Interviews with Kang Chol-hwan

For me it was a great honor and also I think that it was helpful to all of the North Korean people and the pro-democracy movement of North Korea. It was everything beyond what I expected because it was an event that symbolized support for the North Korean people.

The US President who is the leader of the entire world, agreed to meet me in person and that gave me encouragement. It was a special event for all of us North Koreans who were watching the event. It was for the people who are still suffering in North Korea. I was told that many people were excited that I got a chance to meet President Bush because only fifty years ago people were told that the USSR was the greatest enemy. But now a person from the most oppressed country in the world had the opportunity to meet the US president in the White House. It sent a massive shock to North Korea and gave the North Korean people a ray of hope about their future.

Even though the US is far away, it was great to see a country such as the US express anger at the regime of Kin Jeong Il. It was also great to see that the US was expressing concern about the people of North Korea. The North Korean people were comforted by this. It gave strength and courage for the resistance movements and the opportunity to join forces. I heard from North Korea from my sources that my meeting with President Bush at the White House even reached the North Korean people. Although it gave the officials fears, it gave the oppressed people who are suffering hope. Until the end of 1980’s the Cold War system ruled the world. Russia and China lead the world in the communist bloc and they opposed the free world. After Russia and China collapsed from the communist bloc after the end of the 1980’s there were despotic countries that were the mutants of the Cold War era. These regimes considered themselves to be socialist regime but actually that was only by name and they were extortionist regimes that only serves the interest of few people. North Korea is one of them and Cuba, Iran, and Iraq all belong in this category. They did not function with the Cold War system and are truly evil empires like the one that Hitler created.

President Bush´s rhetoric was accurate and appropriate since he spoke about what he saw and how he judged these countries. The “Axis of Evil” described North Korea appropriately and it changed the era of global politics. It described the essence of the North Korean regime. The North Korean people thought that their regime was not good and evil. This was something that the North Korean people could not even think about nor did they have the words to express. The North Korean people were awakened when they heard the words of President Bush. It gave the message that Kim Jeong Il was truly evil. So the term “Axis of Evil” was important to the Korean people and affected the regime in a significant way.

Kang Chol-Hwan escaped from North Korea in 1992 and has dedicated his life to bringing attention to the horrifying conditions in North Korea.

When Kang was 9 years old, the North Korean government accused his grandfather of treason and sent the family to one of its most notorious concentration camps, Yodok. Kang lived in the camp for 10 years, surviving on meager corn rations along with rats and earthworms. He and his family were forced to work in fields and mines and to witness public executions of their fellow prisoners.

Following his release from the camp, Kang bought an illegal radio receiver and began listening secretly to broadcasts from South Korea. These broadcasts allowed Kang to understand the differences between totalitarian societies, like North Korea, and free societies. Kang and a friend escaped North Korea by sneaking across the border to China and went from there to South Korea, where he lives today.

Kang described his experiences in his powerful memoir, “The Aquariums of Pyongyang.” President Bush welcomed Kang to the White House in 2005 .

North Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) is a country of 23 million people in northeast Asia, ruled by Communist dictator Kim Jong-Un. His deceased predecessors—father, Kim Jong-Il, and grandfather, Kim Il-Sung – respectively retain the titles of “Eternal President” and “The Great Leader.”

The Korean War began in 1950, when Kim Il-Sung, backed by the Soviet Union and China, attacked South Korea. The conflict ended in a cease-fire rather than a peace treaty, and the border between the two Koreas remains tense and heavily militarized.

Kim Il-Sung employed harsh tactics to consolidate his power and propagated an extreme personality cult that has been continued by his successors. A blend of communist doctrine, state terror, xenophobia and hyper-nationalism has given North Korea its unique ideology. Despite some recent openings, North Korea remains largely isolated from the rest of the world.

With the end of Soviet communism and withdrawal of economic support, North Korea’s economy collapsed in the 1990s. A massive famine, aggravated by the regime’s indifference, killed as many as 2 million people between 1994 and 1998. While conditions have improved, even today, North Korea faces problems of malnutrition and insufficient access to food.

Tensions between North and South Korea remain high. In 2010, North Korea sank a South Korean naval vessel, killing 46 sailors and attacked a South Korean island, killing four civilians. North Korea has developed and tested nuclear weapons in contravention of several international agreements. The country withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 in order to test ballistic missiles and eventually a nuclear device. Multilateral negotiations have so far failed to constrain North Korea’s arms buildup and nuclear program.

North Korea is among the world’s most repressive states, engaging in widespread and systematic human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions, torture, forced abortion, arbitrary detention, and denial of the rights of expression, association, assembly, and religion. The government pervasively regulates all aspects of the lives of its citizens, each of whom is categorized as “core,” “wavering,” or “hostile,” according to the history of his or her family’s relationship with the regime. Access to housing, employment, education, and other social and economic goods depend heavily on these security classifications. The government determines where each citizen will live, and travel within the country is strictly limited.

Emigration is prohibited. Refugees who have escaped to China have frequently been forcibly returned to North Korea where they are imprisoned, subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, and sometimes executed. The government operates a network of forced labor camps for an estimated 120,000 political prisoners. While persons convicted of ordinary crimes serve fixed sentences, those convicted of political crimes are confined indefinitely. Punishment is extended to three generations – the offender’s parents, siblings, and children are also incarcerated, as a way to pressure North Koreans to conform. Political offenders are often denied food, clothing, and medical care, and many die in prison.

Freedom House’s Freedom in the World report classifies North Korea as “not free” and as one of nine nations whose lack of political rights and civil liberties are considered the “worst of the worst.”