Blaine Harden is a reporter with a particular interest in North Korea and its politics. In 2008 he met a young man named Sin In Geun. The young man had defected from North Korea, no mean feat considering it is one of the most repressive and brutal regimes in the world. Shin was born in Camp 14, a generic labor camp that was one of many scattered across the country, where for twenty years he had lived in barbaric and savage conditions. Shin was the first known person to have escaped from a Korean labor camp. Harden wrote a short article about him for the Washington Post and interviewing him at length to publish his story in a book.
The most important historical event that occurs during the book is the rise of the Kim Dynasty in North Korea, explaining how North Korea became such a repressive Communist state to start with. Communism became personality-based dictatorship, which caused famine, due to the fact that all of the country's money was spent on becoming a nuclear superstate.
Harden's book was so powerful that the North Koreans released a series of propaganda films contradicting everything that Shin had said. Bowing under the pressure, Shin admitted that he had made up some of the stories he had recounted to Harden, but insisted that the majority of what was written in the book was the truth. Harden decided to write a revised version but urged the public to continue to have faith in Shin, and to continue to allow his story of survival to resonate.
The book was awarded a number of accolades, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors' Award. Harden remains one of the most respected journalists writing for the Washington Post.
