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At a glance
- Condition
- New
- Dimensions
- 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 in
- Weight
- 8.5 oz
- Publisher
- Basic Books
- Publication date
- August 24, 2005
- Language
- English
- Print length
- 238 pages
Description
"Destined to become a classic" (Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking), this harrowing memoir of life inside North Korea was the first account to emerge from the notoriously secretive country -- and it remains one of the most terrifying. Amid escalating nuclear tensions, Kim Jong-un and North Korea's other leaders have kept a tight grasp on their one-party state, quashing any nascent opposition movements and sending all suspected dissidents to its brutal concentration camps for "re-education." Kang Chol-Hwan is the first survivor of one of these camps to escape and tell his story to the world, documenting the extreme conditions in these gulags and providing a personal insight into life in North Korea. Sent to the notorious labor camp Yodok when he was nine years old, Kang observed frequent public executions and endured forced labor and near-starvation rations for ten years. In 1992, he escaped to South Korea, where he found God and now advocates for human rights in North Korea. Part horror story, part historical document, part memoir, part political tract, this book brings together unassailable firsthand experience, setting one young man's personal suffering in the wider context of modern history, giving eyewitness proof to the abuses perpetrated by the North Korean regime. Read more
Specs 9
| Publisher | Basic Books |
|---|---|
| Publication date | August 24, 2005 |
| Edition | 7/25/05 |
| Language | English |
| Print length | 238 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0465011047 |
| ISBN-13 | 49 |
| Item Weight | 8.5 ounces |
| Dimensions | 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches |
No specs match.
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Top Amazon Reviews
Devastating. Beautifully written.
Format: Paperback
I've read this book several times. It's absolutely devastating and incredibly intriguing. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in what life was like for some civilians living in North Korea during the Arduous March, and in the horrific forced labor camps. It's beautifully written. It's haunting and it will stay with you forever.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2026 by Rosie
A courageous, heartbreaking, eye opening, biography
Format: Paperback
I work in the travel industry and have seen and worked with people from all over the world. One day it occured to me that I had never once met someone born in North Korea, this piqued my interest so I decided to do some research. I am in no way an expert on politics or foreign affairs or civil rights. I'm just a regular shmo who was curious about life in North Korea. Reading this book opened my eyes to a country I knew virtually nothing about. I ignorantly thought North Korea and it's leaders were just a bunch of punch lines to insensitive jokes. This book really gives the reader a glimpse into the everyday people of a nation utterly isolated from the rest of the world and denied everyday experiences many of us take for granted. The book centers on one man born in North Korea to an affluent family with ties to Japan. He is a rare breed in the country as most North Koreans know only poverty and struggle. The book follows his early years, his families decline in favor and his ultimate imprisonment in one of North Korea's many horrifying prison camps. The majority of his young life and early adulthood is spent in one of these forced labor camps reserved for family members of citizens imprisoned in much stricter and terrifying conditions. His only crime was being related to someone the North Korean government deemed guilty of crimes against their great leader and country. This book is unique in many ways. I've read several biographies now on life in North Korea written by prior citizens of DPRK who ultimately defected to non communist countries. This particular biography is one of the most interesting to me for several reasons. It's a story of a boy who experienced both extremes of North Korean living. He was born into a rich family that was well taken care of and had many privledges the majority of the country did not. He had a television, ample food, a large house and nice clothing. Where most other families were lucky to have enough to eat each day. This early life gave him a unique perspective gave the reader a fleeting glimpse into what the elite lived like in this communist regime. At the age of 10 he and his family were sent to a forced labor camp thus hurling him into a life which was the polar opposite of everything he knew. His description of his time in the camp is heart breaking, graphic and surreal. At such a young age to be treated worse than anything I could imagine in conditions no living thing should ever experience he managed to survive at any cost. The book chronicles his life in the