Reddit reviews The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag
We found 25 Reddit comments about The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Well done OP. I am trying to make more and more people aware of the vile crimes of North Korea's Evil "God" Kim Jong Un (Kim III, it's essentially a kingdom) and the extermination camps that are based on Treblinka or Auschwitz.
It is SO important to bring attention to these vile crimes against humanity.
If I may trespass on your patience OP, I would take the opportunity to promote
"The Aquariums of Pyongyang" by Chol-hwan Kang, Translated by Pierre Rigoulot. A compelling account of the North Korean Gulag.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Aquariums-Pyongyang-Years-Korean/dp/0465011047
You think that you've just made a super intelligent point because you've pointed out the obvious fact that the US has issues with human rights and with over-criminalization. It isn't an intelligent point because you don't know jack shit about North Korea. You don't know dick about how people live there, and I know that because if you did, you would pull your head out of your ass and realize that the issues that the United States has are not even in the same order of magnitude as the issues that North Korea has.
I recommend that you read the following books to give you a better sense of life in North Korea, so that in the future you can be more educated on the subject:
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag
Aquariums of Pyongyang is really an eye-opening book on how horrendous the atrocities are.
For Korea in general I took a lot of East Asian history courses, including courses on relations with the west, in college. I studied abroad in South Korea for a time where I studied Korean history (ancient and modern) as well as Korean culture and sociology (mostly South Korea). I also had the pleasure of speaking with someone from North Korea.
But if you're interested to know more, these are some sources I can personally recommend...
Books:
And there's more that I have not read yet. If you only read one book out of these, I'd say Nothing to Envy is a great place to start. It gives the most complete picture, in my opinion.
Documentaries:
And there's a whole bunch more that I have not seen yet.
And there's a whole bunch of essays and journals/photo collections floating around the internet as well.
> Yet, how is it any different from those of you who suggest that life is better than death?
What the hell is wrong with you? North Koreans aren't some alien race, they're human beings who also don't want to die. Read memoirs from NK escapees like The Aquariums of Pyongyang or Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. I attended a talk by the man written about in Escape from Camp 14, a man born in a NK prison camp who managed to escape.
These are not people longing for death; they're people longing for life.
>Why do you feel that it is fair to use your own experiences in this life to determine the value of life for other people?
We're not. You are:
"We shouldn't let people starve to death."
"But how do we know they don't want to starve to death!?"
You have absolutely no idea at all what you're talking about, your opinion is idiotic, and you're an awful person for having it.
Honestly, what the fuck is wrong with you? I hate this false "all positions are equal, teach the controversy!" charade.
I encourage, as always, everyone pick up The Aquariums of Pyongyang , Escape from Camp 14 , as well as Nothing To Envy as u/winginit21 mentioned.
Also David Hawk's The Hidden Gulag:Second Edition is a great resource. (PDF File)
This is a great book about a boy stuck in a North Korean gulag for ten years. I believe he did an AMA as well.
OP's book was the best of the ones I've read on NK and its policies and prison camps. I recommend it.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Aquariums-Pyongyang-Years-Korean/dp/0465011047
Rather than watch the vice guide videos (which only show you the propaganda that the DPRK wants you to see) you should go read books like these:
These and other books give you amazing insight into what it's like to actually live inside North Korea. May of the defectors who have been interviewed for these books do indicate that they do believe in the personality cult around the Kim's, at least at a certain level.
Not read Escape From Camp 14 yet, but The Aquariums of Pyongyang was shocking too.
But the fact is propaganda is only effective when people don't have other sources of information. That is why North Korean propaganda has been so effective for so long, the government was able to cut people off from the outside world. But there are currently 20,000 North Koreans living in South Korea and even more in hiding in China, so we do know.
We have access to information about the North and we know that it is not this universal hellish life for absolutely all, some of these people came from privileged backgrounds and lived lives of comfort before whatever happened and they had to escape, others lived in slave camps such as Yodok. We know they exist, because a couple people have escaped and written books about it. Kang Chol-Hwan has a body full of scars because of the abuse he suffered there. There are numerous lectures he has given about his life if you google it, or you can read his book, Aquariums of Pyongyang. The truth is we know quite a lot about what is going on in North Korea, and there are multiple layers of classes that exist in the society based on their family history and thus perceived "loyalty" to the state, what you see in the videos are most likely people with a very low status, high status people live better but all are paranoid due to the intense system of spying and state surveillance.
