There have been some great prison escapes over the years, as prisoners made a run from
captivity via raging waters and perilous forests, pursued by trained guards and ruthless dogs.
But how would you escape from prison...if your prison was a whole country? That was the challenge
facing one man who found himself in the most tightly controlled dictatorship in the world,
North Korea. Imprisoned in one of the most notorious prison camps in the world, he faced
a seemingly impossible task - become the only person ever to escape from the Total Control Zone.
Shin Dong-Hyuk was born a prisoner at the Kaechon Internment Camp, also known as Camp
14 in North Korea. North Korea is full of prison camps, but Kaechon is a Total Control Zone - a
labor camp reserved for the prisoners they want to subject to the harshest treatment. In North Korea,
that’s not just the political dissidents who question or challenge the Kim regime,
but their relatives and even their descendants who weren’t born at the time of the crime. The crimes
of Shin Dong-Hyuk’s family were unknown, but his parents had displayed good behavior in the camp.
His father told Shin that his wife had been given to him as a reward for his work in the machine
shop. Because so much of the day was devoted to hard labor, Shin almost never saw his father, and
food was so scarce that he had to compete with his mother and his brother for limited rations. The
cruel guards constantly told Shin that he had to work to prove himself, and that any disobedience
could get him executed. In Camp 14, family wasn’t family - they were rivals and threats.
The closest thing Shin had to a normal childhood experience was when he went to school,
but even there the harsh reality of life in a total control zone was inescapable. Lessons did
not even mention the country they lived in, and as for physical education? Forget about dodgeball and
running laps - students were sent out as laborers to keep the camp looking clean and to work on
industrial products. Even in school the threat of harsh punishment or worse was inescapable,
as Kim once saw a girl beaten to death for hoarding food. Why was the Kim family’s cult
of personality completely missing from the Kaechon Internment Camp? Because the families
trapped there weren’t being rehabilitated or taught to be loyal citizens. They had
already been written off for the society, and weren’t part of Kim’s ideal society.
From an early age, Shin learned that he had to fight to survive,
and death could lurk around every corner. They only got enough food to survive - barely - and
starvation-level hunger was a constant. The only option was to forage for food and pick weeds or
capture small animals for eating - unless you were willing to work as an informant. The guards were
always on the lookout for inmates committing minor infractions that, in a prison camp in North Korea,
were death penalty crimes. Shin witnessed dozens of executions during his childhood, many of whom
were reported by other inmates for food rewards. Shin started telling the guards what he saw,
but it didn’t save him from punishments, including harsh beatings for mistakes during work detail.
He even lost part of a finger when his supervisor chopped it off after he broke a sewing machine.
Unlike most North Korean labor camps, Kaechon was for those deemed completely unredeemable, and no
one there had any hope of release. Even those born in the camp were considered irredeemable
for their bloodline, and the only purpose the inmates had was labor. You chose an industry,
worked hard, and hoped the guards didn’t object to anything you did. The ultimate goal was to be
chosen for a position in livestock, because you had access to the animal food and could steal a
few bits away when the guards weren’t looking. Some inmates were even desperate enough that
they would root through animal droppings, hoping to find a few grains of undigested corn. Yum.
Shin had never experienced life outside the camp and didn’t know anything else, but his
mother was a different story. She was desperate to escape, and she began plotting an escape with
his older brother. One day, a 13-year-old Shin overheard them talking about the escape plan,
and he became jealous that she had prepared a better meal of rice for his brother instead of
the soupy corn porridge he had eaten. Resentful, he saw an opportunity to better his situation
in the camp, and decided to tell his teacher. But the teacher at the school wasn’t available,
so he told the night guard at his school. This backfired horribly,
as the night guard claimed he had discovered the information on his own.
Instead of being rewarded, Shin was arrested along with his entire family. He was tortured
horribly for four days, as the guards demanded to know what he knew and used fire and hooks
to force information out of him. He was left with horrible scars all along his body, and was left in
a tiny cell for seven months. Finally, the guards realized that Shin and his father weren’t part of
the conspiracy. They were taken out of their cells and placed in a car, and driven back to the camp.
When they arrived, there was a horrible surprise waiting for them - it was the execution of Shin’s
mother and brother. He and his father were forced to watch, and for the first time Shin realized the
gravity of what he had done and the horrors of the camp he lived in. He knew he had to get out.
Shin’s eyes had been opened, and everywhere around him he saw terror and violence. He was allowed to
return to his job at a textile factory, and there he met the man who would become his partner in
the next stage of his journey to freedom. His name was Park, and he wasn’t like Shin. He hadn’t spent
his entire life in the camp. A former citizen of Pyongyang, he was one of North Korea’s more
well-traveled citizens, having traveled to the communist countries of East Germany and China.
