Fascinating story of a man who escaped from a North Korean prison camp.

Shin Dong-hyuk was born in a prison camp in North Korea. He escaped 23 years later -

www.guardian.co.uk/b...-camp?fb=native

I read the whole article. Very harrowing I don't like reading about it generally though, because I feel like I am helpless to do anything about it.

tough story...


i would like to know how his story went after his escape from camp in more detail...

and i cant stop thinking that his father is the unluckiest man on earth. in camp becasue his brothers fled to the south. tortured for the attempted flight of his wife and elder son and surely tortured and maybe killed for the flight of his younger son.

I'm astonished...

Livie wrote: I read the whole article. Very harrowing I don't like reading about it generally though, because I feel like I am helpless to do anything about it.

My sociology teacher once told me the same thing. It was something along the lines of, when he was a younger man, he used to be an avid political and social activist. But he soon realized that there was nothing he could do to alter the course of just about any issue in the world. That is, without eventually encountering violent oppression.

I, too, read the article but what I felt was more outrage and anger, as opposed to a general feeling of hopelessness. I don't believe in an afterlife - a heaven or hell - because I know both of them exist here on Earth. What I do believe, however, is that world peace - a veritable Eden, a world utopia - is attainable should we, the next generation of world leaders, choose to accept our differences and lay down our arms. We need to forgive the sins of our fathers before us, lay to rest the burden of grudges past, and forge not only a new path ahead but also a new kind of mentality for the future: one built upon a foundation of the emphasis on the value of human life over the value of monetary gain.

Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man.
- Thomas Paine

It's an incredible and horrific tale. I'm tempted to buy the book. His story would make a great film. Kind of an Asian Shawshank Redemption but more harrowing. But I wonder if any film studios would take it on? Maybe in Asia... can't see any studios in Hollywood wanting it... well not without changing the lead role to a white dude or having a white guy save the day... Ahh I'm so cynical.

jin wrote: It's an incredible and horrific tale. I'm tempted to buy the book. His story would make a great film. Kind of an Asian Shawshank Redemption but more harrowing. But I wonder if any film studios would take it on? Maybe in Asia... can't see any studios in Hollywood wanting it... well not without changing the lead role to a white dude or having a white guy save the day... Ahh I'm so cynical.

And again I agree with you! Hollywood is uo to making belive and sooth things...

North korea...must be hell on earth right now. I've read a lot of things about north korea and some of the things i get to know is just horror. The whole population of that country is so brainwashed that they are beyond help

It is scary how much a bad childhood can affect a person. I doubt he will ever recover from his past.

Nekky wrote: North korea...must be hell on earth right now. I've read a lot of things about north korea and some of the things i get to know is just horror. The whole population of that country is so brainwashed that they are beyond help

It's like something from the dark ages... hard to believe this stuff happens in the world we live in.