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

by Masaji Ishikawa

It got so bad that we eventually started eating any old weeds we could find. We boiled the wretched things for ages to try to get rid of their harshness. But it was hopeless. They still tasted rank. And they did the most appalling things to us. Our bodies grew swollen, our faces grew swollen, and our urine turned red or even blue. We all suffered from chronic diarrhea. We couldn’t even walk in that condition.

I wasn’t sure how my family and I survived. We all had the same sunken eyes and hollow cheeks, bodies of skin and bone. When we sat or lay down, we were so bony, it hurt. Even when we were sleeping, it was so painful, we woke up constantly.