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The Role Of Prisoners In Shin Dong-Hyuk's Escape From Camp 14

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Did you know that at this very moment, many innocent prisoners are being forced to work for no pay and are being tortured because of crimes of their relatives? This is all because of North Korea’s labor camps, known as political prisons. In these camps, prisoners are denied many of their basic rights and are given the minimal amount of food, clothing, and other necessities. Shin Dong-hyuk was born in one of these camps, and he tells his story in his biography, Escape From Camp 14. The book talks about the horrible living conditions inside the camp. It also talks about the harsh punishments, distrust, and snitching. Of the three social classes of North Korea, the prisoners in these camps are at the very bottom. They are, accordingly, treated horribly and disregarded as members of society. …show more content…

When the children are left at home while their parents work, they often eat their food, along with their parents’ food, never considering the consequences of this. When their parents get home hungry and find no food, they beat the children with whatever they can find. The defenseless children have no way of stopping this. The prisoners are given the same meal every day: corn porridge, pickled cabbage, and cabbage soup. Could you imagine eating the exact same meal every single day for your entire life? For the prisoners in Camp 14, this is a grim reality. As a child, Shin recalls scavenging for rats, frogs, and insects, because he was starving. When Shin heard that roasted meat was available nearly everywhere outside the camp, it became a monumental motivation for him to escape. When he did escape, at age 23, he was shocked at the wide variety of food outside the

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As Shin was born in a work intensive political prison, he grew up knowing nothing but the teachings of the guards. Never having experienced a civilized society, he unquestioningly accepting the camp’s authority and called it home. Prisoners were praised on a daily to betray family members and friends for better treatment. Furthermore, family members were punished on one’s behalf to condemn the wrongdoer.

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So no animals or people were eating enough food because the camp had to many prisoners so there wasn’t enough food to go around between all of the prisoners. Also the prisoner were “regularly chained” (Center for Prison Reforms). Sometimes they were chained in a closet and they were left there for a long period of time without food and water. If a prisoner was mentally ill, they were “held in the general population with no treatments available to them.” (Center for Prison Reforms).

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