A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea

by Masaji Ishikawa

they’ll be the downfall of the house of cards that is North Korea.

When you find yourself caught in a crazy system dreamed up by dangerous lunatics, you just do what you’re told.

This was laughable, of course, but that’s always the way with totalitarian regimes. Language gets turned on its head. Serfdom is freedom. Repression is liberation. A police state is a democratic republic. And we were “the masters of our destiny.” And

if we begged to differ, we were dead.

And I came to recognize that, no matter how difficult the reality, you mustn’t let yourself be beaten. You must have a strong will. You have to summon what you know is right from your innermost depths and follow it.