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Escape From North Korea: The Untold Story Of Asia's Underground Railroad (2012)

by Melanie Kirkpatrick(Favorite Author)

3.81 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1594036330 (ISBN13: 9781594036330)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Encounter Books

review 1: My knowledge of North Korea prior to reading this book began with nuclear threats and ended with a bad dictator. Oh! But who knew how the people there are suffering? How they are trapped in their own land, starving for food, freedom, and God? Thankfully, others knew. And others are helping these people survive and escape. "They don't know what a Christian is; they don't even know what religion is. But they know to find a Christian, a cross, when they make it across the river. They know the people of the cross will help them."
review 2: This book is very insightful with regards to the realities in North Korea - particularly how repressive it is toward its people. Discussions seem to be very accurate, and though I have already been acquainted with most of... more the stories and realities in North Korea and in China with regards to North Koreans there, I still learned some new stories, perspectives, and realities. For example, I have never examined the allegedly positive relationship between length of stay in China and adaptability to the new life in South Korea, though the author's findings were not surprising to me.On the other hand, as some of the readers have noted below, the author seems to give too much credit to the Christian missionaries and Christianity as a whole as opposed to simply joined efforts between human rights activists to help North Koreans escape the iron fist that is North Korea.Also, I somewhat disagree with most of what Mrs. Kirkpatrick wrote in her last chapter. Although I absolutely agree with her suggestion that Kim Jon-un will be the last dictator, and the people will end up rising up against him thus toppling the regime, her discussion as to how this will happen seems a bit too naive. Until the regime is toppled, North Koreans will always fear sharing opinions - especially negative ones - toward the regime because it takes only one "rat" to let the government know about any intention to bring the regime down, and it's over with any small group of people who share their negative sentiments toward the central government. In other words, as dissenting groups grow, they become more unstable because the likelihood of having one "rat" in any such group grows at a higher rate than its own growth.I also couldn't help but notice how Mrs. Kirkpatrick failed to discuss why China really abides by its repatriation policy. As with every regime, including that of the current one in Bulgaria (a country that is far more democratic than China and North Korea combined and squared), the Chinese regime has one sole goal - its survival. A democratized, free North Korea - all the more unified with South Korea - despite any economic gains to China, is very likely to mobilize people in China to stand against their government, and this time Tiananmen Square will likely be child's play compared to what will probably await the communist government in China.The book is also a little too repetitive in certain aspects but that does not devalue it. As John Bolton put it, it should be a must read for policymakers, analysts and other people interested in public policy. less

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