Review: Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden

4 stars for Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden.

Kaechon political prison camp, also known as Camp 14, was established in 1959. At time of this post, Camp 14 is a sixty-year-old Skinner box, an ongoing experiment in repression and mind control in which guards breed prisoners whom they control, isolate and pit against one another from birth.

Born (1982) and raised in a political prison, Shin In Geun is reputed to be the only known prisoner to have successfully escaped from a "total-control zone" grade internment camp in North Korea, one of the world's most brutal totalitarian regimes.

Escape from Camp 14 is Shin's account of the misery of life in the North Korean gulag and his subsequent escape. He is not only a witness to but also an example of North Korea’s cruelty to its own people. His body is a roadmap of the hardships of growing up in a labour camp, a walking proof of those tortures he has been subjected to.

I am very much affected by what I read in this book. It is a depressing story. But what makes it even more disturbing and scary is that these hardships and cruelty are not dealt by enemies but by the country's leaders to its very own people.

Camp 14 and all the other labour camps are clearly visible in satellite photographs. Yet, North Korea government denies the existence of these camps. Read this book to find out more and decide for yourself what the truth is. But be forewarned, not all that is presented in the book is real. In 2015, some years after the first edition of publication, Shin discloses that his life in the North Korean gulag differ from what he has been telling government leaders, human rights activists, and journalists. I will recommend to read the new foreword first to prepare for Shin's admission of fabrication.


Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition
Publication date: 26 Mar 2013

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North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Very few born and raised in these camps have escaped. But Shin Donghyuk did.

In Escape from Camp 14, acclaimed journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk and through the lens of Shin's life unlocks the secrets of the world's most repressive totalitarian state. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence-he saw his mother as a competitor for food, guards raised him to be a snitch, and he witnessed the execution of his own family. Through Harden's harrowing narrative of Shin's life and remarkable escape, he offers an unequaled inside account of one of the world's darkest nations and a riveting tale of endurance, courage, and survival.

*Blurb from Goodreads*

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