My Neighbor to the North

I just finished reading The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Kang Chol-hwan. In it he relives his horrific 10 years in a North Korean concentration camp, his escape to China, and his arrival to South Korea.

At age 9 he entered a camp called Yoduk because his grandfather was thought to have a tendency to go against the revolution from time to time. At Yoduk, much like the camps of the Holocaust, men, women, and children were overworked, underfed, generously beaten, and killed for any type of disrespect shown towards Kim Il-Sung or the revolution of the time. Independence was (and still is) a foreign language whether one is in the camp or outside of it’s constantino wire walls.

I’ve read and taught novels, memoirs, and essays about the Holocaust and concentration camps. I’ve listened to a Holocaust survivor speak about his experiences dodging the Nazis and fearing every morning’s sunrise. But nothing has ever moved me as much as this book. Perhaps it’s the fact that the terror and sheer injustice he experienced is still going on today. Perhaps it’s because I am less than a 5 hour drive to where this suffering is taking place. Or, perhaps it is that most people have no idea what is actually happening there. It’s a major human rights issue that is rarely taught or heard about because, unfortunately, North Korea wants it that way. Even in the media North Korea’s nuclear situation trumps the fact that the majority of its population is denied fundamental human rights.

And perhaps the most disturbing thing is the fact that little can be done about it. The UN is sending food, yes, but according to an article in the The Earth Times from February 19, “North Korea said Friday it would not trade its nuclear weapons for ‘petty’ economic aid…” offered by South Korea. How do you help a country whose sufferers’ cries are suppressed by a tyrannical government hungry for power? If we did try to help the voiceless, we can’t always bank on Bill Clinton rescuing us from the depths of Pyongyang all the time.

I don’t have any answers, but I have made the decision to start researching about aid organizations and searching for tangible solutions here in South Korea. And I suggest you read the book, not saying you will enjoy it, but read it out of obligation as a human being and global citizen. I suppose the first step to helping is understanding that people simply can not and should not live like my neighbors to the north.

-Callie