https://padlet.com/jgraf23/7eho8lu9by8wrnqv en-us 2021-02-10 20:08:08 UTC 2023-03-01 00:21:00 UTC hello@padlet.com jgraf23 https://padlet.com/jgraf23/7eho8lu9by8wrnqv/wish/1189527639 Camp 14 is one of the harshest and most secure political prison camps in North Korea, and yet, a young man, emboldened with stories of grilled meat, managed to escape. The plan was to escape with a friend by climbing through gaps in the high voltage fence and walk to China. Sadly, the deadly voltage instantly killed Park, Shin’s friend and storyteller, and a desperate Shin managed to climb over his dead body to get outside the fence. His legs were badly burned by the high voltage, however, and he left a trail of dripping blood in the snow as he ran deep into the woods. The image above is a representation of his flight, and the plight of millions of others in the North. The snow represents the citizens of North Korea, they are constantly pushed aside, piled up, and oppressed by the boot of the Kim family dynasty, a dynasty dripping droplets of death upon its people. Shin managed to find his way through the fence of oppression, climbing over the dead body of his friend, only to find himself free, but in a nation under the boot of the Kims, and soiled with the blood of millions. Shin finally manages to find his way through the wilderness of North Korea, and into the world beyond. Millions of others wish they could be him, slowly they are chipping away at the border with the outside world, climbing over the bodies of dead friends and family to break free into the world beyond. Shin is roughly the same age as Kim Jong Eun, now the leader of North Korea. He fought his way out from under his peer’s oppression, someone to whom anything is possible, into a world where for Shin, anything can finally be possible. Many in North Korea dream of such a freedom, but only the elite are able to achieve it, and even then, only to a small degree. It is a “nominally classless society, [but] in fact, breeding and bloodlines decide everything” (Harden 2). Shin defines this struggle, he is at the rock bottom of the class structure, yet has managed to turn his life around, escape his oppression, and now hosts a podcast. Shin’s struggle shows us that anything is possible, and it reminds us of what lies ahead, and of the blood that lies behind. ]]> 2021-02-10 20:08:35 UTC https://padlet.com/jgraf23/7eho8lu9by8wrnqv/wish/1189527639 jgraf23 https://padlet.com/jgraf23/7eho8lu9by8wrnqv/wish/1189581771 Slow and steady wins the race is a concept that can be used in relation to foreign policy, and North Korea is no exception. As much as the North Korean government insists to the world that they have absolute control over every single one of their citizens, this is not quite the truth. The government’s failure to maintain a stable economy and food supply have led to an intricate black market in which capitalism is slowly taking over, and with it the iron doors of North Korea are beginning to swing open. “Traders by the thousands [began] to move back and forth across the border supplying food and goods for markets that had all but replaced the government’s public distribution system” (Harden 142). However, these traders didn’t just bring food and clothing, they also brought news and influence from the West. Over the years hundreds of thousands of DVD players, videos, books, radios, and televisions flooded across the border. These items brought with them distractions from the harsh realities of life in the North, but also opened many people’s eyes to what the outside world is really like, slowly erasing their brainwashing and undermining the authority of the government. The addition of cellphones has also allowed news to travel almost instantaneously from the North to South Korea, exposing the lies and crimes of the Kim government as opposed to learning it years later from the rare escapees. These are the new soldiers of the Korean War. Gone are the days of bombs and gunfire. In their place are actors, reporters, and factory workers, hoisting the flag of Western culture tall and proud above the crumbling dictatorship, and upon the thousands of bodies left in its wake. The flag is being raised and the West will triumph, just as the soldiers of the Second World War raised that same flag over the bodies of their comrades during their victory at Iwo Jima.]]> 2021-02-10 20:21:27 UTC https://padlet.com/jgraf23/7eho8lu9by8wrnqv/wish/1189581771 jgraf23 https://padlet.com/jgraf23/7eho8lu9by8wrnqv/wish/1189584915 The origins of Korea date back thousands of years, but modern Korea is barely a century old. In 1910, Japan annexed the peninsula, modernized the nation, and built up industry to supply itself with natural resources, which are practically non-existent in Japan. During World War II, Koreans were conscripted as soldiers, forced into factory work, or used as “comfort women” to provide sexual services to Japanese soldiers. After the war, the country was split into North and South, with the South loyal to the United States of America, and the North the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, both sides with opposing ideologies, and deadly weapons. By 1950, tensions boiled over, and the Korean War began. North Korea, officially the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, was backed by China and the USSR against hundreds of thousands of United Nations and American forces, and after three years of war, an armistice was signed. To this day, the war has never been officially ended, but thankfully, conflict has yet to spark once more. Since then, North Korea, under the leadership of communist guerrilla Kim Il Sung has focused on attempting to eliminate any reliance on the outside world, a battle still being fought, and lost, to this day. Over the decades, the nation has slowly modernized, isolating itself