I recommend the book, Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader to those who want to learn what really happens in the North.
Anyone who enjoyed this might also enjoy The Aquariums of Pyongyang. It's a well done firsthand account of the North Korean gulag system.
For anyone wondering what it's like in a North Korean Prison camp I highly recommend The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag. It was written by a guy who spent 10 years in Yodok prison camp, then defect to South Korea. It contains some background info on North Korean government corruption and other stuff as well.
I bought Mike Kim's book Escaping North Korea after seeing that segment air and I must say I was extremely disappointed. The book seems very poorly constructed and he pushes the Christianity a little much for me. I recommend reading the 3 star and below ratings on Amazon, I wish I had before purchasing this book.
On the other hand, an extremely good book I read before reading Mike Kim's book was Aquariums of Pyongyang: 10 Years in a North Korean Gulag by Chol-hwan Kang. If you're interested in North Korea from the inside, especially the prison camps, this is the book to read.
I read a in The Aquariums of Pyongyang that often it's not just the offender, but also his/her family that are sent to labor camps.
Is that true? If so, how was your dad's family able to escape going?
I recommend three books:
Escape from Camp 14 - This book is most useful about life in the prision camp and the reasons why people are sent there. But its information on daily life is somewhat limited.
The Aquariums of Pyongyang - This is about a 10 year stay in a prison camp, but it has considerable information about daily life in NK, especially after the writer was freed from his camp.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Aquariums-Pyongyang-Years-Korean/dp/0465011047
A third book is by Charles Robert Jenkins, "The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea"
This is about an American who defected to NK. He defected impulsively in 1965. He was somewhat poorly educated. He was depressed and fearful of being reassigned to Vietnam. He impulsively defected while drunk, thinking he would be repatriated in 2 weeks. NK held him as a sort of prisoner for 39 years. In NK he was treated as part prisioner and part VIP, a bizzarre but fascinating situation. He had priveleges beyond the average North Korean, but great restrictions on his freedom He has much insight into daily living conditions there.
The Aquariums of Pyongyang is a memoir about 10 years spent in a North Korean prison camp.
> bourgeois propaganda
Really?
So, a country that would create Kijŏng-dong, wouldn't even consider telling their citizens that they are required to stay indoors for the filming of something?
As to sources, sources for what? That NK is completely fucked? I needn't look that hard.
Why are enough people attempting to escape that this begins to happen?
"I had to be careful of my thoughts because I believed Kim Jong-il could read my mind."
["He controls his administration exclusively. It operates absolutely by his word. It's an autocracy."](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kim/them/defector.html
)
I'm all for defending the Soc\Com view and promoting it, but if you think that NK is working out great and simply being held down by the capitalist majority, you're being ignorant. Take the picture of a pitch black NK surrounded by the lights of Japan, China, and SK. You would have me believe that that's a propaganda job? That they've colored over the actual amount of lights? Who exactly benefits from that? It's not like NK has some vast supply of resources that are highly sought after. They provide nearly nothing to the international community. The Korean was is long over, and the only benefit that NK serves currently is a Buffer between The US and China, which is why China props them up-something that they are growing quite tired of doing if the rumblings are indeed correct.
Propaganda benefits someone or something. If it doesn't, it serves no purpose.
Furthermore, are you trying to say that The Famine which was documented by numerous aid groups, wasn't true? In that case, what leads the NK military to lower its physical requirements in a fitting time span for stunted growth patterns due to undernourishment? Just plain chance?
I mean, read some books about the reality of NK. Here's some good choices-
Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea
Nothing to Envy
The Aquariums of Pyongyang
Escape from Camp 14
Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite
If you honestly believe that his many people are part of some propaganda campaign to make a country that already looks terrible look worse, that's pure /r/conspiracy thinking.
If you get a chance, read Aquariums of Pyongyang by a North Korean defector. Truly unbelievable stuff.
