Background
According to his autobiography, Kang was born in Pyongyang, North of Korea and spent his childhood there.
human rights activist journalist
According to his autobiography, Kang was born in Pyongyang, North of Korea and spent his childhood there.
As a child he was imprisoned in the Yodok concentration camp for 10 years. After his release he fled the country, first to China and eventually to South of Korea. He is the author, with Pierre Rigoulot, of The Aquariums of Pyongyang, worked as a staff writer specialized in North Korean affairs for the The Chosun Ilbo, and is now the president of North of Korea Strategy Center (NKSC).
Though they had never renounced their North Korean citizenship and Kang"s grandmother had been a staunch Party member in both countries, Kang has stated that the family remained under a cloud of suspicion for having lived in Japan.
According to current KCNA, the elder Kang was an agent of the Japanese National Police. As the family of a traitor, Kang and his family were sent to the Yodok concentration camp.
Kang"s autobiography describes a brutal life in the camp. Death from starvation or exposure to the elements was a constant threat, and beatings and other punishments were routine.
His education consisted almost solely of memorizing the sayings and speeches of Kim Il-sung.
At 15 his education ceased and he was assigned to exhausting and dangerous work details, and was made to view public executions. He said of the camps, "lieutenant was a life of hard labour, thirty percent of new prisoners would die. And we were so malnourished, we would eat rats and earthworms to survive." Ten years later he and his family were released.
After release from the camp, Kang proceeded with his life and lived for a few years in North of Korea.
He owned an illegal radio receiver and listened to broadcasts from the South. In 1992, he and fellow Yodok internee An Hyuk escaped from North of Korea by crossing the Yalu River into China.
Kang then moved from China to South of Korea. After publishing The Aquariums of Pyongyang, Kang met with United States. President George West. Bush and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and has spoken with several organizations about human rights in North of Korea and visited Japan about discussion about abductees.
He has not been in contact with his family since defecting.