Photo, above: North Korean prison camp. Geneva (AFP) – Ahn Myong-Chol witnessed many horrors as a North Korean prison camp guard, but few haunt him like the image of guard dogs attacking school children and tearing them to pieces. Ahn, who worked as a prison camp guard for eight years until he fled the country in 1994, recalls the day he saw three dogs get away from their handler and attack children coming back from the camp school.

“There were three dogs and they killed five children,” the 45-year-old told AFP through a translator.

“They killed three of the children right away. The two other children were barely breathing and the guards buried them alive,” he said, speaking on the sidelines of a Geneva conference for human rights activists. The next day, instead of putting down the murderous dogs, the guards pet them and fed them special food “as some kind of award,” he added with disgust. “People in the camps are not treated as human beings… They are like flies that can be crushed,” said Ahn, his sad eyes framed by steel-rimmed glasses. The former guard is one of many defectors who provided harrowing testimony to a UN-mandated enquiry that last week issued a searing, 400-page indictment of gross human rights abuses in North Korea.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Sunday 2 November  2014  / Hour 1, Block A: The Last Days of Kim Jong-il: The North Korean Threat in a Changing Era, by Bruce E. Bechtol Jr (1 of 4)

Sunday 2 November  2014  / Hour 1, Block B: The Last Days of Kim Jong-il: The North Korean Threat in a Changing Era, by Bruce E. Bechtol Jr (2 of 4)

Sunday 2 November  2014  / Hour 1, Block C:  The Last Days of Kim Jong-il: The North Korean Threat in a Changing Era, by Bruce E. Bechtol Jr (3 of 4)

Sunday 2 November  2014  / Hour 1, Block D:  The Last Days of Kim Jong-il: The North Korean Threat in a Changing Era, by Bruce E. Bechtol Jr (4 of 4)

Hour Two

Sunday 2 November  2014  / Hour 2, Block A: The Accidental Capitalist: A People's Story of the New China, by Behzad Yaghmaian (1 of 2)

Sunday 2 November  2014  / Hour 2, Block B: The Accidental Capitalist: A People's Story of the New China, by Behzad Yaghmaian (2 of 2)

Sunday 2 November  2014  / Hour 2, Block C: Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization...by Liel Leibovitz and Matthew Miller (1 of 2)

Sunday 2 November  2014  / Hour 2, Block D: Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization... by Liel Leibovitz and Matthew Miller (2 of 2)

Hour Three

Sunday 2 November  2014  / Hour 3, Block A: To a Mountain in Tibet, by Colin Thubron (1 of 2)

Sunday 2 November  2014  / Hour 3, Block B: To a Mountain in Tibet, by Colin Thubron (2 of 2)

Photo, below: [North Korean civilians sent] . . . to [Russian] forced labour camps in the remotest forests of Siberia to cut down timber. During the 1970s and 80s about 20,000 people were sent to these camps where human rights are non-existent and torture commonplace, and today about 4,000 North Koreans work for the North Korean Number One Log Company. The profit from these camps is split equally between Pyongyang and Moscow and last year this labour amounted to $50 million in debt payments. The North Koreans are enticed there by the stories of higher wages, and some even hope to escape from North Korea through these camps. Over ten years ago I remember read the local Russians were complaining about these camps and how they are a law unto themselves. Amnesty International has well documented the situation. During Kim Jong Il's visit to Moscow this year [2001? 2011?] he agreed with President Putin to expand the system by sending more workers to pay off the $5.5bn debt over the next 30 years.  . . . In July 2001 Kim Jong Il made a trip to Moscow to meet President Putin to discuss the general relationship between the two countries, trade and the repayment of their outstanding dept to the Russians by using their Siberian labour camps. Instead of flying like everybody else he went in his 21 carriage armoured Japanese train and 150 others tagged on for this work's outing. It took ten days to make this 5,758 journey and President Putin told him he had seen more of Russia than he has! Kim Jong Il has a fear of flying and assassination so when his roadshow arrived at a Russian town the locals were cleared from the area causing great disruption. Like so many politicians today he has a bunker mentality that keeps him out of touch with the real world. He visited the Khrunichev factory to see missiles and space projects, a tank factory and during talks at the Kremlin the expansion of forced labour camps in Siberia was agreed, and there were advanced discussions about a railway link from Seoul to Moscow via Pyongyang. 

Sunday 2 November  2014  / Hour 3, Block C: Escape from North Korea: The Untold Story of Asia's Underground Railroad, by Melanie Kirkpatrick (1 of 2)

Sunday 2 November  2014  / Hour 3, Block D: Escape from North Korea: The Untold Story of Asia's Underground Railroad, by Melanie Kirkpatrick (2 of 2)

Hour Four

Sunday 2 November  2014  / Hour 4, Block A: Split Image: African Americans in the Mass Media, by Jannette L. Dates and William Barlow (1 of 2) Dean Dates discussed race relations in America and the coverage of racial issues in the media. She is co-editor of the book, Split Image: African Americans in the Media, published by Howard University Press. Dean Dates spearheaded the compilation of this book to provide a more balanced historical view of the African American contribution to media. She spoke of the dominant European culture which has established images and structures that impede the development and recognition of the subordinate African American culture, spanning from minstrel shows through today's hi-tech mass media. The editors chose to view the media as a split image, thus providing a "mechanism for grabbing hold of history and looking at it." The book points out the racial tug-of-war which makes young African Americans feel as if they do not have a stake in society. The other co-editor of the book is Dr. William Barlow, also of Howard University.

. . . [with Brian Lamb]  And we use the theories of Stuart Hall and Antonio Gramsci, their theories which say that when you have a dominant culture and a subordinate culture, that you are going to have a tug of war between the cultures, because the dominant group is trying to control and influence everyone, including the subordinate culture. And the subordinate culture, knowing that they're being dominated, is attempting to overcome that domination to do something. So you've got this constant tug of war between those two forces. And we saw that as a way, you see -- I mean, a mechanism for really grabbing hold of history and looking at it. We are hoping, therefore, to help everyone have a more balanced vision of our history. 

Sunday 2 November  2014  / Hour 4, Block B: Split Image: African Americans in the Mass Media, by Jannette L. Dates and William Barlow  (2 of 2)

Sunday 2 November  2014  / Hour 4, Block C: The Lucky Ones: One Family and the Extraordinary Invention of Chinese America by Ngai, Mae (1 of 2)

Sunday 2 November  2014  / Hour 4, Block D: The Lucky Ones: One Family and the Extraordinary Invention of Chinese America by Ngai, Mae (2 of 2)

 

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Image, left: North Korean anti-American propaganda poster