Winters were always so cold without proper shelter, heating, clothing and food that I seriously wondered why man did not have fur like animals to protect then from the piercing winter cold.
One day I was lucky enough to catch a rat. I roasted and ate the meat. It was such a delicacy! Rats were one of the important sources of protein in the settlement. But soon, they became harder to rind. People would spend many days and nights to catch one.
I cleaned the hide in the stream and dried it in the shadow. When it was completely dry, the rat hide was smaller than the size of my small palm but it had much needed fur, I thought I could use the fur to protect my knee. But the hide was not as strong as I expected and soon it was torn. Then, I used it for my shoe. It was a perfect fit. It was much better than the dry plants that many of us were using. For prisoners, winters were cruel.
| Kang Chul Hwan Mr. Kang Chul Hwan, a former child prisoner in a North Korean primary detention settlement, was born in 1968 in Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea. He was only nine years old when his grandfather disappeared one day and he was arrested and detained in the Yodok primary detention settlement together with his grandmother, father, uncle and a sister in 1977. They were released after ten years in 1987. In 1992 he and Mr. Ahn Hyok, also a former prisoner in the same settlement, defected to South Korea. He studied business administration at Hanyang University, Seoul, and he is a journalist of the Chosun Daily. He is co-founder of Democracy Network against North Korea Gulag, an NGO organized by North Korean defectors. |
