Rating: 
Summary: I agree. Required Reading
Review: I came across this book after reading Tears of My Soul. I have to say that this book is absolutely captivating. It is a very quick read, but the impact will last forever. With so little information coming out of N.Korea unfiltered, this book and its perspective is invaluable. I recommend this book to everyone, to the point that people must think I am the publisher. Excellent book.
Rating: 
Summary: Aquariums of Pyongyang
Review: I had the chance to meet with the author, Kang Chol Hwan, this past summer in Seoul. Having spent ten years in a gulag for a crime his grandfather committed, he is among the lucky ones who survived. He took the risk and escaped because he felt it was his only option. In North Korea, political oppression is so severe that entire bloodlines, (normally two generations or more), are thrown in labor camps if one member is accused of "disloyalty" toward the regime. Kang's book is full of powerful images. The eyewitness account brings a detailed accuracy to a dark world unimaginable to those who haven't experienced it for themselves. Kang emphasized during our interview that every incident mentioned in his book was true and free of exaggeration. Kang, now a reporter for the Chosun Daily, continues to write editorial pieces about the atrocious human rights situation in the North.
Rating:
Summary: One of the very best resources on North Korea. Essential
Review: I have read Aquariums several times and each time I think I have gained some new insight from it. It's not a deep work of insight so much as a very human true account of life in a terrible, terrible situation. It's also an invaluable aid to understanding North Korea and North Koreans, and the absolute hell that many of them have had to endure under the Kim dynasty. Honestly, Kang Chol Hwan and Soon Ok Lee (Eyes of the Tailless Beasts) are among the people on Earth who I most admire because people like them are definitely risking their lives to tell their stories. As Bush and company negotiate with North Korea on 'the nuclear issue' I can't help but think about the people in thse camps and pray that whatever deal occurs doesnt result in their mass murder.. all 200,000 of them.. Because they are only kept alive to be slaves till every last calorie is exhausted and Kim Jong Il doesnt want the world to know about the dark side of life in 'paradise'.Kang is now one of the people behind the nkgulag.org organization.. If you speak Korean, check their site out. Two NK Human Rights resources for English speakers are freenorthkorea.net and chosunjournal.com
Rating:
Summary: Truly moving and informative
Review: I think that it is a real shame that more people are not reading this book. I just stumbled upon it and was very moved. Although we take for granted that countries like North Korea treat their citizens poorly, it is something else to get a first hand account of someone whose life was changed dramatically by his families decision to return to North Korea and his own decision to flee the country. It is an amazing story!
Rating:
Summary: Thank you 100xs-over to Mr. Kang
Review: I'm surprised to read some of these critiques and find that individuals feel the need to discount this book for literary shortcomings and typos. The story itself is a strong one and I was more than willing to forgive this man for misspelling "kidnapings" in exchange for his horrific tale of the years lost in a North Korean concentration camp. It amazes me that some disregard these pages as "really nothing new" -- a very inhumane response to a very vivid and compelling account of abominable human rights injustices. This isn't fiction here; this REALLY happened and deserves the understanding that this man is sharing HIS story and not trying to write the next "War and Peace." Kang Chol-Hwan has shared his amazing journey from one world to another. In order to share the reality of life under a loathsome, hateful regime that does nothing but systematically starve and kill its people, he risks the well-being of himself and loved ones. I read his story and was deeply moved. Being half a world away, it's difficult to fathom that such horrid injustices occur in our modern society. I am a Korean-American and live a much more sheltered and protected life than many on this earth. I am deeply appreciative to my parent's for coming to the U.S. in order to give their children a better life. They were only children during the Korean War and had their fair share of hunger and hardships. They walked the long, death-ridden highway with the masses towards hopefully a better life in the South. They were among the fortunate. Many saw their families torn apart and kidnapped back to the North. Reunification is inevitable. This seems to be the sentiments of many. It's only a matter of time before the North just can't hang on any longer without the help of its affluent sister in the south. A great many thank you's to Mr. Kang for sharing his life.
Rating:
Summary: Growing up in the North Korean Gulag
Review: If one reads accounts by survivors of the Soviet gulag, as well as its earnest imitations in China and North Korea, the similarities are impossible to miss. Mr. Kang's account is special for the extreme rarity of books in English about North Korea's gulag, for the fact that Mr. Kang entered Yodok when he was a child and remained there until early adulthood, and for the fact that North Korea's labor camps are very much still in active operation. One very interesting facet of Mr. Kang's memoir is his description of his growing interest in Christianity. Ta Chen's recent 3-volume memoirs (Sounds of the River, Colors of the Mountain, and China's Son) have rather a similar tone: the brutality of the Chinese and North Korean Communist regimes made the Christian emphasis on brotherly love powerfully appealing to some of the young people who grew up at close range to the workings of communist governments. Well worth reading!
Rating:
Summary: Required Reading
Review: In my opinion this book is on par with Alan Patton's "Cry the Beloved Country." It powerfully conveys the plight of foreign oppression with both empathy and clarity. Every US military officer, all federal politicians, diplomats, bureaucrats and personnel stationed in South Korea NEED TO READ THIS BOOK. The author's family willingly emigrated to North Korea. They had been quite wealthy, but felt ideologically drawn to seek North Korean citizenship. Ultimately they were imprisoned. Their experiences as related make it clear that the government of North Korea is by no means a true Marxist state, but has devolved into a cult of personality revolving around the ruling Kim family. No imperial government in history has been more repressive, exploitative or murderous of its people. North Korea's leader is truly evil. Its brainwashed citizens are at once victims and enablers that evil. Their plight is tragic. I cannot recommend this book highly enough!
