Camp 14: Total Control Zone Page #4

that I had had to suffer so much in prison.

I can't quite remember

how my father reacted.

I didn't pay much attention to him.

I think he cried.

I felt sick.

But I think my father

had tears in his eyes.

You could cry?

No, not at all.

I hadn't learn that you suppose

to cry when your mother is executed.

All I had learn is that you

have to report disobedience

because otherwise you made a mistake.

That's why I didn't see the need to cry

when my mother was executed.

I didn't feel in the slightest bit guilty,

even though I killed so often there.

After the execution of a regular criminal,

we were given special rations:

a bit of meat and

two bottles of alcohol.

In the penal camps for political prisoners

there is no such reward system.

When we had shot someone,

we thought it was the right thing to do...

to protect our country.

That's why I thought it was normal.

If we didn't want to get our hands dirty,

we chose a group of inmates.

I said:
"You kill one of your group,

or I kill all of you."

Why should I make myself dirty

and see blood on my hands.

There were easy ways.

I just waited until one of the inmates

in the group was beaten to death...

by his fellow inmates.

- Shin!

- Hello!

Headquarters of LiNK

(Liberty for North Korea)

- Hi. Good to see you.

- Hi, Shin.

- How are you?

- Thank you. Good.

- Good?

Shin's been working with LiNK

for probably since the end of May 2008.

We heard his story

and I was flew to United States and

he went on a to me tour around... round the US

and told the story basically in house parties.

and in 2009 he came back

up more permanently.

tell his in front of governments

around the world.

A story that validates

why a lot of us are here.

In summer 2004 a new inmate

came to the camps factory.

I had never seen him before.

He was moved to my work group.

We worked together.

He was a lot older than me.

God, I tell stories like an old woman.

He told me a lot about his life.

Stories about his life outside of the camp.

How he had lived there.

He was so lively and happy

when talked about it.

In contrast to him I had

been born in the camp

and spend my entire life

living as an inmate.

That's why he told me about

the outside world in detail.

He was very proud of the life he

had left before he came to the camp.

But I had never experience that world

and couldn't understand all that.

I heard that he slept in a bed

and I heard about the

house he have lived in.

He told me about programs

he watched on television

and heard on the radio.

And that he'd travel to China once.

Things like that.

I didn't know that world.

I never seen it.

Not even heard about it.

I just had no feelings about it.

The stories about the

food awaked my curiosity.

He had eaten meat at a barbecue.

He had eaten chicken.

That was something I wanted.

Just the fact that you could

lead a life like that.

There wasn't much to talk

about in the labour camp.

But food was a subject that all

inmates were hugely interested in.

That's why I was so curious

to hear his stories about food.

Finally the idea of attempting

an escape griping in me.

I wanted to check what the world

he told me about really existed.

I wanted to see with my own

eyes this world existed.

I imagined the greatest things.

For the first time in my life

I wanted to get out of the camp.

One day and told him

that I wanted to escape

and experience the world

he had told me about.

The reason why I wanted

to escape wasn't freedom.

I wasn't thinking about freedom.

Even if I would to be shot tomorrow

because I was trying to escape

I at least wanted to eat

a piece of chicken.

A cook meat.

Just once in my life.

I wanted to eat rice until I was full.

That was all I wanted.

On the second of January 2005

we went to the mountain to get firewood.

I knew the place very well.

The edge of the camp with

the electric fence wasn't far away.

We couldn't see any guards around

and ran to the fence.

My friend began to climb.

He got an electric shock and

died on the barbed wire.

His body pulled the wire down

and there was a gap.

I was able to crawl through

the fence over his back.

I felt an electric shock on my lags.

My shins were burned.

But I didn't have time to see to my wounds.

I was lucky. I was out.

It's a shame that we didn't both

manage to escape from the labour camp,

didn't both survive.

On the other side of the

fence I just kept running.

I just wanted to get away.

My only thought was to

get away from the camp.

The first morning in

freedom was a big shock.

The picture of North Korea

that I saw that morning

was a big shock for me.

I saw people running around

freely, talking and laughing.

They weren't under surveillance.

Nobody had to salute to police

officers when they walked past.

They were all wearing colourful clothes.

Clothes they like wearing.

It felt to me like this world was happy.

I could hardly believe it.

I could hardly believe that the

world in front of my eyes existed.

It is very hard for me to describe

this first scene in North Korea

after I escaped.

It was paradise for me.

If I found an empty house

I went in to steal something.

I didn't know at the time what money meant.

Then I saw how people use

paper to get food and other things.

When I found an empty house

I went in to steal food or clothing

or sometimes a bit of money.

It was winter and I needed cloth.

While I was there I heard

about this country, China.

It was dusk when I reached

the border river Tumen.

The river had frozen over.

So it was easy to cross the river.

That's how I got to China.

At the time North Korean refugees

could cross the river

without any great difficulty.

They were hardly any soldiers about.

It has become very difficult now.

What I find extremely regrettable

is that I didn't even

smile once at my father

before running away.

He must had suffer terribly.

Beating, torture.

Maybe he was shot for my escape.

Maybe he's not alive anymore.

Do your son know what you have

done in North Korea in the prison camp?

Of course I'm going to tell

my little boy everything I did.

When he's old enough and

can understand it okay.

My boy doesn't know much about North Korea

yet and I don't want to intimidate him.

He's still in primary school.

When he goes to secondary school,

I'll tell him the truth.

What I did and what job I had In North

Korea, how North Korean society works...

and why Daddy fled to South Korea.

It won't be too late.

But I think at the moment

it would be much too early.

Korea could be re-united sometime.

To be honest, I'm scared.

I could meet the people I tortured.

If they're still alive.

When I think about it,

I'm overcome by guilt.

Why did I behave that way?

We're all equal human beings.

Where's the ash tray?

Can we open the window?

I have to tell you about

it in South Korea now

but if I don't do it, someone else will.

Everything has to be discussed by

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