The forbidden railway: Vienna - Pyongyang (2008)
I really had no idea how horrible the humanitarian crisis in North Korea really was until I began reading about it yesterday after checking out the blog post that was on the front page here. I feel ashamed I have been ignorant for so long.<p>In summary of what I've learned, it's generally accepted that there are around 200,000 people kept in active concentration camps [1].  There are two types of camps: those for political prisoners (and those related to suspected defectors, because you're guilty by association with the convicted individual) held until they die, and re-education camps for "minor" offenses. Regardless of the prisoner classification, both are subject to a similarly deplorable fate.<p>Conditions are eerily reminiscent of concentration camps operated by Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.<p>This includes: 
1) Constant threat of public execution at the whims of guards. 2) Deplorable conditions including: lack of suitable sleeping areas, lack of general access to toilets except on a twice daily basis. 
3) Malnutrition. Amnesty reports 40% of inmates die due to malnutrition. Highly rationed diet consisting of 100 grams of corn (if you're not being punished) and salt soup. Finding and eating rats raw is generally considered a blessing, but at the risk of punishment by guards.
4) Torturing prisoners is commonplace. Without going into the gory details, suffice it to say, it is horrible. 
5) Human experimentation performed on prisoners a la Dr. Mengele. 
6) Infanticide of babies born in captivity.<p>I remember when I first learned about the Holocaust in school and wondered how in the hell did the world stand by for so long while these atrocities were being committed? Now I understand.<p>When you are, by pure randomness, lucky enough to be living in a part of the world where these horrible acts are distant enough to barely register on the press radar, reading about these things do seem unfathomable, almost fake.<p>Most of what I've heard about North Korea in the past has focused on their bizarre cult of personality and generally bizarre culture. As comical as North Korea is made out to be in much of the internet, there is a serious humanitarian crisis ongoing. Given that the Korean War ended in 1953, the situation has perpetuated for sixty years now.<p>If the statistic of six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust shocks and disgusts you, I shudder to think about what we shall uncover after the North Korean dictatorship falls (if it ever does at this point if the situation continues) and their dark history finally becomes public knowledge. It really makes me feel nauseous to think that we always have to wait until after the atrocities end to learn from them.<p>Is there anything we can do? I'm sure there is, I just don't know what. Ugh.<p>[1] Amnesty International Media Briefing on North Korean Prison Camps <a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA24/001/2011/en/2671e54f-1cd1-46c1-96f1-6a463efa6f65/asa240012011en.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA24/001/2011/en/26...</a>