Forgive Shin Dong Hyok the man, but not Shin Dong Hyok the activist
What had always puzzled me the most about Shin Dong Hyok’s account of growing up in and escaping from Camp 14 was how someone raised in such isolation from the rules of North Korean society could have had the resources and survival skills to infiltrate all the way from the Taedong River to the Chinese border, and then successfully cross it. How did he replace his prisoner clothing? How did he find money to bribe railroad police and border guards? What did he eat?
In my post on Camp 14, I linked to a video where Shin was asked those questions (see 49 minutes in). I wrote that Shin’s answers didn’t quite satisfy me, but I offered no opinion as to the veracity of his account. Although those questions were never answered to my satisfaction, including in Shin’s book, I had no basis to call him a liar, either. I decided to let the readers judge for themselves.
In one way, Shin’s admission that he lied about growing up in Camp 14 might answer those questions. Shin now says that he was transferred across the river to Camp 18 when he was six. Until its fences were taken down, Camp 18, as horrible a place as it was, was the least brutal of North Korea’s largest camps. In Camp 18, or perhaps in another kind of camp called a kyo-hwa-so, Shin could have acquired the materials and survival skills necessary to infiltrate through the world’s most policed state. That Shin did that much is still beyond serious question. On balance, I still think it’s likely that Shin spent some time in a camp. People I trust have seen the scars on his back, and he has other injuries consistent with torture and child labor.
(Update: in the comments, Curtis points out that North Korea has unintentionally acknowledged that Shin was in Camp 18 as a child. Thanks to Curtis, as always, for his exceptional detective work.)
But none of that means we should ever trust Shin again. Once a witness perjures himself, no responsible advocate can ever call him to testify again, and most courts would instruct the jurors to disregard his testimony in its entirety. I’ve met Shin, and although I couldn’t bring myself to ask him about Camp 14, he’s clearly a bright and energetic young man. In some other capacity, he can still have a great future. As an activist, however, his credibility is gone. No man matters more than the truth itself.
What troubles me most about Shin’s admission won’t be Pyongyang’s crowings, or those of North Korea’s noisy sympathizers — the tendentious and unreadable Marxist academics, the cleverer ones who argue from ignorance, the mendacious profiteers, or the combustible know-nothings — although that’s something we can all look forward to. Smart and fair-minded people will continue to ignore these people, because they can see that the weight of the witness testimony and satellite imagery is still overwhelming. Shin isn’t the only witness from Camp 14, and his admissions don’t alter our understanding of the other camps in the slightest. Indeed, Shin’s account gained the prominence it did because it was an outlier.
Of course, not all people are smart or fair-minded, and the world’s more simplistic thinkers will conclude from this that all of the survivors are liars. Many of them already wanted to conclude as much.
As much as this troubles me, what troubles me much more is how much this admission will hurt the kind-hearted people I know and call my friends, who embraced Shin as a son or a brother. At this moment, they’re the ones whose pain I feel the most. Shin the man, the friend, the adopted son and brother, can be forgiven, but Shin the activist can’t be. And no matter how much of his account you’re still willing to accept as true, those he has hurt the most are the millions of North Koreans, including thousands of camp inmates, who remain in North Korea, and who might yet be saved if the world unites to act on their behalf.
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Update: To put a finer point on it, Shin is one of 25,000 refugees to come out of North Korea, including dozens who have described crimes against humanity in multiple prison camps. The U.N. Commission of Inquiry did not accuse North Korea of crimes against humanity based on the account of one man, but on the testimony of 80 witnesses and experts, and on 240 confidential interviews with victims and other witnesses. The press accounts suggest that it was some of those other witnesses who forced Shin to come clean. Good for them.
That doesn’t get Shin off the hook for lying to us, but it doesn’t get Kim Jong Un off the hook, either.
Update 2: Drop whatever you’re doing and read Curtis’s post on this. The splitting irony of it is that the North Koreans have actually done an excellent job of corroborating Shin’s new story — that he grew up in another camp, just not the same one he’d originally claimed. Had the North Koreans said nothing at all, I wouldn’t know what to believe. They probably didn’t count on Curtis’s extraordinary, encyclopedic knowledge of every second- and third-level administrative district in North Korea, or his ability to explain the significance of what Shin’s father said in the video it released, or to spot the inconsistencies that suggest that he was coached. But as I’ve said so many times before, never underestimate Curtis.
Update 3, Jan. 20, 2015:
Michael Kirby, chairman of the Commission of Inquiry into North Korea, said that Shin’s testimony consisted of only two paragraphs in the 400-page report and that he was only one of hundreds of North Korean witnesses.
