A North Korean gulag survivor whose torture and daring escape was detailed in a best-selling book has admitted that parts of his story are untrue, and yesterday said that he may end his campaign against human rights abuses.
Shin Dong-hyuk, believed to be the only person born in a North Korean prison camp ever to have escaped, yesterday apologized on his Facebook page, saying he had “forever wanted to conceal and hide part of my past.”
Shin was born and spent the first 23 years of his life in a prison camp where, he recounted in the harrowing Escape from Camp 14, he was tortured and subjected to forced labor before escaping in 2005.
Photo: Reuters
Ever since Shin has campaigned prominently to highlight rights abuses in the North, testifying before a UN commission last year.
However, Shin recently changed some of the details in his story, Blaine Harden, the book’s author, said on his Web site.
“On Friday Jan. 16, I learned that Shin ... had told friends an account of his life that differed substantially from my book,” Harden said.
“I contacted Shin, pressing him to detail the changes and explain why he had misled me,” Harden said.
Shin told Harden that some of the ordeals had been “too painful” for him to revisit and he had “altered some details” that he had thought would not matter, the Washington Post reported yesterday.
‘VERY SORRY’
Shin, now 32, said he was “very sorry” in his Facebook posting.
“I ... forever wanted to conceal and hide part of my past. We tell ourselves that it’s okay to not reveal every little detail, and that it might not matter if certain parts aren’t clarified,” he said.
“To those who have supported me, trusted me and believed in me all this time, I am so very grateful and at the same time so very sorry to each and every single one of you,” he said.
Shin did not elaborate in the post on which part of his past had been fabricated.
In Harden’s book, Shin says he was brutally burned and tortured when aged 13, after a failed attempt to escape the camp.
However, according to the Post report, Shin now says the event took place when he was 20.
Shin also said in the book he saw his mother and brother executed after he betrayed them, telling authorities in Camp 14 of their plan to escape in hopes of getting food as reward, but the report said Shin told Harden the executions actually took place when he and his family were in a different camp.
Lee Young-hwan, a Seoul-based rights expert, described the changes as “minor inaccuracies” and said many refugees who suffered abuse show “selective memory” due to mental trauma or an instinct for self-preservation that takes root during their years of ordeal.
DEFENDER
“The trauma sometimes lead them to say only things that can work in their favor, or have jumbled memories about the most painful experiences,” said Lee, advisor to Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights.
“There may be minor inaccuracies in Shin’s story, but his whole life and the nightmare he went through should still stand as evidence of history,” Lee said.
On Facebook, Shin said that he “may not be able to continue” his years-long campaign against the North’s regime, but he urged his supporters to fight on.
“The world still needs to know of the horrendous and unspeakable horrors that are taking place,” he said.
“These will be my final words and this will likely be my final post,” he added, concluding: “Thank You.”
Shin has been one of the most well-known campaigners against rights abuses committed in North Korea, whose government has sought to discredit him as a fabulist and criminal.
FATHER
In October last year it aired a TV interview with his father who called Shin a “liar” and denied the family was even in a labor camp. Shin said that his father must have been coerced into denouncing him, saying he felt “suicidal” with guilt over the punishment his remaining family may have faced after his escape.
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