camp, his ultimate release, his life back in regular society during the infamous famine and his ultimate decision and journey to defect to the South. He also touches upon the difficulties of life in a westernized society and his experience transitioning to a country that viewed him not as an equal of Korean heritage but as a lesser version. Overall a bittersweet escape. Mr. Kang has seen both extremes, the privledge and the horror of his birth country's communist regime. He experienced how fragile life, favor, and status can be in such a government. His tale is one of deep saddness, bravery and an infallible will to survive. While reading this book it's difficult to remember and keep in perspective that these events are true, that such a country exists that it isn't some made up cautionary fairy tale but rather a real life hunger games. These people lived this horror, they still live it today and we and the rest of the world barely even know about it. I finished this book and instantly wanted to learn more and see what other people experienced and most of the books I've read are very similar. All the defectors are incredibly brave people who fought for their lives and their families and decided to escape and create new lives in a world they knew nothing about. In my opinion everyone should read this book, everyone should be made aware of the living conditions and the grotesque human rights violations that is their reality. Kim Jong Il, his father and his son, none of them are just silly little men ripe for parody. They are real monsters and they are causing suffering on a level I never could have imagined before reading this book. No country is perfect but it does put into perspective our lives and the way in which we live. I've read many reviews on this book and several other biographies written by DPRK defectors and some concerns from readers are that details may have been exaggerated or embellished from these people's lives to make a more compelling biography. Perhaps they have, but even if only 25% of the horrors this book and other's like it describe are true than that's more than anything I can imagine. All of these people have experienced hardships we as westerners will most likely never know and they are brave enough to tell their stories in great detail. This book is an eye opener, it makes you appreciate the life we have, the freedoms we take for granted daily and the opportunities we are given everyday that others may only dream of. I recommend reading this book, to take the time to learn a bit about a country that so desperately wants to remain a secret. It inspired me to be thankful for my life, my luck and my world and inspired me to become more involved in organizations that can help others maintain and achieve all the civil rights every human being deserves.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2015 by J B
Very, Very Vital Reading
Format: Paperback
My reading of human-rights literature is a little slender, but THE AQUARIUMS OF PYONGYANG ranks as one of the best I've thus far discovered. The symbolism of the title is one of the only real literary devices on display here (and it is both apt and effectively used); otherwise this very straightforward account of a family and a childhood turned inside out by the absolute moral corruption of the North Korean regime is a dry, devastating and informative read. Kang's writing successfully balances between the matter-of-fact and a conversational informality that manages do almost accomplish the impossible: to have not experienced the politics and controls of North Korea, I don't think any of us could truly see the world through his eyes, but he does manage to get close enough to make this a scary piece of literature, and an enraging one for anyone who cares about the state of human rights, which would hopefully be all of us. Throughout, I was reminded specifically of the late Dr. Haing Ngor's A CAMBODIAN ODYSSEY. Dr. Ngor survived the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge years in Cambodia, only to subsequently gain fame in the west through the film "The Killing Fields;" a powerful film greatly overshadowed by the grim detail of his own autobiographical account. THE AQUARIUMS OF PYONGYANG is very similar - both in the undeniability of Ngor and Kang's repective insistence upon levels of human dignity that most of us take for granted, and in the parallels between the two nations. The current state of affairs in North Korea inspires very little hope; this updated edition of this book provides a link to the website of the NGO organized by Kang, and this resource is valuable - this must-read book is only the beginning, in many ways. I will state that I am a cynic and a skeptic about just about everything that I read and hear; and I came away from this book firmly convinced that it's author is one of today's more heroic figures, and that this book is absolutely essential. -David Alston
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Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2006 by David Alston
Great story, hopefully it will do some good.
