Escape from Camp 14
One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
by Blaine Harden · first published 2012
67% recommend25% neutral8% critical
Why HN recommends it
Eyewitness account of life inside North Korean political prison camps. An incredible and tragic read for anyone seeking to understand North Korea. Well worth reading or listening to.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The heartwrenching New York Times bestseller about the only known person born inside a North Korean prison camp to have escaped North Korea’s political prison camps have existed twice as long as Stalin’s Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. No one born and raised in these camps is known to have escaped. No one, that is, except Shin Dong-hyuk. In Escape From Camp 14, Blaine Harden unlocks the secrets of the world’s most repressive totalitarian state through the story of Shin’s shocking imprisonment and his astounding getaway. Shin knew nothing of civilized
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For anyone who is interested on reading more about North Korean prison camps, Blaine Harden's 'Escape from camp 14' is an incredible read. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11797365-escape-from-cam...
on “Testimony of Ms. Soon Ok Lee (2002)” ↗In order to understand North Korea, you simply _must_ read Escape from Camp 14[1]. If not, then at least read the Wikipedia entry[2]. Dear lord, it's incredibly tragic... [1]: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0143122916/ [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_Dong-hyuk
on “South Korea to raise $500B for unification” ↗Non-fiction: -Papillion by Henri Charrière: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/bbd4b0ce-baad-4f04-9e98-... -Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/112010c8-be72-4ddc-b5e5-... -The Naked Don't Fear the Water by Matthieu Aikins: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/2572756e-ab98-4376-94be-... -Barbie…
on “Ask HN: Books about people who persevered when no one else believed in them?” ↗I have read The Aquariums of Pyongyang and Escape from Camp 14, both of which are very good. I think that Aquariums is a better overall book, as the author adds context and background throughout the narrative. Camp 14 is more straightforward and limited to his experience,…
on “An interview question that will protect you from North Korean fake workers” ↗Also, Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden.
on “North Korean Central News Agency server logs protected by client-side JavaScript” ↗His biography titled Escape from Camp 14 is well worth a listen to get more details. http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B007MHIXJY&qid...
on “I Was a Political Prisoner at Birth in North Korea” ↗Have you read Escape from Camp 14? It absolutely is a dire human rights catastrophe
on “North Korean's 100k fake IT workers net $500M a year for Kim” ↗I recently read Escape From Camp 14, I would highly recommend it.
on “I Was a Political Prisoner at Birth in North Korea” ↗The ariel imagery still isn't as good as Bing, but the new road layouts are much better. However they don't appear to have the river traces which Bing has. It's interesting because after reading Escape from Camp 14 last year I looked in to visiting the DPRK, considering the moral rammifcations of directly giving cash to the country via one of the approved tourist agencies. Luckily before I had to decide if it was…
on “Google Publishes Detailed Map of North Korea” ↗"Mommy, the Internet is slow again." "Shut up, dear, and finish your bark." I'm reading _Escape from Camp 14_ and _Nothing to Envy_, and it's horrible. They don't need bandwidth, they need something more fundamental (and I don't mean food).
on “Google's Schmidt urges N. Korea to embrace Web” ↗http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/books/escape-from-camp-14-... “In writing this book, I have sometimes struggled to trust him,” Mr. Harden writes understandably in “Escape From Camp 14.” Mr. Harden tries to fathom a cryptic, troubled and not entirely sympathetic…
on “I Was a Political Prisoner at Birth in North Korea” ↗Look at Shin Dong-hyuk's story. I read his book "Escape from Camp 14" several years ago and then afterwards came to find out that a lot of it was misrepresented. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_Dong-hyuk
on “Early humans may have survived the harsh winters by hibernating” ↗