Escape from Camp 14, by B. Harden

I zipped through Escape from Camp 14 over the course of two short nights this past spring.  This coincidentally happened to be right before the media reported news of a failed North Korean missile launch.  If you're like most Americans, you probably don't even remember the incident, that's how insignificant a country the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is.  All you really need to know is that the North is notorious for spending most of their resources on their military and arms, including nuclear weapons, and that they are super secretive, rarely engaging with other countries except China.  Every once in a while, they will sink a ship or shoot a missile and declare themselves the greatest nation on earth.  It's kind of their m.o.

Before I go any further, if you're in the same camp as those folks at the London Olympics who raised the South Korean flag when a North Korean team appeared, it's kind of embarrassing for you, so you might want to take this opportunity to note that there are TWO Koreas.  The sensationally hilarious Gangnam Style video {+} is from SOUTH Korea, the one that enjoys a healthy free trade market and a thriving economy.  If you meet someone in the States and they identify themselves as Korean, chances are that they are 99.999999% from SOUTH Korea.  Don't even bother asking which Korea they're from because it makes you sound like an idiot.  NORTH Korea is the one with the funny-looking roly poly leaders dressed in brown suits that no one knows what to do about because they cut their nation off from the rest of the world.  

As a Korean-American with parents born right smack in the middle of the war, you'd think I'd know a thing or two about the circumstances that led to the current humanitarian crisis in North Korea.  I've cobbled together a general understanding of the history, but it's choppy at best.  All I know is that today, the North's citizens lack a lot of basic necessities and freedoms, including food, clothes, and warm shelter.  I've watched a few horrifying documentaries tangled with sad stories of how so many from my grandparents' generation have never been reunited with their families since they got stuck on different sides of the 38th parallel during the war.  The two Koreas are polar opposites in almost every which way.

Escape tells the story of a North Korean defector, an account by the only known surviving escapee from a North Korean labor camp.  His story confirmed the little I knew about the North Korean government.  Egomaniacs run the country.  The country's official name is a misnomer.  Starvation and brainwashing propaganda are the norm.  Short of declaring war on and colonizing North Korea, there seems to be little that any country, individual, or organization can do to better the lives of its citizens.  Escape is not a happy read.  It's a sad testament.

If anyone would like my copy, I'd be happy to send it your way as long as you promise to forward it to another friend who might be interested in this man's story.



Thank you to Viking/Penguin for sending this book my way.  Rarely a fan of historical non-fiction, I found this semi-memoir style much more palatable than books with more traditional sociological or autobiographical takes.  I hope that in time, the rest of the world will gain some visibility into North Korea's story.