments

Guest

Dec 12, 2008 6:53 AM CST

Meanwhile, on topic... I'd quite like to see the defenders of liberty and justice for all liberating some politicals and children from slave-labour gulags, that would certainly restore some much-needed PR!

Guest

Dec 11, 2008 1:46 AM CST

Untried, uncharged, alleged terrorists. In defending America, we lost what made America worth defending.

Guest

Dec 10, 2008 8:08 PM CST

But the US is bad b/c we have GITMO for REAL TERRORISTS! Let's see if the liberal media screams about Shin's treatment. I bet not. Only the USA is bad.

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Washington Post (Source Grid »)

An earlier interview with Shin Dong-hyuk
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Shin's first-person account of life in the gulag
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North Korea • torture • South Korea • escape • Koreans • political prisoner • mutilation

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23 Years in a North Korean Prison Camp