[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11774]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          NORTH KOREAN GULAGS

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, last week, I had the privilege of meeting 
Shin Dong-hyuk, the only known defector to have escaped from one of the 
many concentration camps operated by the Communist government in North 
Korea.
  He was born in the camp and faced starvation, torture, and 
brainwashing on a routine basis, which is described in the book, 
``Escape From Camp 14.'' On the same day, the authorities executed both 
his brother and his mother in front of him for attempting to plan an 
escape. He knew nothing of the outside world, only living day to day, 
doing whatever was needed to survive. Heartbreakingly, this included 
informing the guards when he heard about his family's escape plan. 
Years later, a new prisoner came to the camp from Pyongyang, and Shin 
began to learn about the outside world and then began to long to 
escape.
  By some estimates, as many as 200,000 people are held in the brutal 
gulags like Shin. As we negotiate with the gangster government of North 
Korea over their nuclear weapons program, we cannot forget about these 
human rights atrocities perpetrated against millions of their own 
people.

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