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Shin recounts his experience in this incredibly touching and thought-provoking 60 minutes interview: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50136263n

Also, here are illustrations of a North Korean concentration camp by an escaped prison: http://imgur.com/a/648Mv. Incredibly alarming.




I find it sad that after being basically treated like garbage by North Korean society, "defectors" (I hesitate to use that term due to the negative connotation, but can't think of anything else) like Shin wind up isolated within South Korean society. It reaches the point where more than 1/3rd want to leave SK.[1]

That one cannot escape an accident of birth is a huge blemish on humanity.

[1] http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20130207000854


Well its sad but not surprising. I mean look at it from a young South Korean's perspective. There is a huge economic and many be now even a cultural gap between them and the folks from the north.

For somebody young in South Korea, a North Korean is somebody who shares his mother tongue in a different dialect- nothing much apart from that. By now North and South Korea are two very different countries, with many things being different and few things being common.

When a refugee arrives they may not think of him/her as 'one of us'. More like some troubled person from the neighboring country who will dilute/be a burden on our culture economy.


> That one cannot escape an accident of birth is a huge blemish on humanity.

Succinctly summing up privilege, be it by skin colour, sex, disability, or inheriting wealth.


Sorry, but I didn't know how to react when the second question the interviewer asked was: did you know america existed?

What kind of question is that considering this man's story?


Especially considering the fact that they are bombarded with anti-American propaganda. So much so that they still celebrate the capture of the USS Pueblo, which is on display as a museum in Pyongyang.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pueblo_(AGER-2)




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