Analysis Questions – Chps. 19 – 20 – Escape from Camp 14

Chapter 19 China 1. What allowed Shin to move out of his lifetime of slavery after he was in China? 2. What did Shin receive in exchange for his cheap labor more than monetary gain? 3. What was true about the border or shadow lands inside China regarding the language and ethnicity of the inhabitants? What cultural change did they bring about in North Korea as a result of their living in China? 4. Describe the conflict between international law related to people being allowed to leave their country and the strategic interests of North Korea and China. 5. What are the three reasons China does not want North Korean defectors coming into its borders? [Excerpt 149-150]

Chapter 20 Asylum 1. Even though Shin had food and a radio at the pig farm, after ten months he decided to leave. What had a great effect on that decision and why did he feel this way? 2. Why did Shin switch from stealing to begging when he arrived in China? 3. What did the journalist offer him? 4. What did Shin do in the Seoul consulate? 5. Explain the contrast between what Shin told the interrogators in South Korea and what other defectors told them? [Excerpt 153-155 – “…greater than it had been in the labor camp…”]