...is the disturbing story of a 25 yr old North Korean man who is the only known escapee from a DPRK gulag.
It's on the front page of The Washington Post on Thursday, Dec 11, and has been picked up by the Huffington Post, so it's getting lots of attention.
The man, Shin Dong-hyuk, was born in Camp No. 14, ate corn kernels from cow dung, was held in solitary confinement and tortured as a 14-year-old, and watched the executions of his mother and brother. He escaped by climbing over the body of a fellow prisoner who got hung up on an electrified barbed-wire fence.
If you want to read more, this website has an English version of Shin's life story - including a few gruesome drawings he made about his torture.
By itself, Shin's story would be amazing. But Blaine, in his Blainian way, made a larger, more important point: South Koreans have all but ignored Shin because they don't much care what's happening in North Korea right now. And that indifference lessens the pressure -- to the extent that there is any pressure -- on the DPRK to change its ways.
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