Escape From Camp 14

1-Shin Dong-Hyuk is the main character of the book Escape from Camp 14, his story is

The country of North Korea compares rather closely to the world in Ayn Rand’s Anthem. Both nations of people are very closed off from the community and the outside world. The citizens only know about what the government officials want them to know about. In North Korea everyone depends upon and worships their leader, Kim Jong Il, almost as though he is their god. They all only depend on what they classify as “we” and they rely only on that because they do not have access to anyone else or even know what it means to be an individual. In both the book and North Korea, the citizens are locked down and watched with a careful eye. Breaking the rules in Anthem would send you to the Uncharted Forest, which is very similar to what happens to those

North Koreas government uses its power to control information and restrict independent thought and freedom. The BBC News mentions, “North Koreas economic hardships or famines are not reported to the domestic audience” (North Korea’s Tightly Controlled Media). This shows how the government in North Korea uses their power to keep the inhabitants of the country blind to issues that would cause worry amongst them. The BBC News author later on mentions that rather than inform its citizens on real life issues occurring, they are informed of technological advances developed by their leaders’ revolutionary thinking. By doing this the North Korean government keeps the people blind and ignorant to complicated

Imagine life on the brink of death and being completely isolated from the outside world. Your surroundings are filled with the scent of rotting corpse and the image of walking skeletons with deformities due to scarce supply of food and countless beatings, torture, and even executions. What I am describing here is the reality for the prisoners in the concentration camps of North Korea. This is a clear violation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights because these prisoners are subjugated under these harsh treatments by the government of North Korea. One living example of the brutal treatment endured in these camps is about a survivor of the camps whose name is Shin Dong-hyuk.

Through this book Demick establishes her deep knowledge of North Korea all the while following the lives of six defectors as they fought to survive. Demick shows us the struggle that these North Koreans face as their country is consumed by an economic crisis and a famine that killed one fifth of their population, while it also gave us a glimpse at what we never think of when we hear about this country. The collapse of North Korea’s economy caused factories to close and other jobs to be terminated. This led the citizens of North Korea to lose their only source of income and forced to find other means to support their families. It caused them to make sacrifices in order support their families and essentially learn to become selfish, to turn a blind eye to the ones around who were also suffering in order for themselves to survive.

The book Escape from Camp 14, by Blaine Harden, follows the early life of Shin Dong-hyuk, the main character, as he grows up in a North Korean labor camp, Camp 14. The Kim dynasty was in control of North Korea during Shin’s time in the labor camp, and remains in control today. The Kim family runs a communist government and kept control by creating labor camps for those who attempted to fight the government system. The novel goes into detail about Shin’s childhood, his young adulthood, his escape and how he had to adapt after escaping. Blaine Harden convincingly argues that North Korean government is extremely hazardous to its inhabitants. The book highlights the dangers that people face, having to live in the labor camps and the perils of

Life in North Korea’s high contrast with life in the United States is marked by nonexistent personal freedoms and harsh punishments. One example of restricted freedom in shown in their leader, Kim Jong-un. He, who they address as Dear Leader, is treated like

In a gripping tale of the horrors that take place in the labor camps of North Korea, Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden retells Shin Dong-hyuk's life in Camp 14 and his miraculous escape. Unlike others who managed to escape North Korea, Shin is the first to have been born inside of one of the concentration camps. Since he grew up inside the camp, Shin was never exposed to any of the North Korean propaganda. The book follows Shin’s entire life up to the time of publication, starting with his time in the camp, then his escape, and finally his life after arriving in South Korea.

Most people live a life without freedom; it could be because of religion, government, family, or authoritative power. Unfortunately, some people live without freedom to an extent in which they have no true thoughts for themselves. Whether it's through the leading powers of their country or by the process of being brainwashed, certain people live their lives mainly for the superior ambitions of their leaders. In North Korea, the citizens, since birth, are meant to honour Kim Jong Un and all his ideals. Similarly, in George Orwell's 1984, Big Brother and the party are the destruction of souls. As analyzed in Mailto Href and Leela Jacintos “The Country Where Big Brother is watching”, North Korea is a replay of George Orwell's 1984 in many ways.

