Escape from Camp 14

Escape from Camp 14 is the story of Shin Dong-hyuk, who is the only known person to have been born in and escape from a North Korean labor camp. The book’s author, Blaine Harden, interviewed Shin many times and has also spoken with former camp guards and North Korean traders. His book details Shin’s life both inside and outside the camp, as well as the political landscape in North Korea.

As Shin was born in the labor camp, he grew up knowing nothing of the outside world and accepted the camp’s regime of brutality and deceit unquestioningly. It should be noted that prisoners did not have commit a crime to find themselves in the camp, as individuals could be imprisoned as a result of guilt by association. Shin’s father, for instance, was arrested because of his brother’s actions. Neither he nor Shin had done anything to warrant being in the camp, yet, in North Korea, the concept of bloodline is paramount.

Harden elaborates that Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s then-leader, instigated a caste system in 1957 which divided North Korea’s populace into three social strata: the “core” class lived in the capital city of Pyongyang and often served in government and military positions, the wavering or neutral class worked as teachers or technicians, and the lowest class was made up of people suspected of opposing the government, as well as their relatives.