“It’s a very small part of a very long story. And it really doesn’t affect the credibility of the testimony, which is online,” he said. “Lots of people took part (in) this inquiry. Their stories are powerful and convincing, and these stories do not only represent Shin but other people in North Korea.”
In a reversal of his story told for years, Shin told Harden on Friday that he had been transferred to another prison, Camp 18, when he was 6, instead of spending his entire life inside North Korea at the total control zone Camp 14, the author says on his website.
The distinction of whether Shin was imprisoned in Camp 14 or 18 was not a deal breaker for Kirby.
“It seems as if the issue is whether he was in the total control zone, or whether he was in an ordinary prison camp. In another words, it’s whether triple horror or double horror,” Kirby said. [CNN]
12 Responses
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Is there a possibility that he was forced to make this statement because he is threatened by North Korean agent/government? I went to his Facebook page, and he seems to be concerned about his father for some months now. Could North Korea threaten him to discredit himself in exchange for his father’s life?
That said, the refugees are often found to exaggerate their stories in order to win more sympathies, and most of them are used to lying to survive in China and even South Korea. Shin was caught lying for the first edition of his book where he concealed the fact that his mother and brother were executed because of him. From then on it is not difficult to guess some part of the books are not entirely truthful. But I believe that those who would conclude all survivors are liars are in the minority, given the fact that contemporary exposure on North Korea’s prison camps is (hopefully) wide spread enough.
Sure, I suppose that’s possible.
North Korea has also unintentionally acknowledged that Shin was in Camp 18: http://www.nkeconwatch.com/2015/01/18/dprk-also-acknowledges-shin-was-in-camp-18-unintentionally/
Great write up, Curtis!
Hi Josh,
I just wanted to ask you to look at the two NKDB papers
1.)Political Prison Camps in North Korea Today
and
2.) Survey Report on Political Prisoners’ Camps in North Korea.
There seems to be a lot of stuff in there that is informative as to Shin’s life and the world he clearly did grow up in regardless of everyting else.. And you know what- so much agrees with him, I think it chages everything.
the history of and the relationship between the two camps 18 and 14 and prisoners and former prisoners at Bukchang was inherently, and intentionally, perhaps confusing.
I think we need to defocus a bit away from this specific situation to understand what the real lay of the land is here. Shin is not the issue. I think that we should step back a bit and look at the big picture,
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PPC No. 18, located in Pukchang, South Pyongan Province, under the control of Police Headquarters, was clearly distinct in administration from PPC under the control of the SSA. Further study is required to determine if the camp can be recognized as a PPC.
The camp No. 18 in Pukchang remained in the same location **after a section of it was moved and relocated somewhere upstream of the Taedong River to make a new PPC in Kaechon.**
Lately, many areas were returned to local government and some prisoners were relocated to the Pongchang area. The present survey reveals that the process and situation were distinct by areas.
“When PPC No. 18 was partially closed, there remained some 80 families that were not to be released. I was told that PPC No. 18 could not be totally closed as part of its purpose was the detention of formerly high ranking officials dispatched at any time from Pyongyang or Kangwon Province, a location to detain high ranking officials in future. The 80 families did not have records of serious crimes. They were, rather, from families so impoverished that they could not bribe officials for release. In North Korea. being poor is a crime and being unable to bribe is a sin. PPC No.’s 14 and No. 18 face each other across the Taedong River. Public trials and execution took place behind the tile factory where I used to work in PPC No. 18 and these were watched by the entire prisoner population of PPC No 14 from the other side of the river. PPC No. 14 has only farms. When it was closed in the beginning of 2007, the 80 families that were not released were transported to Mujindae. The two guard posts, Chaktong and Songni, were closed. The tile factory, part of the construction unit and where I’d worked, the planning and draftsmen office, the cement and pottery factories, the liquor factory and elderly prisoners’ unit were all moved over to No. 14. Roads disappeared and new barbed wire was set up. Barbed wire was also set up in the valley of the 2 nd unit of Ponghcang-ni Village. I was told that No. 14 would encompass the entire area of Pongchang-ni. There was a place called No. 12 inside a valley, on the right side of No. 14, and the other side of Taedong River from No. 18. Wonpyong-ni is the name of the village.” (A09, former prisoner, from PPC No. 18, 1975~2000)
“We lived in the Popi area, Soksan-ni, Pukchang County, South Pyongan Province, prior to 1984. Newly arrived people lived in the areas of Paektan, Tukchang, Kalkol, Myonghak and Chamsan. Then, many people were released after 1984. After that, there was a big change in the situation. In 1991, entire areas were removed from restriction. In the Tukchang Control Center where I lived, there was a prisoner release in 1984 and once more in 1985. Those of lesser crimes were released and allowed to meet their relatives. Those prisoners of serious crimes were all sent to Pongchang.” (A 01, witness from PPC No. 18)
“The control area in Tukchang, Pukchang County, South Pyongan Province, adjoins Kaechon County on the west and Tokchon County on the north. I passed two barbed wires and the first place I arrived was a mine inside the Suan valley, gloomy and dismal like hell. There are many PPCs but PPC No. 18 is the only PPC under the control of the Prison Bureau, People’s Police, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. In 2006, there were a number of problems including a few escape attempts from PPC No. 18. As a result, PPC No. 18 was relocated to Omok Valley, Sunchang-dong, Yongwon-ni, Kaechon County, South Pyongan Province, during a 5-day period, 21-25 August. The new place was a natural prison surrounded by tall mountains.” (0 Myong-o, former prisoner from PPC No. 18)
“Recent testimonies related to PPC No. 18 reveal that part of PPC No. 18 was removed from restriction and some of the prisoners were transferred to PPC No. 14. PPC No. 18 was then moved to Sunchang-dong, Kaechon County. However, the available information from these testimonies fails to confirm whether it was a case of a complete or simply a partial relocation of PPC. 18.”
