Exploring the Brutality of North Korea's Gulag System: A Decade in Pyongyang's Aquariums

Tucker Cox: The author’s narrative about his life in North Korea and his escape to the South challenges one’s willingness to believe such a harsh, Orwellian, dictatorial government even exists, let alone thrives at the expense of the governed. Yet, in the end, the sincerity of the narrative and credible description of events leave one with deep, heartfelt sympathy and compassion for those living under this brutal totalitarian regime.

United States on Oct 21, 2023

Birdie: I couldn’t put this book down. It is one of the saddest books I’ve ever read and one of the most fascinating look at how incredibly evil and tragic living in North Korea is. The author writes elegantly, clearly and is thorough. It is at times very difficult to read without crying or feeling shocked. My hope is that many more people read this true account so that this awful country can be brought to justice.

United States on May 25, 2023

fallada: In der Schule war bei uns George Orwell's "1984" Pflichtlektüre - eine Fiktion. Dann mussten wir Filme über die Konzentrationslager der Nazis anschauen - Vergangenheit. Zweifellos alles sehr wichtige Lehrinhalte. Nichts gelernt haben wir allerdings über das politische System in Nordkorea - seit Jahrzenten Realität. Erst durch die atomare Bedrohung durch Nordkorea und den Fall Otto Warmbier im letzten Jahr habe ich begonnen, mich mit Nordkorea auseinanderzusetzen. Dieses Buch ist ein Erfahrungsbericht eines Nordkoreaners, welcher einen Großteil seiner Kindheit in einem Straflager verbrachte. Es ist sehr gut und auch sehr spannend geschrieben. Da dieser Bericht ein so wichtiges Zeitzeugnis darstellt ist es mir unbegreiflich, warum es bisher nicht ins Deutsche übersetzt wurde. In französisch, englisch und niederländisch ist es erhältlich. Gerade in Deutschland mit Gedenkstätten in Dachau und Bergen-Belsen, damit es nie wieder solche Konzentrationslager gibt, wäre es doch wichtig, darüber aufzuklären, daß ähnliche Lager immer noch existieren - und welche Manahmen die internationale Gemeinschaft unternimmt, um den unschuldigen Gefangenen zu helfen. Im Unterschied zu den...

Germany on Jul 17, 2019

S. Warfield: With this book the tally of books about North Korea I've read must be nearing a dozen and I have many more in my TBR stack. What keeps me reading is the near disbelief that a country in the 21st century can be so paranoid beyond belief and that the people of North Korea live with a complete disregard for human rights that are violated on a daily basis. They are poor, often sick and malnourished. That the Communist regime under which they live keeps everyone under surveillance must make for a life of uneasiness. The author of The Aquariums of Pyongyang spent 10 years in a prison camp before escaping with a friend to China and then on to South Korea. Without rampant bribery with goods and cash he would have found it much harder to make it out. Whether the Dear Leader, at the time Kim Jung-Il, liked it or not, if cash was available it could buy goods on the black market.

Kang Chol-hwan and his family were sent to a prison camp by association with his grandfather who disappeared and was put in a camp for making statements against the regime. The rest of the family had done nothing wrong but they were sent to a camp after enjoying a wealthy life in Japan. They moved to North...

United States on Feb 27, 2016

MisterHobgoblin: Kang Chol-Hwan is a Korean whose grandparents had lived in Japan and returned to North Korea to help rebuild the Communist nation following the Korean war. With relatives still in Japan sending money and goods, the family lived in considerable comfort in Pyongyang, even if they did have to sacrifice some of their possessions to the party. Chol’s grandfather was in charge of distribution of food and consumer goods, giving him access to pretty much whatever he wanted and making him a good person to know.

Until…

… when Chol was 9, his grandfather disappeared. The family was then required to leave Pyongyang and move to Yodok, a secure village surrounded by mountains and barbed wire. In the book, Chol describes this as a concentration camp – which it is in part. But it is also part prison, part collective farm, part re-education centre. It is something that does not have a direct equivalent in the West.

Chol narrated his story of before Yodok, during Yodok and after Yodok. Whilst some of the detail is shocking, the book is written in a positive, upbeat fashion. Chol is seen to be a lively spirit who never gives up – right from the beginning when he...

