Shortly after escaping from North Korea, Shin Dong-hyuk formulated what he called a “sanitized” version of the his life, which he repeated for almost 10 years and subsequently became a book, which was published in 2012.
That book describing his time in a North Korean prison camp became a best-seller, made him a key witness before the United Nations and grabbed headlines around the world.
But last month, Shin revealed that parts of his story were not true and that he spent most of his life in North Korea at a different prison camp, Camp 18, rather than the total control zone that formed the title of his biography. While Shin stands by his allegations of torture and abuses by North Koreans, his admission stirred controversy about truth and trauma among defectors.
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And some of those questions still persist including how he escaped and found his way to China. Those questions may never be answered with any certainty.
“Raised in a dysfunctional family in a secret prison, badly educated, and tortured, he is a flawed eyewitness to the savagery of the world’s last totalitarian state,” wrote Harden.