Also, Axis of Evil World Tour has an interesting North Korea section (in addition to its Iran and Iraq sections).
https://www.amazon.com/Aquariums-Pyongyang-Years-North-Korean/dp/0465011047
Might not be of any interest to you, but The Aquariums of Pyongyang is an interesting account of escape from NK written by the escapee himself.
Aquariums of Pyongyang is one I just finished. The author was a defector who was sent to a prison camp as a child for 10 years because his grandfather got too grumbly about the government. It's a good look into the divisions in society there.
I would say that north koreans see that their country is run very poorly and show intense dislike for the system, but still love the dear leader, as this article, sadly behind a paywall, suggests. In addition, a survey of 297 conducted by seoul university, which I cannot find the original data for, only [this article ] (http://csis.org/files/publication/twq12winterchaanderson.pdf) that was without a paywall, apparently showed that about 75% of North Korean harbors no ill sentiment towards Kim Jong-Il.
Same story goes for the book [Aquariums of Pyongyang] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Aquariums-Pyongyang-Years-Korean/dp/0465011047), which I have to admit, might be slightly biased against North Korea, but even someone who spent 10 years in the north korean gulag, doesn't harbor any ill feelings towards Kim Jong-Il. I highly recommend that book if you're interested in an inside look into the gulags of North Korea.
A final note, I'm not disagreeing with you on the fact that many north koreans want to go back home, just adding my two cents because I find North Korea so interesting.
Was this title on purpose? I read the book:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Aquariums-Pyongyang-Years-Korean/dp/0465011047
The author was a child from a 'more privileged' family in North Korea. One of the hobbies was fish collecting. I forget who it was exactly, but one of his fish jumped out of the tank and another little Korean boy stepped on it because he was jealous of the beautiful fish.
The gullibility and smarmy naivete in this thread is just pathetic. Yes. War is bad. What a revelation. Why hasn't anybody else thought of that before?
If you want to feel all warm and fuzzy inside go buy a Hallmark card or go browse /r/aww.
People living in the real world understand that geopolitics is a game of advantage that you can't circumvent by pleading for everyone to join hands and sing Kumbaya. When you appease dictators and cede ground to them you simply enable and embolden their behavior. Furthermore, the South Korean president is hugging and holding hands with a mass murderer who has enslaved over 20 million people, condemning them to a live a life of near starvation and physical/psychological imprisonment. You're the leader of an extraordinarily prosperous, democratic country; have some dignity. You're meeting a piece of human excrement who is feeling on top of the world right now. You shake the man's hand for diplomacy's sake. You don't hug and caress him.
It's just so god damned pathetic how naive people are. What's happening here is that South Korea learned to live under a nuclear DPRK a long time ago. What they can't abide is constantly ratcheting up brinksmanship that is eagerly stoked by a senile reality tv star with the strongest military in the history of the world at his beck and call.
China, RoK, and DPRK have cooked up this appeasement scheme to dupe Trump into thinking he's quelled the DPRK threat. DPRK will keep its nuclear weapons (the announcement that they've completed their nuclear weapons program and no longer need the facility they're shutting down should have been a good indicator of DPRK's intentions for people that were too blind to them up until now) and as we can see here, the Kim regime gets boatloads of photo opportunities, diplomatic prestige, increased security internally, increased legitimacy externally and inevitably sanctions relief. China will benefit from further DPRK stability and increased trade opportunities (and leverage on Trump as well). And South Korea gets to see the sabre-rattling cease and they receive the same benefits China does from prolonged security for Kim regime. They don't want to deal with that humanitarian crisis either. Trump gets a plaque on his wall that says "Best Negotiator Ever" and a polaroid of a North Korean testing facility with a "closed" sign on the gate.
But don't let me get in the way of everyone "awwwwww"ing over this like it's a picture of a cat hugging a golden retriever. Bunch of rubes.
edit: Can't wait to see all the memes come out of this. Kim Jong Un is gonna have his image rehabilitated the same way GWB did lol... But I don't want this to just a useless rant yelling at silly people. So, before you guys start memeing up KJU let me give you guys a short reading list of DPRK books I've greatly enjoyed (I've been fascinated with DPRK for at least a decade):
So yeah, check any of those books out then come back here and see if you're still inclined to "oooo" and "awww" and talk about how sweet this is.