READING: Voices from the Dark: A Story of a North Korean Camp Survivor
Monday, May 19 / 4:00 PM
McCune Conference Room, HSSB 6020
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Voices from the Dark is the story of Yong Kim, the only known prisoner to have successfully escaped the atrocious labor camp in North Korea. Accused of being the son of an American spy, Kim spent six years working in a ghastly coal mine. After months of meticulous planning, Kim escaped the camp, and with help from old friends, soon reached the border between North Korea and China. From there he went to Mongolia and eventually went to South Korea and then to the United States. Kim’s stories, which will be read by UCSB students, present not only invaluable information about the violation of human rights, but also detailed ethnographic records of the North Korean people’s daily lives. His epic journey from North Korea to the United States is a dignified testament of the power of the human spirit to overcome even the darkest forms of oppression, torture, and ideological terror. Yong Kim was a lieutenant colonel in the North Korean National Security Agency and a career military officer earning foreign currency until he was suddenly sent to a labor camp in 1993. After six years he escaped to South Korea and came to United States in 2003.
Sponsored by the IHC’s East Asian Cultures RFG and the IHC’s Performance Studies RFG.