from the world but failing to ensure its self-reliance. “In June 2012, the United Nations estimated that up to two-thirds of the population was malnourished,” (Harden 45) and the North continues to require aid from South Korea, the US,  and China, to just barely feed its people. Eventually, Kim Il Sung died and was replaced by his son, Kim Jong Il, who brought forth the idea of military first with the goal of one day taking over the entire Korean peninsula as one nation. In recent years, the North has been developing nuclear weapons, and has tested a handful of them, including a missile capable of hitting the continental United States. Now, the walls separating the North from the world are slowly crumbling, as food shortages, curiosity, and markets bring word of the booming South, and the freedom its citizens, enjoy to the impoverished people of the North. Shin, who was born in a North Korean political prison camp, was enticed by such stories of freedom and plenty and managed the impossible, escaping the inescapable political prison camps, and shared his story with the world. “He desperately wants the world to understand what North Korea has tried so diligently to hide,” (Harden 13) in the hope that one day, the world will intervene, and his kinspeople will be free.]]> 2021-02-10 20:22:13 UTC https://padlet.com/jgraf23/7eho8lu9by8wrnqv/wish/1189584915 jgraf23 https://padlet.com/jgraf23/7eho8lu9by8wrnqv/wish/1189586336 Park Yong Chul, short and stout, with a shock of white hair, was an important new prisoner. He had lived abroad. His wife was well connected. He knew senior people in the North Korean government. The superintendent ordered Shin to teach Park how to fix sewing machines and to become his friend. Shin was to report back on everything Park said about his past, his politics, and his family (Harden 99).

The most important turning point in Shin’s life was this very moment, the moment when he was instructed to befriend Park Yong Chul. This “monthlong one-on-one seminar...would forever change Shin’s life” (Harden 100). The seminar was not limited to just sewing machines, but instead, Shin’s world was torn apart. Shin had never even heard of Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea, and when he asked Park what it was, Park, stunned by Shin’s ignorance of everything outside the fence, began to tell him stories of the world on the outside. Shin learned of the people and conditions in Pyongyang, the Kim dynasty, China, life outside the camp, and most important to him, grilled meat. He shrugged most of the stories off but listened with rapt attention when Park told stories “about food and eating, particularly when the main course was grilled meat” (Harden 101). Shin had spent most of his life starving and this primal hunger led him to make “the first free decision of his life. He chose not to snitch” (Harden 101). Despite his lifelong indoctrination by the camp guards about the benefits of snitching on fellow prisoners, his desire for freedom, which to him “was just another word for grilled meat,” (Harden 101) overtook him and changed his way of thinking. For the first time, Shin considered the concepts freedom and secrecy. He now understood that beyond the fence the world was different, and it was possible to live and let live along with thousands of others. This newfound desire for freedom, kindled by the stories of Park, took over and urged him to plot a plan of escape. The very moment when he innocently asked about the meaning of a new word, was the moment he set down the path to infamy in the eyes of his government. ]]> 2021-02-10 20:22:30 UTC https://padlet.com/jgraf23/7eho8lu9by8wrnqv/wish/1189586336 jgraf23 https://padlet.com/jgraf23/7eho8lu9by8wrnqv/wish/1189588467 The most startling aspect of Escape From Camp 14 wasn’t the atrocities as I was expecting those, it was the reading style. Instead of reading along the lines of a conventional novel with details of the escape, conversations, and events described through Shin’s point of view, it read like an editorial. The author took frequent breaks from describing the story to explain the socio-political context of that time, what thoughts other survivors had on it, and how such events would be possible. Instead of showing Shin’s story through his own eyes, it looked upon it as a critical reporter explaining how such atrocities could happen, and the lack of response from the outside world to them. Beyond that, it hurt to think of how little food he had to survive, and even more so, how emotionally deprived he was. To Shin, “love and mercy and family were words without meaning. God did not disappear or die. Shin had never heard of him” (Harden 3). It truly hurt me inside to realize that even when he tried to laugh or cry, nothing came; he was devoid of feeling, left with only an emptiness inside from the deprivation of his childhood. He never had the luxury of friends, food, or even a loving hug. Instead, he spent most of his days being beaten, forced to compete with his mother for food, and worked almost to death. North Korea has committed many crimes, but it is my belief that this is the most severe. Its citizens suffer from poverty, lack of food, and lack of freedom, but they are alive. However, without feelings, there is no life, merely bleak never-ending existence. The foundation of human existence, the trait that sets us apart from animals, is our feelings, our empathy, and our love for one another. Without empathy, humanity is a species of selfish animals, caring nothing for others or the world around them. Without love, humanity is not human at all. We were built in God’s image, an image of love and kindness; an image that has been forsaken by the North. An image, that one day, will return to the North.]]> 2021-02-10 20:23:03 UTC https://padlet.com/jgraf23/7eho8lu9by8wrnqv/wish/1189588467