Jan 15, 2010 ... Country Advice. North Korea. North Korea – PRK36045 – Credibility of. North
Korean defectors – Kang Chol-Hwan. (Aquariums of Pyongyang) ...
Country Advice North Korea North Korea – PRK36045 – Credibility of North Korean defectors – Kang Chol-Hwan (Aquariums of Pyongyang) – Hyok Kang (This is Paradise!) 15 January 2010
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Please advise whether public sources/commentators indicate whether these authors and books titled ‘Aquariums of Pyongyang’ and ‘This is Paradise!’ are considered reliable?
Kang Chol-Hwan is a high-profile North Korean defector who, in addition to having authored Aquariums of Pyongyang, has written other articles on North Korea and is a reporter for The Chosunilbo – a reputable South Korean newspaper. In 2005, Chol-Hwan met with former US President Bush to discuss North Korean human rights issues. Many non-government organisations (NGOs) – such as the UN High Commissioner on Refugees in collaboration with WriteNet, Human Rights Watch and Freedom House – have used Kang’s work as source material in their reports.1 In 2006, Time Magazine named Chol-Hwan in their “60 Years of Asian Heroes” special edition.2 Notwithstanding comments by North Korean officials (see below), there is no publicly available information to discredit Chol-Hwan and it would be reasonable to consider that the Bush administration did, and many NGO’s do, regard him as a credible source. North Korea has yet to react publicly to the literary and public relations success of its former prisoner. But in 1999, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reacted harshly to Mr. Kang's testimony in Washington before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, calling him "riffraff devoid of human dignity and values" who was engaging in a "smear campaign."3
Hyok Kang is a less well-known North Korean defector. Despite this, his book This is Paradise! is widely available and his credibility appears to be unchallenged. In 2003, he presented before The Fourth International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees – an annual conference organised by South Korean-based NGO: The Citizens
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Foster-Carter, Aiden 2003, DPR Korea: The North Korean Crisis: A Situation Update, Writenet Paper no.16, 1 May, p.9,11. http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ec8a9484.html – Accessed 13 January 2010 – Attachment 1; Human Rights Watch 2002, The Invisible Exodus: North Koreans in the People’s Republic of China, November, vol.14, no.8(C), p.17 – Attachment 2; Freedom House 2007, Concentrations of Inhumanity, May, p. 9, 27, 48–57. http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/special_report/53.pdf – Accessed 13 January 2010 – Attachment 3 2 Powell, Bill 2006, ‘60 Years of Asian Heroes’, Time Magazine Asia ed, vol.168, no.21, 13 November http://www.time.com/time/asia/2006/heroes/in_kang.html – Accessed 14 January 2010 – Attachment 4 3 Brooke, James 2005, ‘A Voice From North Korea Echoes in the White House’, The New York Times, 18 June http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/18/international/asia/18kang.html?_r=1 – Accessed 14 January 2010 – Attachment 5
Alliance for North Korean Human Rights.4 Kang’s illustrations were also used in a 2006 report by the US Committee on Human Rights in North Korea.5 However, unlike Chol-Hwan, major NGOs have not used Kang’s work as source material in their reports. Although there are no reports discrediting his work, he has not received the same degree of recognition as Chol-Hwan, although this may have more to do with public relations than credibility. 2
Please provide any comments on the observational material from these books, particularly the first one, relating to school in DPRK up to 1998. Examples include - the content and structure of classes, uniforms and other paraphernalia, and associated rituals (such as the celebration of leaders' birthdays, and the staggered admission of students to youth organisations).
As a high-profile defector, the observations of Kang Chol-Hwan are probably held in higher regard by the international community than those of Kyok Kang. Importantly, there is limited information available on life in North Korea and either defectors’ claims, although plausible cannot be proven or unproven. List of Attachments 1. Foster-Carter, Aiden 2003, DPR Korea: The North Korean Crisis: A Situation Update, Writenet Paper No. 16, 1 May http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ec8a9484.html – Accessed 13 January 2010 2. Human Rights Watch 2002, The Invisible Exodus: North Koreans in the People’s Republic of China, November, vol.14, no.8(C). 3. Freedom House 2007, Concentrations of Inhumanity, May http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/special_report/53.pdf – Accessed 13 January 2010. 4. Powell, Bill 2006, ‘60 Years of Asian Heroes’, Time Magazine Asia ed, vol.168, no.21, 13 November http://www.time.com/time/asia/2006/heroes/in_kang.html – Accessed 14 January 2010. 5. Brooke, James 2005, ‘A Voice From North Korea Echoes in the White House’, The New York Times, 18 June http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/18/international/asia/18kang.html?_r=1 – Accessed 14 January 2010. 6. ‘International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees’ 2009, Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights website http://eng.nkhumanrights.or.kr/world/01.htm – Accessed 14 January 2010. 7. US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea 2006, The North Korean Refugee Crisis: Human Rights and International Response www.hrnk.org/refugeesReport06.pdf – Accessed 13 January 2010.
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‘International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees’ 2009, Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights website http://eng.nkhumanrights.or.kr/world/01.htm – Accessed 14 January 2010 – Attachment 6. 5 US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea 2006, The North Korean Refugee Crisis: Human Rights and International Response, p.5. www.hrnk.org/refugeesReport06.pdf – Accessed 13 January 2010 – Attachment 7
