Thursday, May 17, 2012

Re: Unbelievable horrors in North Korea coming to light

Keith... You and or I would simply wind up dead or in jail if we
visited...
Neither of us could keep our mouths shut.

On May 17, 8:39 am, Keith In Tampa <keithinta...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I hadn't seen this Bear.  thanks for sharing.  I continue to study North
> Korea and it's leadership.  Fascinating.  Believe it or not,  I would love
> to go there.  The last bastion of Cold War totalinarism.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, May 17, 2012 at 4:03 PM, Bear Bear <thatbear...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > *Shocking. Maybe some of those Marxist occupado's should go and see what
> > communism is really like.
>
> > *
> > [image: peter-worthington]
> > By Peter Worthington <http://www.ottawasun.com/author/peter-worthington> ,QMI
> > Agency
>
> > [image: Shin Dong-hyuk 160512] Shin Dong-hyuk, likely the only man to
> > successfully escape from a North Korean prison camp.
> >  4<http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/05/15/unbelievable-horrors-in-north-kor...>
>
> >    - Change text size for the story<http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/05/15/unbelievable-horrors-in-north-kor...>
> >    - Print this story<http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/05/15/unbelievable-horrors-in-north-kor...>
>
> > Report an error <http://www.ottawasun.com/contact-us#story>
> > Related Stories
>
> >    - North Korea's nuclear test ready 'soon'<http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/04/24/north-koreas-nuclear-test-ready-s...>
> >    - World powers urge N.Korea to refrain from nuclear test<http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/05/03/world-powers-urge-nkorea-to-refra...>
> >    - UN chief: N.Korea missile 'deplorable'<http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/04/12/us-official-confirms-north-korea-...>
> >    - Clinton says U.S. willing to work with N.Korea if it reforms<http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/05/04/clinton-says-us-willing-to-work-w...>
>
> > TORONTO - Arguably, the most poignant interview ever broadcast on CBC
> > Radio's The Curent, was the story this week, of Shin Dong-hyuk — possibly
> > the only person ever to escape from a North Korean slave-labour prison camp.
>
> > All stories about prisons are harsh, but prisons, or political labour
> > camps run by totalitarian regimes can be beyond rational comprehension. And
> > while the Soviet gulag with its millions confined, and China's with even
> > more millions in custody, are inhumane and brutal, they pale to horrors of
> > North Korea's slave camps. Especially in the year 2012.
>
> > As the only person ever to escape from a NK camp, Shin Dong-hyuk's story
> > is important as it is unique in giving the world a peek inside that regime,
> > and how the ruling Kim family maintains absolute control through fear and
> > cruelty.
>
> > Journalist Blaine Harden discovered Shin, and tells his story in a book —
> > Escape from Camp 14. Harden, a translator and Shin were interviewed by Anna
> > Maria Tremonti on the CBC, and provided a wealth of appalling reality that
> > defies imagination.
>
> > Estimates are that roughly 200,000 are in NK slave-labour camps — three
> > generations of inmates. Shine was born in Camp 14. The only food inmates
> > ate was a mush of corn, cabbage and salt — supplemented by mice if they
> > could catch them. And insects.
>
> > The electrified razor wire around the camp would kill any who touched it.
> > Anyone caught talking about escaping was shot. Shin was conceived when
> > guards allowed brief intimacy between a male and female inmate for obedient
> > behaviour.
>
> > At age 14, he heard his mother and brother talking about escape, and was
> > so fearful and indoctrinated that he asked a guard what he should do. The
> > guard turned him in, and he was roasted over a charcoal fire to extract
> > more information. Then he witnessed his mother and brother hanged.
>
> > Rather than feel guilt at their death, he was angry that their loose talk
> > made life tougher for him. Normal, human instincts were channeled into
> > self-preservation.
>
> > Shin and another inmate decided to escape, but the other guy was
> > electrocuted trying to get past the fence. Shin crawled over his friend's
> > dead body, which grounded the current. He fled north, stole an army
> > uniform, got into China and made his way to Shanghai, where he reached the
> > South Korean embassy and was taken to Seoul.
>
> > Among his recollections is a schoolgirl in Camp 14 being beaten to death
> > by a teacher because she had a few kernels of corn in her pocket.
>
> > When Shin accidentally dropped a sewing machine, half his middle finger
> > was chopped off as punishment. Guards had inmates beat other inmates who
> > broke rules.
>
> > Responding to Tremonti's question how such inhumane treatment could go on
> > when even Russia and China were easing restrictions, author Harden
> > explained that three generations of Kims rule the world's most tyrannical,
> > oppressive state.
>
> > Kim Il-sung instigated the slave camps, followed by Kim Jong-il and now
> > Kim Jong-un who maintain them. North Koreans know of these prisons and fear
> > them to the point of absolute submissiveness and obedience.
>
> > Once convicted to a camp, relatives and children are confined to them.
>
> > Stalin used fear and intimidation as tools for control, North Korea even
> > more so.
>
> > "Class enemies" destined for these horror camps include those who dare
> > practice Christianity, or who don't keep photographs of Kim dusted and
> > prominent in their homes.
>
> > If caught, listening to a foreign radio broadcasts can be fatal. As Shin's
> > youthful experience indicated those with deviant thoughts, can be executed.
> > Until he escaped at age 29, he had never tasted chicken or pork — only corn
> > mush.
>
> > China is North Korea's protector — more fearful of having affluent,
> > dynamic South Korea as a neighbour without impoverished NK as a buffer,
> > than it is concerned about such niggling nuisances as basic human rights.
>
> > In negotiations with North Korea, neither the U.S. nor Japan, and
> > certainly not China, ever raise the question of human rights. What's the
> > use? Perhaps our politicians should read Escape from Camp 14.
>
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