15 July 2011 Volume: 21 Issue: 13 North Korea's ... - Eureka Street

Volume 21 Issue: 1315 July 2011Hopefully, the following story will put the current crisis in context. In 2007, ShinDong-hyuk escaped from prison camp number 14, and earned the distinction of being the onlyknown survivor of a ‘Total Control Zone’, the harshest of North Korea’s three-tiered prisonsystem. He was born in the camp and lived his entire life in its confines until his escape.North Korea has taken the exploitation of family ties, a practice common to alldictatorships, to a new low. Up to three generations can be sent to prison for the crime of asingle-family member, which may be as trivial as creasing a newspaper so the fold runs downKim Jong-il’s face. Shin’s mother was interned for a crime committed by one of her relatives.Shin knew nothing outside the camp. Because he was expected to die an inmate, he was nottaught the facts that for most North Koreans are rote knowledge: the birthday of Kim Jong-il,his habits, his favorite songs, his life, his works. Shin bears scars from beatings and sufferspermanent brain damage due to infantile deprivation.Safe in South Korea, he was asked if he was shocked by the colors, lights and bustle ofSeoul. Those things were nice, he said, but not shocking. The day after he escaped he saw twowomen, one wearing a blue shirt, one wearing a red shirt, walking through a field. That’swhen he was shocked. He had never seen a human being not wearing prison rags or a guard’suniform.North Korea is a human rights time bomb. Education is cursory and health care highlyunsatisfactory. When the Kim family fiat ends, millions of uneducated, unskilled, illiterate,impoverished and malnourished North Koreans will throw themselves on the mercy of theirneighbors and the international community.South Korea will understandably, and cheerfully, bear the brunt of this, but all nationsshould be prepared to help. It will be far worse than the gradual exodus of professionalsduring the amalgamation of East and West Germany. The final horror of dictatorship is that itseffects are felt long after it is gone.©2011 EurekaStreet.com.au 2