Reddit reviews Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West

This is what real rape culture looks like

You should know the difference between their "regular" concentration camps and the ones for special political prisoners. pretty sure you got no foosball or big screen TV's in either.

They can't pretend we don't know all this

Or that it's all an American lie

Or that this shit hasn't been known for decades already and confirmed repeatedly, again, and again

They can even criticize Trump's approach to the DPRK if it makes them feel better but this extravagant kind of heated lie is just offensive to both the world and the individuals who survive the Kim family horror show.

Read Escape from Camp 14. It will change you. And long story short, rehabilitation and integration into South Korea for a North Korean defector is extremely difficult at best. The whole story is supremely tragic.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005GSZZ1A/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Really interesting and horrific story about the only known person to be born in and escape from one of the labor camps. One of the stories that has stuck with me years after reading it is of the 6 year old girl who was beaten to death by her teacher, in front of her classmates, after he found 5 stolen corn kernals in her pocket.

Camp 22 (the one linked) isn't all that bad in the overall hierarchy of North Korean camps. At least in the 90's, some prisoners in camp 22 had defined sentences, and the death rate wasn't what it is in some other camps.

For a really bad one, check out the article on camp 14. That camp contains a "total control zone", in which all sentences are for life. Only one person is known to have escaped the total control zone. Even crazier, the person who escaped was born in the camp, so he had very little knowledge of the outside world before he escaped. Here's a book written about him. His experience is much more extreme than Kang Chol-hwan's in The Aquariums of Pyongyang.

if you need sources two books I can recommend are The Hidden Gulag: The Lives and Voices of "those who are Sent to the Mountains" by David R. Hawk - this is the best overview of the North Korean Penal system without actually going to North Korea


Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden which is a account of Shin Dong-hyuk life and escape from a labor camp.- bias warning he has recanted parts of the book

the Three generations rule came in to effect under Kim Il Sung in 1972

I would not doubt there are different levels of punishment for different crimes however I would be very careful to dismiss claims of the Three generation rule being a myth because a different defector who may have been accused of a crime deserving of a different level of punishment had a different experience.

this person in particular however to get assigned to the DMZ his family had to be in good standing and perceived to be loyal to the party. when he defected he did so very publicly at the Joint Security Area (JSA) and made a break for it by running towards Freedom House. and the story is plastered all over international media

the NK may show mercy but I wouldn't put it past NK to make a example of his family to show their soldiers "this is what happens to your family if you defect"

Have you read [Into Thin Air] (http://www.amazon.com/Into-Thin-Air-personal-disaster-ebook/dp/B000FC1ITK/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411590869&sr=1-1&keywords=into+thin+air) by Jon Krakauer? I enjoyed reading this one.

I also read [Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage] (http://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Incredible-Alfred-Lansing-ebook/dp/B006L74DMC/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411590938&sr=1-1&keywords=endurance+shackleton%27s+incredible+voyage), could not put it down. Would still recommend giving it a shot, even though in the other comment you said you weren't interested.

You could also probably find a book about the [Donner party] (http://www.amazon.com/Desperate-Passage-Donner-Perilous-Journey/dp/0195383311/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591075&sr=1-1&keywords=donner+party+books). Have not read this one yet.

I actually really want to read more of these true doom/adventure stories as well. Let me know which ones you'd recommend or find interesting. We can swap notes :) (I'm looking up the Franklin expedition right now!)

Edit: another recommendation is possibly books on North Korea? [Escape from Camp 14] (http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey-ebook/dp/B005GSZZ1A/ref=sr_sp-btf_title_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591287&sr=1-1&keywords=escape+from+camp+14) coming to mind. It's still got that morbid fascination element to it. Another good one is [Nothing to Envy] (http://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North-ebook/dp/B002ZB26AO/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591283&sr=1-1&keywords=nothing+to+envy).

Edit2: Saw you wanted to read about that rugby team that was stranded in the Andes, was this the book you were thinking of: [Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors] (http://www.amazon.com/Alive-Survivors-Piers-Paul-Read/dp/038000321X/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591507&sr=1-1&keywords=alive+the+story+of+the+andes+survivors). The only other book I can think of is [Miracle in the Andes] (http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Andes-Days-Mountain-Long-ebook/dp/B000GCFW6O/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1411591638&sr=1-1&keywords=Miracle+in+the+andes).

If they don't return, the mens' families, children and parents all, would be transferred into prison camps for the remainders of their lives. That's one of several punishments that prevents fishermen and other people on border jobs from routinely defecting: they punish family members.

The returning fishermen would still be intensively interrogated and punished, but the act of willfully returning would spare their families, and they might be allowed to return to their jobs.

For a better idea of life inside a North Korean prison camp, you might look at Escape from Camp 14.

Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden.

Escape from Camp 14 is the book you're thinking of, I think.

How can he compare North Korea and Germany?

Maybe because it's a very very very similar situation but North Korea actually succeeded in separating themselves from the outside world so they can do whatever the hell they want to their people.

Read this and that'll change your point of view: http://www.amazon.ca/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey-ebook/dp/B005GSZZ1A

Imi aminteste cam mult de asta si asta...