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Prisoners from Pongchang-ni were at numerous points transfered to Camp 14..
Source: Political Prison Camps in North Korea Today
Database Center for North Korean Human Rights/North Korean Human Rights Archives
Examples:
“Witness A16 was transferred from Camp No. 17 to Camp No. 18 together with his family during the camp’s relocation, as explained above, and spent seventeen years at Camp No. 18. She provided important information on the circumstances surrounding the closure of the Tukchang area of Camp No. 18 in 1995, whereupon some of the prisoners were sent to Pongchang?ni, which is generally believed to be a maximum security camp. Additionally, Pongchang?ni was divided into two sections, one for ordinary prisoners and the other for released prisoners.”
“The following witnesses are former residents of the Pongchang area. Pongchang area was a maximum security zone and the prisoners in the Tukchang area, a re?education zone under police control, were frightened by it until the 1980s. However, when the camp in Tukchang area began to close in 1984, ordinary prisoners and released prisoners lived together in the same area. Eventually, the entire camp at Pongchang was dismantled in 1984 and those prisoners who were not released were sent to another location in the direction of Kaechon”
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Its so complicated. But it agrees more than disagrees.
Kind of interesting also that suddenly, the survivng inmates of camp 12 – from Onsong County – were apparently relocated to another part of the same area.
(The prisoners from camp 13 – which had been split off from Camp 12 (both were north of camp 22) were merged into Camp 22 in 1990)
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I’ve left out a lot. The two documents are huge (one is over 500 pages)
Read about the level of freedom afforded former Bukchang prisoners, many of whom still lived there among former prisoners in the last 10 or 15 years of the camp’s operation.
They could even travel a bit and some became traders. I think Shin perhaps had been one of them. the quite short length of the finger tip that was cut off implies that perhaps he was a model worker who just tripped – as he said.
There were repeated transfers of prisoners from Camp 18 to 14, which is what Shin claimed happened to him. To illustrate the interconectedness, look at the fact that at the beginning, camp 18 WAS Camp 14, the SSA(MSS) camp. Also “Camp 14” moved north across the river. Then former Camp 18 became a different, less severe camp that absorbed some of the former MSS camp prisoners – and we already were told his father was one who had been given permission to marry. Again, consistant.
In our frustration we think we know this situation. But we don’t NK holds all the cards.
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So, I guess my point is, what is the crime and standard of proof here and who are the real criminals?
So, despite some issues, I think we all should be a LOT less quick to criticize Shin Dong Hyuk.
In light of all that has gone on this weekend re: Shin’s latest news, I have this to say:
Let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone.
I do not condemn nor condone his actions. As evidenced by his scars and partially missing finger, there is no doubt of physical persecution. But even more, he was also tortured in his soul and spirit. Constant brainwashing, torture, and abuse changes the entire psyche of a person.
North Korea is filled with millions of people who live under an oppressive regime which causes abnormalities in their mental health. In order to withstand the rule of an oppressor, one learns and implements survival techniques. It is a very tricky business, and has deep-rooted effects. Trauma therapy is very beneficial, but these things can sometimes can take a life-time to overcome.
Everyone reading his account has at some time in his/her life made a mistake.
Everyone has been in need of grace.
I choose to give grace because Shin is my friend and I love him.
Lisa, Those are all appropriate things to remember. Maybe we’re asking too much of man who has been through what Shin has been through. It’s more than I can even imagine myself. That’s why it’s right to forgive the man. I feel sick for having added to his burden, but some very evil people will now take advantage of Shin’s mistakes. Shin made himself a vehicle for something bigger than himself — something that is of enormous consequence to millions of people who may never meet him.