Rating:
Summary: A book that Jimmy Carter (& Co.) does not want you to read.
Review: Kang Chol-Hwan's account of life inside the utter hell (no words I know of can accurately describe it) that is current-day, Stalinist North Korea, is riveting, honest (even critical of himself at times), and a monumental work that I would recommend to anyone and everyone. (A sincere note of appreciation is also owed to Yair Reiner, the French co-author, and author of the 800-page, "Black Book of Communism"). Chol-Hwan's descriptions of the world inside Kim Il-Sung's (and now, Kim Jong-Il's) gulags are nearly identical to Solzhenitsyn's tales of Stalin's (Il-Sung's appointer) gulags and Viktor Frankl's account of Hitler's concentration camps. Purely evil, totally psychotic and insane, and the most devastating indictment of the post-modern worldview's denial of Man's utter depravity. As Chol-Hwan concludes, even about himself and fellow inmates (much less, Il-Sung and his lackeys), "I once believed that man was different from other animals [morally-speaking], but Yodok showed me that reality does not support this opinion." Very honest, yet very true, Mr. Chol-Hwan. Reading this book, it is impossible to ignore the indictment it makes of the Communist supporters that are still extremely numerous in the West (and around the world). Chol-Hwan, in simply telling his story (offering minimal political observations), shows how thoroughly bogus this crowd is. He mentions the Cuban expatriates (the people despised and mocked by the Western Left) who send aid to those left behind, equating them with the North Korean escapees who do the same. He mocks the thought that Kim Jong-Il (whom Jimmy Carter has called "vigorous, intelligent, (and) surprisingly well-informed") and Kim Il-Sung (upon whose death Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton publicly offered their condolences to the Korean leaders) are anything less than evil personified. Even Chol-Hwan's escape from North Korea, several years after having been released from the Yodok gulag, is initiated by his impending re-arrest for having been caught celebrating the death of Nicolai Ceaucescu (whom Jimmy Carter praised and said "shared the same goals" as his). Mr. Chol-Hwan describes the illegally accessed radio broadcasts he heard in North Korea, produced by the South Korean Christians (or, "those evil capitalists" as Jimmy's followers often put it) as "sweet as honey to us." Chol-Hwan tells of his astonishment (after 25 years of N. Korean indoctrination) at the warm, loving, reception he receives from citizens in South Korea... excepting only the left-leaning press and many South Korean university students (sigh...). The press at one of his first press conferences in South Korea is so skeptical (Communism bad? No...) of his and his fellow escapee's stories that he finally takes the microphone (as his friend begins to cry under the fire of their cynical questions) and says, "If you don't want to believe us, go to the North!" Later at his South Korean university, surrounded by the same evil cynicism (from people who have "lived their whole lives swaddled in perfect comfort" (atta boy, Kang!)), Chol-Hwan tells these leftists to "Go to the North and you'll stop trying to excuse all Kim Il-Sung's failures. Go find out for yourselves." (Trust me, Kang, some of us have tried this suggestion with them before... they'll never listen. Theirs is a hatred and evil rarely matched in the democratic West.) These examples from Chol-Hwan's story (and others) go on and on and on... "Aquariums in Pyongyang" is a monumental work from an amazing human being that was delivered from a man-made Hell on Earth. I owe him a profound respect and admiration for his courage in speaking out against the horror and evil that is Communism and its apologists.
Rating:
Summary: Heart rending memoir
Review: Kang displayed unique courage in sharing this bitter and horrific memoir with the world. Revealing one's past as candidly and with such heartfelt generosity of spirit is a rare gift to readers. The descriptions are not easy to read, and there are moments when the narrative thread seems to unravel, but overall Kang has provided an important view into the slave labor camps of North Korea. It is a solemn and valuable reminder that humans can be so vicious that even evil grows banal. Recommended for students of human rights across the globe as well as those interested in understanding North Korea. David R. Bannon, Ph.D.; author "Race Against Evil."
Rating:
Summary: a must-read for an understanding of north korea
Review: Other reviewers have already noted the importance of this book in documenting the pervasive pattern and Kafkaesque quality of human rights violations in North Korea, so I shall concentrate instead on what other help this book offers for penetrating the veil of secrecy in which P'yongyang wraps itself. In the past decade or so, there has been an explosion of Western interest in North Korea that has contributed substantially to a better understanding of P'yongyang's policy priorities and problems. Of particular note in this regard are two publications: "North Korea: Through the Looking Glass," an elegant and balanced study published by the Brookings Institute, and "Kim Il-song's North Korea," which presents the meticulously- detailed research undertaken by Helen Louise Hunter while she was still with the CIA. Both of these publications benefitted from the exploitation of defector information, but their homogenized findings still lack a sense of ground truth, and it is in this regards that Kang Chol-hwan's account of his life in North Korea is so valuable apart from its obvious importance on the human rights front. "Aquariums of Pyongyang" provides a considerable body of anecdotal information that documents several trends which, North Korean government pronouncements make clear, are of increasing concern to the central government. These trends are rising hooliganism, especially on the part of youth gangs; rampant corruption and bribery in nearly all sectors of society; and a surprising underground use of currency (not always North Korean) in an economy that has traditionally been described as non-monetarized. Neither collectively nor individually are these trends underwriting an organized opposition, but they have substantially eroded both government control of the citizenry and public faith in the regime's relevancy and attractiveness. Also answered by "Aquariums of Pyongyang" are such questions as what happens to the goods and cash that the Japanese send to relatives in North Korea; how North Koreans manage escapes to China; and how the lives of the privileged few differ from those of the multitudes. "Aquariums" is especially well-paired with Hunter's book, which defines the vocabulary of everyday life in North Korea.
| 