Format: Paperback
This story comes off as being quite authentic. The author tells the majority of the story from the first person point of view. There are obvious things which he didn't witness such as his family's history prior to their move from Japan to North Korea, but these are only for background information. Everything about this book reveals how desensitized Kang became due to his upbringing, at least while he was in the camp. He explains how he was able to adapt and overcome. He pointed out how undevoted to the cause the security agents in the camp were, the soldiers, and other various officials in the North Korea government. Regardless, all people lived in fear of either their superiors, their friends who were often snitches, and their minders. Kang also displays the complete and total breakdown of the North's distribution and rationing system, the birth of an illicit market economy and the rampant corruption in the Stalinist-type system. When Kang speaks as a witness of camp 15, and says there are certainly much worse camps, it is terrifying to know that people at this very moment are still enduring what he and his family endured. Kang must feel some ambivalence towards his decision to flee the country after being released, as his family and particularly his sister have allegedly been sent back. It is very possible that his sister was condemned to the section of the prison for the un-redeemables, in other words, those who are sentenced to work to death on secret government programs. The worst part about the entire system is that guilt by association (which really was the reason his family was put away in the first place), is the norm. His entire family was put away for their grandfather's alleged political crimes. Nobody knows what happened to him. Hopefully Kang's story will have an effect for the good, and Kim Jong-un will be able to make much needed market reforms. Even if NK reaches the point of China, things will have improved one hundred fold.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2012 by Ginger Chow
Gripping insight into North Korean life for a child in a gulag
This account of a child taken away to a hard labor camp when he was only 10 years old (or 9 if you count in the Korean way) is quite extraordinary. The depth to which a person will sink in order to survive as well as the barbarism of the North Korean soldiers is something I will not soon forget. After all that we in the U.S. have read about political prisoners in China and human rights abuses there, a stark reality of North Korean under Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and now, his son is drawn when the author of this book escapes to China and feels all this amazing freedom of speech, freedom of information, and freedom to go to clubs, etc. I still cannot get out of my head that things like salamanders and worms were eaten for nourishment, not to mention rats being a major source of meat. In any case, this is a book that every South Korean and American should read. It certainly opened my eyes and convinced me that we really need to bring far more pressure on the North Korean regime because hundreds of thousands of people are dying as a result of the barbaric communist regime there. The closest parallels that I can imagine for the portrait drawn in this book are the Soviet Union under Stalin and Germany under Hitler. Ironically, the author had started out in North Korea in a fairly comfortable fashion with his grandparents being connected to the North Korean communist party and his grandfather tied into a position that enabled his family to have more of everything than others around them, not to mention the original wealth of his grandfather.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2012 by M. E. Nunn
Preliminarily Pleased
I have only read half of the book. I bought it for the long flight from SFO to ICN a few weeks ago. I didn't read much of it during the flight. But while I was abroad, I began it and could scarcely put it down, even though my itinerary left little time for other activities. Now that I am home, I will soon complete the book. As I said, I could scarcely put the book down; it is an engrossing account of a family's suffering at the hands of the brutal North Korean regime. It is a tale of hopes and expectations, of fears and revelations, of degradation and emancipation. It is an expose of the mind and operations of one third of G. Bush's "Axis of Evil," a fitting appellation for a government that keeps its own population deprived, not only of the truth of its own malevalence and the truth of the world at large, but of life's most basic necessities, not to mention the simple human desire for freedom of thought and movement. I read a review downplaying the author's writing style as "wanting." Nevertheless, I found it rather powerful and poignant. It's certainly not Solzhenytsin's "Gulag Archipalego," but it is a worthy work in its own right and well worth the read. I may add to this review once I have finished the book. But suffice it to say that I am glad to have found it; it has earned a permanent place on my shelf.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2009 by Gregory C. Trotter
Eye-opening
Format: Kindle
An incredibly eye-opening account of what the suffering in North Korea is really like. The author is exquisitely detailed and honest in his recounting.
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2026 by Jesse
A Memoir of Solace
Format: Paperback
Man's inhumanity to man - this theme just kept coming back to me while reading this book. The other theme: the strength of the human spirit. Kang Chol-Hwan outlines a tale of survival and renewal that were both interesting and stupefying. I wasnt aware of the large Korean-Japanese communist contingency inside of Japan that repatriated to North Korea in the 1960-70s (of which the author was part), only to see their fortunes stolen and families thrown into prison camps like Yudok. The severe struggles for food and basic clothing were hard to stomach for me, knowing how bountiful those items are elsewhere in the world. As a memoir of this man's childhood, you get coming of age stories wrapped up inside a concentration camp. The mistakes we so routinely make as children are life and death decisions in Yudok. One scenario Chol-Hwan points out that stuck with me was where a friend of his was kicked into a septic tank by a rogue 'teacher' and then was left to wallow in the filth for 20-30 minutes only to succumb to illness days later. From lows like that, the author takes you to highs where he taunted North Korean military while living as a fugitive in China. The whole escape was especially enjoyable, you could feel the emotion so well. Chol-Hwan covers a wider range of feelings in 200 pages than most will cover in their lifetimes. And that's probably the most remarkable thing about the book: the author does all of this while never really getting into any details or character development. It may be a cognitive dissonance type of thing to omit the details of something so horrific; I respect the decision but it ultimately takes away from the book. The ideal audience for a memoir like this is hard to pin down. The material can be graphic at times so I think you would need to be at least high school age and slightly knowledgeable about the historical context from the 20th century. Anyone can get something out of a book like this but the more you understand about WWII, the Cold War and the Korean War, the more this book will resonate with you. It's chilling, haunting and most of all necessary.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2013 by staypuftman