Kang Chol-hwan

Korean spelling
Hangeul	강철환
Hanja	姜哲煥
Revised Romanization	Gang Cheol-hwan
McCune- Reischauer	Kang Ch'ŏlhwan
See also : Korean name

Kang Chol-hwan (born September 18, 1968  in Pyongyang ) is a North Korean journalist and former prisoner of the Yodŏk internment camp . Together with Pierre Rigoulot , after his escape to South Korea , he wrote the book Les Aquariums de Pyongyang ("The Aquariums of Pyongyang"), in which he describes his life in the North Korean camp.

Life

Kang Chol-hwan with US President George W. Bush .

Kang's grandparents were Koreans who emigrated to Japan in the 1930s but later returned to North Korea. Kang spent his childhood in the North Korean capital Pyongyang , where his family lived in relatively good circumstances thanks to the position of his grandfather and the fact that he had transferred a considerable fortune to the North Korean state on his return from Japan. Although the family was loyal to the North Korean state - Kang's grandmother was a staunch Communist Party member and had been a Ch'ongryŏn member in Japan - the family members remained under constant suspicion of unreliability, solely because they had previously lived in Japan. In 1977, Kang's grandfather was charged with treason and arrested. He was taken to the infamous Sŭnghori prison camp, which is known to be particularly cruel . As relatives of a traitor, the other family members were also arrested and taken to the Yodŏk camp. Kang Chol-hwan was 9 years old at the time, his sister Mi-ho was 7.

He describes life in the camp as hard and cruel. As far as care was concerned, the prisoners were largely left to their own devices under the worst conditions. So death by starvation was a constant threat. Beatings and other punishments and executions were the order of the day. Kang's schooling in the camp consisted largely of memorizing quotes and speeches from Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il . At the age of 15, schooling in the camp ended. From then on, Kang was assigned to hard labor and had to witness executions in front of the camp public. Four years later, he and his family were released.

After his release from prison, Kang Chol-hwan lived in North Korea for several years. He owned a radio that allowed him to receive broadcasts from the south of the country, which is a crime in North Korea. When Kang found out that the state authorities were on to him, he and a friend fled across the Yalu River to China and from there to South Korea.

In 2000, the book Les Aquariums de Pyongyang appeared in France in which Kang wrote down his memories of life in the north with the help of the French author Pierre Rigoulot . The book is also available in English translation (under the title The Aquariums of Pyongyang ). A German translation has not yet been published. Kang now lives in Seoul and works as a journalist for the South Korean daily Chosŏn Ilbo . He also works as a human rights activist . In this context, he met with US President George W. Bush and Great Britain's former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw , among others . Since his escape, he had no contact with his family who remained in North Korea, but he sent money to his sister Mi-ho through Mittler. Around May 2011, neighbors and Korean-Chinese smugglers reported that she and her 11-year-old son Kim Jeong-nam suddenly disappeared. It is believed that they were interned again in Yodŏk.

See also

• Human rights situation in North Korea
• Yodŏk Detention Center

literature

• Kang Chol-hwan, Pierre Rigoulot: Les Aquariums de Pyongyang. Dix ans au Goulag Nord-Coréen. Paris: Robert Laffon 2000. ISBN 2-221-09101-9 (French).
• Kang Chol-hwan, Pierre Rigoulot: Aquariums of Pyongyang. Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag. New York: Basic Books 2001. ISBN 0-465-01101-2 (English).
• Kang Chol-hwan: The much sought-after rabbits. In the labor camp. In: Christoph Moeskes (Ed.): North Korea. Insights into an enigmatic country. Berlin: Ch.Links 2004. pp. 149–156. ISBN 3-86153-318-9 . (Section from Les Aquariums de Pyongyang, translated into German ).
• Give us an 'Eclipse Policy' - comment Kang's the policy of the United States and South Korea over Kim Jong-il's regime (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Anne Schneppen: Ten years in hell . Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 23, 2003
2. ↑ Andrei Lankov: Kang Chol-hwan: harbinger of N. Korean defectors . The Korea Times, June 6, 2012
3. ↑ Kang Chol Hwan in Justin Corfield: Historical Dictionary of Pyongyang , Anthem Press, London / New York 2013
4. ↑ http://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/petition_to_unwgad.pdf Petition to: United Nations Working Group On Arbitrary Detention

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Kang is the family name here, Chol-hwan is the first name.