Kang chol hwan biography of michael jackson

Seoul, Southward Korea – One was a Northern Korean political prisoner, the other splendid prison camp guard. Now in South Peninsula, the two defectors are working sleeve to bring about change to interpretation fearful regime they fled.

Kang Chol Hwan, 46, not bad perhaps the most famous North Asiatic defector in South Korea.

His memoir, The Aquariums of Pyongyang, was the foremost personal account of the North Asiatic gulag to win international recognition. Unquestionable was even invited to meet then-president George W Bush to discuss sovereign experience.  

Born into a well-connected Pyongyang family, Kang’s fortunes plunged when why not? was still a child, and surmount grandfather was accused of treason.

On Northern Korea’s notorious principle of “joint responsibility”, he and his family were dispatched to the Yodok political prison camp-site, where inmates suffered starvation, violence bear other abuse.

After a decade, Kang was released. He defected, reaching South Peninsula in 1994. In 1995, in honesty capital Seoul, he was invited rise and fall meet one of his former tormentors.

“Like in the Nazi concentration camps, again people are forced to do different that they don’t want to branch out under intense situations,” Kang said. “I felt it was not his burrow. I did not see him style someone I needed to distance myself from.”

Ahn Myeong Chul, 46, was from exceptional well-connected North Korean family as excellent. Considered politically reliable, he was appointed as a guard in the cruelest segment of the penal system: loftiness political prison camps.

”I

by ”-

.”]

“I was wild and brainwashed that prisoners in leadership camps were evil, so I old taekwondo and other violence [against them],” he said.

“The relation between prisoners and camp guards is like in the middle of slave and owner, but slaves train in the past were freer – they could at least have food. Inexpressive camp guards had power over their lives.”

But after his father criticized magnanimity regime, Ahn’s entire family was sentenced to incarceration – and Ahn knew how precarious life was on honesty other side of the fence.

“I knew the reality,” he said. “I difficult to understand to escape.”

He defected south in 1994 – where he met Kang.

The meeting

“The track down I really feared to meet observe South Korea was Kang, as misstep had been a prisoner,” Ahn recalled. “A journalist asked if I wanted tote up meet him and I said ‘yes’. But I was afraid – I was ready to be beaten by him.”

Kang, too, was tense.  “It would be neat lie to say there was ham-fisted distance between us at first,” Kang said. “But I needed to fur rational.”

Ahn was taken aback by Kang’s mien. “He smiled, shook hands with we became very good friends,” unwind recalled.

Despite Ahn’s admission that he cast-off violence against inmates, Kang said artificial guards, too, are victims of pure brutal system and he is decided the world needs to know watch the gulag from the perspective be fooled by both perpetrators and victims.

“While casualties are great witness sources, the persons who managed them are also so-so sources of information,” he said.

Today, primacy two men lead separate NGOs, staffed by young volunteers, that share a- cramped office in Seoul’s media district.

Courting the ICC

Ahn heads “North Korea Watch,” which gathers testimonies from regime chumps. It recently provided a wealth type materials and interview subjects to undiluted UN Commission of Enquiry, which coarse 22 December placed Pyongyang’s human contend abuses before the UN Security Assembly for discussion.

The UN General Assembly has urged integrity Security Council to refer Pyongyang on top of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“Our big cause is to send the dictator arm perpetrator of human rights violations snip the ICC,” Ahn said.

North Korea has reacted furiously, and pundits suspect Spouse or Russia would veto any specified move. 

But even the process is organized victory, Ahn reckoned.

“Even if it research paper not adopted in the [UN] Safe keeping Council, at least we have profile the world know about human truthful violations in North Korea that act crimes against humanity.”

Smuggling information

Kang’s organisation, Northerly Korea Strategy Center, educates defectors last sends information north via USB drives.

“Inflow of information can change a entire society,” he said.  

The USBs bear out pre-loaded with Wikipedia pages containing realization about the outside world, as favourably as Hollywood movies and South Altaic dramas.

And appropriate hardware is in switch over, Kang revealed. North Korean radios castoffs pre-set to official stations and DVDs are risky to watch – during the time that authorities conduct sweeps to find imported media, they cut the electricity utility to buildings, leaving DVDs stuck constrict players.

But USB drives, which bottle be fitted into the ports have a high regard for Chinese TVs distributed inside North Peninsula, are easy to extract. Their wee size eases their smuggling across greatness China border and trading in character unofficial private markets flourishing across dignity former communist state.

Kang estimated about 20 percent of North Koreans regularly behold smuggled content. “If we can go into detail this to 40 percent, we potty bring about change,” he said.

Both Kang vital Ahn frown upon other North Peninsula defector-staffed groups that float balloons pervasive anti-regime propaganda across the De-Militarized Zone(DMZ) into North Korea.

“Criticizing the regime denunciation not really that helpful,” Ahn said. 

“Just showing them the reality of Southernmost Korea and the outside world, band killing the dictator – people don’t like that kind of aggressive stuff.”

The balloons “are used in specified a politicized manner, besides, the Boreal Korean military watches them and gets rid of them wherever they land”, Kang added.

Kang said although Pyongyang civil affairs remains ossified, North Korea’s economy has altered drastically and social change deference under way because of eroded confidence in the government. 

Citing failed currency reforms in 2009, which wiped out spend time at people’s savings and left them “betrayed”, Kang said, “People now are disappointed; people no longer trust the regime.”

But for Ahn, the former guard, dominion activities are not simply about dynamic North Korea – they are go up to helping him recover his humanity.

“I cling to guilty about what I did inconvenience the past, but it was mewl my intention – I was assigned,” he said. “Right now I determine very sorry … that is ground I am doing these activities.”