While both countries were oppressive, there was much more freedom to learn there
and different things to experience. He claimed to have shook Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il’s hand,
and Shin was fascinated by his stories. Park told Shin all about the world that existed outside the
camp - especially about the food. Virtually every meal Shin had eaten in his life had been the same
gruel of corn and cabbage, maybe with an insect or rat he caught. With every word Park told Shin,
Shin became more determined - he would complete the journey his mother and brother started.
Shin and Park formed a pact to escape, each bringing their unique skills to the task.
Shin knew the camp inside and out - in fact, he knew nothing but it - while Park was a
new inmate and wouldn’t be able to escape without Shin’s help. But outside the camp,
Shin would be helpless and Park promised to guide him to safety. They just needed an opportunity,
and it presented itself on January 2nd, 2005. Work details were assigned randomly, and they
had to be aware of their surroundings at every moment. When they were assigned to work near the
dangerous electric fence, they saw that the guards were taking longer than usual to make a circuit.
They only had a few minutes, but as soon as the guards were out of sight, they made their move.
Park attempted to climb the electric fence, but the high-voltage system wasn’t designed
to provide gentle shocks. No one left Kaechon Internment Camp alive - one way or another.
As soon as Park tried to climb it, he received a fatal shock, but in dying he gave his partner
one last opportunity. His body was positioned in a way that Shin could use him to ground the current
and make it through the fence. His body was hit by brutal electric shocks
even with the extra protection, and his legs were horribly burned when they brushed the lowest wire.
Shin was terribly wounded and in agonizing pain, but for the first time in his life, he was free.
The guards hadn’t noticed him yet, and Shin knew he had to move fast. He broke into the
nearest house outside the camp, which belonged to a farmer, and was lucky enough to find an old
military uniform. No one had ever seen him outside the camp, so he was able to impersonate a North
Korean soldier. Now it was time to learn about the world outside, starting with money. He stole a bag
of rice and sold it to some hungry people. That allowed him his first taste of luxury - cookies,
which were one of the first sweet things he had ever tasted, and cigarettes. But he knew word
of an escape from the camp would soon get out, and he had to keep moving. He eventually made
his way to the northern border with China, and North Korea’s brutal conditions worked in his
favor. The border guards were starving too, and when Shin bribed them with food and cigarettes,
they let him through. Shin Dong-Hyuk had done the near-impossible - escaped North Korea.
Shin was terrified he would be caught and sent back, so he stayed under the radar in China.
He was used to hard labor, so working as a migrant worker around China was the easiest
way to survive. But when a journalist found him in a Shanghai restaurant and discovered his story,
he was taken to the South Korean embassy and was able to claim asylum. After interrogation - much
less harsh than he was used to - he was cleared of any suspicion of being a North Korean agent
and he could tell his story to the world. He released a Korean memoir,
moved to America, and told his story to journalist Blaine Harden. He became famous,
worked for the non-profit Liberty in North Korea, and even spoke before the United Nations.
For the first time, people outside of North Korea were hearing a first-hand account of the horrors
inside the Kim regime’s prison camps. His memoir, “Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey
from North Korea to Freedom in the West” became essential reading around the world.
But there was one more twist to the story. As Shin Dong-Hyuk’s story spread,
the North Koreans realized that he was spreading their darkest secrets.
In 2012, they released their own version of the story. They at first
denied he had ever been one of their prisoners, and later identified him as having been born
Shin In Guen. They aired an interview with his father and other witnesses, who claimed that
his story was false or exaggerated. His father claimed Shin hadn’t been born in Camp 14, and was
sent there not because his family were dissidents but because of a terrible sex crime. He claimed
that Shin’s mother and brother weren’t accused of plotting an escape, but were convicted of murder.
Shin claimed that he had heard these rumors, but they weren’t true. The North Korean propaganda
effort continued as they worked to discredit Shin’s story, until one fateful day in 2015…
Shin contacted Blaine Harden, and a new edition of the book was released.
Shin now revealed in a forward that he had embellished his story for dramatic purposes,
and revealed new details. He now claimed that he was born in Camp 14, but spent years at
the less harsh Camp 18. He admitted to falsely implicating his mother and brother in a murder,
which he says is something he’ll regret to his dying day. He also revealed two failed escape
attempts from Camp 18 that led to him being tortured and returned to Camp 14. But the
one thing he never wavered on was the details of his escape from Camp 14, the sacrifice of Park,
and his desperate run for freedom. Although many questioned if Shin Dong-Hyuk was still a credible
witness to North Korean prison camps, he never stopped advocating for freedom for the country
he was born in. And he never stopped appreciating his new home. If you ask him today what freedom
means to him, he’ll say “Roast Chicken” - a symbol of his escape from starvation to plenty.
Looking for more of the most dangerous escapes from prison ever?
Check out “The Most Insane Ways Men Escaped From Prison”, or check out this video instead.