um sobrevivente norte-coreano
por A-24, em 23.12.12
Anderson Cooper: Did anybody ever explain to you why you were in a camp?
Shin Dong-hyuk: No. Never. Because I was born there I just thought that those people who carry guns were born to carry guns. And prisoners like me were born as prisoners.
Anderson Cooper: Did you know America existed?
Shin Dong-hyuk: Not at all.
Anderson Cooper: Did you know that the world was round?
Shin Dong-hyuk: I had no idea if it was round or square.
Camp 14 was all that Shin Dong-hyuk: says he knew for the first 23 years of his life. These satellite images are the only glimpse outsiders have ever gotten of the place. Fifteen thousand people are believed to be imprisoned here -- forced to live and work in this bleak collection of houses, factories, fields, and mines, surrounded by an electrified fence.
Anderson Cooper: Growing up, did you ever think about escaping?
Shin Dong-hyuk: That never crossed my mind.
Anderson Cooper: It never crossed your mind?
Shin Dong-hyuk: No. Never. What I thought was that the society outside the camp would be similar to that inside the camp.
Anderson Cooper: You thought everybody lived in a prison camp like this?
Shin Dong-hyuk: Yes.
Shin told us that this is the house where he was born. His mother and father were prisoners whose marriage, if you could call it that, was arranged by the guards as a reward for hard work.
Anderson Cooper: Did they live together? Did they see each other every day?
Shin Dong-hyuk: No. You can't live together. My mother and my father were separated and only when they worked hard could they be together.
Anderson Cooper: Did they love each other?
Shin Dong-hyuk: I don't know. In my eyes we were not a family. We were just prisoners.
Anderson Cooper: How do you mean?
Shin Dong-hyuk: You wear what you're given, you eat what you're given, and you only do what you're told to do. So there is nothing that the parents can do for you and there's nothing that the children can do for their parents. (Excertos)