Ignorance=Manipulation, Power

Comment on New York Times article 'Born and Raised in a North Korean Gulag' by Choe Sang-Hun

Dystopian novels such as We and 1984, tend to criticize governments and societies during the 20^th century, as might many novels, through the characterization of motifs such as repression, dehumanization, freedom and truth in fictional totalitarian governments. While reading the article from the New York Times about North Korean Shin Dong Hyok, and  one can see the motifs portrayed in these dystopian novels.

The article, published in 2007, talks about the life of North Korean boy Shin Dong Hyok, and his experience as a political prisoner in a North Korean prison camp’s torture compound. He was constantly exposed to executions, one of which was of his own mother and elder brother, who were hanged and shot by firing squads. In Communist North Korea, Labour Camps, or Gulags, were the home for thousands of convicts, criminals and political prisoners. Conditions in these Gulags are inhumane; elders and children would be beaten and tortured, and some also killed. But for people like Shin, this life is the only one they are aware of, thus assuming everyones lives this way.

Ignorance is power and manipulation. This argument is completely valid for Shin’s experience, and that of many other North Koreans and perhaps thousands of people around the globe who have lived under totalitarian governments. Shin Dong Hyok himself says so; he had never heard of Pyongyang, South Korea, China, America or even the North Korean leader Kim jong II. As Shin, people in North Korean Gulags are bound to ignorance; manipulation of truth. The hidden reality. Shin describes that he thought it was natural for him to be in a camp because of his ancestors’ crime, “I never thought it was unfair”. By hiding the truth, the North Korean Government was making sure that people would no longer believe or imagine the possibility of any type of external world, thus avoiding any revolutionary thoughts against the communist system, or even just the thought of overpowering the guards within the compound. This is closely linked to the manipulation of Truth described in Orwell’s novel 1984, where the State, whose leadership lies in Big Brother, is constantly ‘destroying’ the past, hiding the reality of facts. The main character of the novel, Winston, works in the Minister of Truth, and is responsible of revising historical records so the Party is always correct. As mentioned, by doing this, the Party is able to maintain absolute control over its people, avoiding any revolutionary thoughts. In 1984 this is also conveyed by the degredation of language into Newspeak, which is a simpler version of English.

Moreover, throughout the article, Choe Sang-Hun describes the treatment received by prisoners in these camps. They are also very similar to the torture done to Winston in Part III of Orwell’s novel. Yoon Yeo Sang, president of Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, says that labour camps in North Korea are one of the “most brutal form of human rights abuse”. People in these camps are “deprived of their ability to have the most basic human feelings, such as love, hatred, and even a sense of being sad or mistreated”. At the same time, Guards are told to “not treat prisoners as humans”. In Big Brother’s State, the proles are treated in that manner. They are not considered as humans, and are treated as a very inferior working class. Furthermore, prisoners who did try to go against the guards and try to escape, were interrogated and tortured in underground cells. Shin had to live this horrible experience after his mother’s attempt to escape. Tortures would include strip and hung the prisoner by the arms and legs and holding them over hot charcoal, leaving them with permanent scars and recurring nightmares. In 1984, the torture chamber in the Ministry of Love, or Room 101, is where the Party subjects a prisoner to his own nightmare, fear or phobia. In the novel, O’Brien says “the thing in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world”. Winston is tortured with rats, forcing him to betray Julia and believe everything O’Brien and the Party tell him. In North Korean Gulags, this also occurs in “revolutionizing zones ”, focused on “re-educating”prisoners. Those who survived long enough to complete their sentences were released; just like Winston.

Finally, another link between the article and the dystopian novels I have read so far, is the dedication to Propaganda, slogans and portraits of their leaders. As Sang-Hun describes in the article, in most of North Korea, camps and villages are decorated with “Communist slogans and portraits of Kim Jong II”. In ‘We’ and ‘1984’, the same thing occurs. Cities are filled with portraits of the Benefactor and Big Brother respectively, and Party Slogans such as “Big Brother is watching you” and “War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength”, in Oceania (1984).

The connections I have found between the articles and the novels have made me realize how the totalitarian governments described in dystopian novels such as ‘We’ and ‘1984’ have existed throughout our history in governments like the Communist Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China and still very horribly in Communist North Korea. What most impressed me however, was Shin’s final words in the article, who sometimes “wished he could return to the time before he learned about the greater world, without knowing that we were in a prison camp, without knowing that there was a place called South Korea”. As discussed in class, Ignorance is power and manipulation.