Escape From Camp 14 Sparknotes

Nightmarish Treatment of Prisoners in North Korean Prison Camps Innocent people are being starved and tortured in secret North Korean camps that the government are trying to hide from the rest of the world. These prisoners are being deprived of nutritious meals, and are being forced to scavenge for barely enough food. These poor people are being deprived of basic human rights, and no person has let anybody know about it, until now. In 2013, Blaine Harden revealed the true story of Shin Dong-Hyuk, through the novel Escape From Camp 14. Shin was raised in Camp 14, a secret prison camp located in North Korea. Harden illustrates how Shin grew up, how he grew up with a lack of affection for his family, how he viewed them as competitors for

The food rations were extremely small, definitely not enough to properly sustain the prisoners with the amount of daily hard work that they had to endure. Their meals usually consisted of one bowl of cabbage soup, a meal definitely not large nor nutritious enough to sustain the overworked prisoners, and barely enough to sustain a child. Shin recounts to Harden about how he had to become proficient in catching and eating rats and insects when food rations were scarce, and even how he even rummaged through animal droppings for undigested kernels of corn. “In the school cafeteria, he scrounged constantly for spilled cabbage soup, dipping his hand in cold dirty soup that had spilled on the floor and licking his fingers clean. He searched floors, roads, and fields for grains of rice, beans, or cow dung that contained

“Kim Jong-un has proudly shown off a new airport terminal selling duty-free Mars Bars and beer - despite the fact that his nation is starving in a terrible drought,” (1). This statement shows me that the leader of North Korea is spending funds on new airports instead of nourishment for his nation. This action shows even in Camp 14, where the prisoners could really use imported cereal grains to give the laborers enough carbohydrates to sustain their harsh lifestyle.

One article in particular stood out to me, for its content was an interview of a woman who escaped from a secret North Korean prison camp with her son, very much like Shin had. The article illustrates the life of the mother during her time in the camp, especially her diet. “It was unspeakably bad. The whole of North Korea is one big prison. People are all hungry. And now, there aren't even rats, snakes or wild plants left for them to eat,” (1). This statement in particular reminds me of the diet that Shin had while he was in Camp