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Theme Of Escape From Camp 14

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Henry Davis Mr. Herman Global Studies 113 Block 6 25 April 2023 Interconnectedness in Escape from Camp 14 Blaine Harden’s book, Escape from Camp 14, is a book about Shin Dong-hyuk, who escaped from a North Korean labour camp, and life in North Korea as a whole. There are many themes in the book but it greatly emphasises on interconnectedness. The course theme of interconnectedness is shown by relations between countries such as North Korea, South Korea, China, and the United States because of their roles on the international stage, political conflicts, wars, and trade. Harden emphasised this by showing North Korea’s communist dependence on China for aid and food, North Korea’s anti-American propaganda and hatred for the United States, the …show more content…

After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union divided Korea and occupied it as a trusteeship, however, they could not agree on terms and the country split into one communist and one capitalist. During the Korean War, the U.S. aided South Korea in trying to prevent the spread of communism from the North. This fueled hatred between the North and the U.S. Since then, the North Korean government has viewed the U.S. as a capitalist coloniser, and paints this exact description to all the citizens of North Korea. In addition, North Korea has tried to hurt the U.S. government and economy many times, for example, in the book, Harden states that many high class North Korean agents and operatives have gone to the United States and worked out ways to funnel money to the North Korean government, as well as selling U.S. information and weapons to countries such as Iraq and Syria. Furthermore, the government has brainwashed the citizens of North Korea to think that the United States is a bad capitalist country that is a threat. One example is when Charles Jenkins, a U.S. army sergeant serving in South Korea in 1965, stumbled across the North Korean border and surrendered his rifle to the North Korea soldiers, instead of harming him, the North Korean government decided to turn him into an actor for anti-American propaganda. “The North Korean government turned him into an actor who always played an evil Caucasian face in propaganda movies that demonised the United States,” (Harden 134). This shows the interconnectedness between North Korea and the United States and the hatred from North Korea to the United

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