The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag, by Kang Chol-Hwan

by Kang Chol-Hwan

Translated by Pierre Rigolout

(2005)

Basic Books

(Journalism, Prison Memoir, Social Commentary)

Mr. Kang tells of his family’s arrest and removal to the Yodok labor camp in the remote northern mountains of the Korean Peninsula, where even if a prisoner escaped, they would likely die from exposure. Mr. Kang entered the camp at age nine. After serving a ten-year sentence, he was released and escaped North Korea through China. He reached the safety of South Korea in 1992. Mr. Kang’s story was one of the first to reveal conditions inside North Korea. It is a compelling story of cruelty, survival, and faith. Mr. Kang is currently an activist for human rights in North Korea. 

“We were, of course, marked as former political prisoners–in North Korea, identification cards always give a citizen’s most recent occupation. Mine indicated that I had worked for army unit 2915. That would mean nothing to an ordinary citizen, but a security agent would immediately understand he was dealing with a former political prisoner. We were constantly being watched, in our neighborhood and at our work, both by security agents and ubiquitous snitches, who were just as plentiful on the outside as they had been in the camp. Every in North Korea, of course, is under surveillance…” (162 “Ten Years in the Camp”)