United Kingdom on Mar 29, 2015

A. Ch Lanz: . . . außer für Leser, die in ihrer satten Gemütlichkeit unbehelligt vor sich hin dümpeln möchten !

Wer allerdings Interesse am Weltgeschehen hat, sich schon mal (oder auch noch) mit politischen Ideologien und den Grundsätzen des Kommunismus beschäftigt hat, kommt an diesem Buch nicht vorbei.

Es gibt einfach Bücher, bei denen man sich schon fast schuldig macht, wenn man von ihnen weiß und sie trotzdem nicht liest. „The Aquariums of Pyongyang“ gehört ganz sicherlich in diese Kategorie.

Als ich anfing zu lesen, stolperte ich recht schnell über einen Punkt, der mich beinahe veranlasste das Buch weg zu legen: die zumindest vordergründig übertriebene christliche Glaube und die damit vorbundene „Gott-Hörigkeit“. Als ich dann noch las, dass der damalig amtierende U.S. Präsident George W. Bush dieses Buch propagierte, war ich knapp vor kurz am AUS. Jeder hat halt so seine Vorurteile, und eines der meinen ist die Überzeugung, dass von GWB nicht viel Bemerkenswertes zu erwarten ist. Außerdem trieb mich kurz der Zweifel um, ob sich in GWB und dem Autor nicht zwei Glaubensbesessene gesucht und gefunden haben. Trotzdem las ich weiter und konnte...

Germany on Mar 11, 2014

D. Turner: The true story of growing up in the worlds most secretive state and the extraordinary circumstances belonging to the life of Kang Chol-Hwan.

I don't often read memoirs as there's so many of them about, they usually consist of a story told 100 times before and it's hard to be interested in the lives of A/B/C list 'celebs'. But Kang Chol-Hwan's story really caught my imagination and gave me a glimpse into a world darkly fascinating.

Brought up in the family of North Koreans recently reintegrated from Japan to Pyongyang, Chol-Hwan spent 10 years of his (so-called) youth in a horrific concentration camp, before fleeing the country and telling the world the real story about what actually goes on where Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il are worshiped like gods. After being indoctrinated into the 'party's propaganda and seeing the brutal work of the 'hermit kingdom's policies at their worst, there's a fascinating story here to tell.

The story was told in Korean before being published in French then translated in English and a lot of other reviews have drawn attention to this but I found it very well written and compelling in spite of this. The book was a little short and...

United Kingdom on Sep 25, 2013

Johnny C.: This story comes off as being quite authentic. The author tells the majority of the story from the first person point of view. There are obvious things which he didn't witness such as his family's history prior to their move from Japan to North Korea, but these are only for background information. Everything about this book reveals how desensitized Kang became due to his upbringing, at least while he was in the camp. He explains how he was able to adapt and overcome. He pointed out how undevoted to the cause the security agents in the camp were, the soldiers, and other various officials in the North Korea government. Regardless, all people lived in fear of either their superiors, their friends who were often snitches, and their minders. Kang also displays the complete and total breakdown of the North's distribution and rationing system, the birth of an illicit market economy and the rampant corruption in the Stalinist-type system. When Kang speaks as a witness of camp 15, and says there are certainly much worse camps, it is terrifying to know that people at this very moment are still enduring what he and his family endured. Kang must feel some ambivalence towards his decision to...

United States on Sep 18, 2012

Trev Go: I have been fascinated about the country for some years now, and have read most books on the subject - most recently "Nothing In The World To Envy", but this certainly gives the most detailed account of one person's experience of the hermit kingdom.

It didm't get off to the best of starts, as Kang Chol-Hwan explains in the introduction about how he's found God in a big way, and I let out a barely audible groan. It always baffles me how folk who have endured the most unspeakable and unfair cruelty, or even a personal catastophe, end up religious, but whatever. About the only other minus point is the language which is a little antiquated and quaint at times, the result of reaching American English via French I assume.

Otherwise it's compulsive read, simultaneously harrowing and touching. There is a problem rattling through a book of a whole life like this in that years are condensed into a couple of pages, and when the years are as horrific as these, the impact of such endurance can get abreviated. The writer ultimately survived on his wits, of which he has plenty. One would have to be made of stone not to be affected by all such accounts of life under the Dear Leader,...

United Kingdom on Jun 25, 2011