Shin Dong-hyuk's biography, Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West, was written with the assistance of former Washington Post journalist Blaine Harden.
43 Facts About Shin Dong-hyuk
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Shin Dong-hyuk has been described as the world's "single strongest voice" on the atrocities inside North Korean camps by a member of the United Nations' first commission of inquiry into human rights abuses of North Korea.
3.
Shin Dong-hyuk admitted that he lied about being in Camp 14 for his whole life until he escaped in his early 20s, saying that he was actually transferred to a different prison when he was aged 6.
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Shin Dong-hyuk was born Shin In Geun at the Kaechon internment camp, commonly known as Camp 14.
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Shin Dong-hyuk rarely saw his father who lived elsewhere in the camp and was allowed to visit a few times a year.
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Shin Dong-hyuk went to primary and secondary school while in the camp.
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Shin Dong-hyuk's education did not include propaganda or even basic information about North Korea.
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Shin Dong-hyuk's mother lived in a house with multiple rooms in a "model village" in the camp, given to women who had children.
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Shin Dong-hyuk experienced considerable violence in the camp, and witnessed dozens of executions every year.
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Shin Dong-hyuk witnessed adult prisoners and children beaten every day, and many prisoners dying of starvation, illness, torture and work accidents.
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Shin Dong-hyuk learned to survive by any means, including eating rats, frogs, and insects, and reporting fellow inmates for rewards.
12.
When Shin Dong-hyuk was 13 years old, he overheard his mother and brother planning an escape attempt.
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Shin Dong-hyuk had just finished eating watery corn porridge, and was trying to sleep until he overheard that He Geun, his brother, had run from the cement factory.
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Shin Dong-hyuk's teacher was already in the gated Bowiwon village, so Shin Dong-hyuk told the night guard of his school with another boy, as informing was something he was taught to do from an early age, and he hoped to be rewarded.
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However, the school night guard took full credit for discovering the plan, and rather than being rewarded, Shin Dong-hyuk was arrested and guards tortured him for four days to extract more information, believing him to be part of the plan to escape.
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Shin Dong-hyuk's mother was executed by hanging while Shin Dong-hyuk's brother was executed by firing squad.
17.
Shin Dong-hyuk stated that at the time of the executions of his brother and mother, in his teenaged mind he felt they "deserved" their fates for both breaking prison rules and, conversely, not including him in the escape plan.
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Shin Dong-hyuk has since expressed remorse over his actions, saying in an interview with Anderson Cooper for the CBS television show 60 Minutes, "My mother and brother, if I could meet them through a time machine, I would like to go back and apologize".
19.
In interviews to South Korea's National Intelligence Service and others, and in his Korean language memoir, Shin Dong-hyuk had said that he had no prior knowledge of the escape.
20.
Park told him about the outside world, such as stories about food that Shin Dong-hyuk had not experienced before.
21.
Shin Dong-hyuk was excited by the idea of being able to eat as much food as he wanted to, which Shin considered to be the essence of freedom.
22.
In January 2015, Shin Dong-hyuk contacted Blaine Harden and recanted parts of his story.
23.
Shin Dong-hyuk said a complete revision of the book would have taken months and he wanted to publish the new version as soon as possible.
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Shin Dong-hyuk told Harden that he had changed some dates and locations and incorporated some "fictive elements" into the story.
25.
Shin Dong-hyuk said that he did not spend his entire North Korean life at Camp 14.
26.
Shin Dong-hyuk said that he was born there, but when he was young, his family was transferred to the less severe Camp 18, and spent several years there.
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Shin Dong-hyuk said that not only did he inform on the escape plan of his mother and brother, but falsely implicated them in murder.
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Shin Dong-hyuk said that he twice escaped from Camp 18.
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Shin Dong-hyuk said that he was tortured in Camp 14 in 2002, when he was 20 years old, as punishment for his escape.
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Shin Dong-hyuk said he was repeatedly burned and tortured in an underground prison for six months.
31.
Korean specialist Andrei Lankov commented that "some suspicions had been confirmed when Shin Dong-hyuk suddenly admitted what many had hitherto suspected", described Harden's book as unreliable, and noted that defectors faced considerable psychological pressure to embroider their stories.
32.
The journalist brought Shin Dong-hyuk to the South Korean consulate for asylum, and from there he traveled to South Korea, where he underwent extensive questioning from authorities to determine if he was a North Korean assassin or spy.
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Shin Dong-hyuk moved back to South Korea to campaign for the eradication of the North Korean prison camps.
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In December 2013, Shin Dong-hyuk wrote an open letter in the Washington Post to American basketball star Dennis Rodman who visited North Korea a number of times as a self-avowed "friend for life" of Kim Jong Un.
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Shin Dong-hyuk's father denied Shin had grown up in a prison camp.
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Shin Dong-hyuk later confirmed that his mother and brother were convicted of murder, but stated they were innocent.
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Shin Dong-hyuk said that he believed the North Korean government was sending him a message to be quiet about human rights abuses or his father would be killed, in effect holding his father hostage.
38.
The video prompted Shin Dong-hyuk to recant parts of his story.
39.
Shin Dong-hyuk had committed an illegal border crossing to China and had been repatriated in 2002.
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Shin Dong-hyuk's father was born in 1944 in Ryongbuk-ri, Mundok, South Pyongan Province, not 1946.
41.
On 2 December 2012, Shin Dong-hyuk was featured on 60 Minutes during which he recounted to Anderson Cooper his story of his life in Camp 14 and escape.
42.
In June 2013, Shin Dong-hyuk received the Moral Courage Award given by UN Watch, a Geneva-based NGO.
43.
In May 2014, Shin Dong-hyuk was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Dalhousie University.