The mistreatment of men, women, and children not only affect the citizens of North Korea, but also the countries around the world trying to fight for human rights. Numerous communities have been pushing for respectful treatment of all individuals. While many countries have progressed in allowing everyone more human rights, North Korea has backtracked. The government prevents their citizens the freedom of speech, the privacy of life, and the ability to nourish their bodies. Tom Head, a civil rights activist, describes how the North Korean government forces their citizens to remain loyal and obedient to the republic. Head expresses that “anyone who is overheard saying anything perceived as critical to the government is subject to...torture, execution, or imprisonment in one of North Korea's ten brutal concentration camps” (Head). Sadly, if citizens of North Korea demonstrate a disagreement toward the ideology of Kim Jong Un, they could be inhumanely murdered or imprisoned. According to Human Rights Watch, “the [North Korean] government [has the ability] to

Blaine Harden’s Escape from Camp 14 tells the saddening yet hopeful story of Shin In Geun, A North Korean man who has been locked in Camp 14, one of Korea's most horrific prison and labor camps. Harden tells the story through the facts Shin gives him, while stating facts and goes more in depth and explains why this may have happened or how certain events may have happened. The book keeps you interested, as its words transfer the images of the traumatizing experiences of Shin, explaining things such as how he watched his mother and brother executed in front of him as a child, and how he was savagely beat multiple times by guards for little things such as picking berries so he wouldn’t die of starvation. All of the stories Shin shares in

The country of North Korea has long been under the watchful eye of not only the United States but also the United Nations for many years over concerns of it nuclear weapons program but now, they are being looked at for an entirely different reason. Recent reports about the inhuman treatment of an estimated 200,000 North Korean citizens in the countries six political prison camps are been closely looked at. These reports show the mistreatment, starvation, and even unlawful killing of North Korean citizens from everything from owning a Bible to watching soap operas.

According to senior editor Peter Weber of the political The Week magazine, “North Korea isn’t Nazi Germany--in some ways, it’s worse.” In this column Weber points out a 36 page report and its 373 page addendum report conducted by retired Australian judge Michael Kirby of the United Nations that revealed grisly details about the human rights abuses occurring in North Korea. The report was based on testimonies from witnesses and former inmates who had spent time in one of the encampments and who luckily made it out alive. Pyongyang 14 is one of the many camps that Kim Jong-un has in place to exterminate, murder, enslave, torture, and starve his people as the report notes. In addition, there are also forced abortions and other sexual violence that take place in this inhumane setting. North Korea forbids that their citizens know about life outside of the country, so if they attempt to do so there will be room for them in one of the prison camps since Jong-un is expanding their capacity. Something as little as watching a soap opera can land a North Korean in one of these camps, that is if they are not killed right away. For example, 10 people in the country were executed last year by firing squad when upper echelons in the North Korean hierarchy found out that they were watching “foreign” soap operas (Ryall). It is beyond belief that one’s life can be taken for something of such small magnitude. In Weber’s column he describes an interview Kirby had with a one-time prisoner at

After reading the first chapter, I thought the author of Escape from Camp 14 had a better style than the author of Journey of Ibn Fattouma. I find this to be true because Blaine Harden includes a foreword and introduction that tells the readers his motivation for writing the book, while Mahfouz, in contrast, does not provide as much detail. Mahfouz should have included some context about the religion of Islam because I might not have understood the concepts of the veil, arranged marriages, or “sheiks” without having had background knowledge on these concepts I learned in Cultural Studies. On the other hand, I did like the plot of this chapter. Although the author left out some important parts about Islam, he did bring suspense at the end of

One human right North Korea is violating is Human Right #9, No unfair detainment. "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile." In the article "North Korea Like Father, Like Son?" It states "Someone caught watching a Jackie Chan movie, for example could get up to six months in a labor camp." (Junior Scholastic, 2012) This text shows that North Korea is violating human right #9 because