Lee Soon-ok (born 1947 in

Chongjin Chŏngjin (; ) is the capital of North Korea's North Hamgyong Province (함경북도) and the country's third largest city. It is sometimes called the ''City of Iron''. History Prehistory According to archaeological findings near the lower ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

) is a North Korean defector and the author of '' Eyes of the Tailless Animals: Prison Memoirs of a North Korean Woman'', her account of being falsely accused, tortured, and imprisoned under poor conditions for crimes against the state and her subsequent release from prison and defection from the country. Since leaving North Korea, she has resided in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

Imprisonment

According to Lee, she was a manager in a North Korean government office that distributed goods and materials to the country's people when she was falsely accused of dishonesty in her job. She believes she was one of the victims of a power struggle between the Workers' Party and the public security bureau police. She describes being severely tortured and threatened for months following her arrest while maintaining her innocence; however, a promise made by an interrogator to not take any punitive action against her husband and son if she confessed—a promise that she said she would find out to have been false—finally convinced her to plead guilty to the charges. For six years, Lee was imprisoned in Kaechon concentration camp where she reports witnessing

forced abortion A forced abortion may occur when the perpetrator causes abortion by force, threat or coercion, or by taking advantage of a situation where a pregnant individual is unable to give consent, or when valid consent is in question due to duress. This m ...

s, infanticide, instances of

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...

public execution A public execution is a form of capital punishment which "members of the general public may voluntarily attend." This definition excludes the presence of only a small number of witnesses called upon to assure executive accountability. The purpose ...

s, testing of

biological weapons A biological agent (also called bio-agent, biological threat agent, biological warfare agent, biological weapon, or bioweapon) is a bacterium, virus, protozoan, parasite, fungus, or toxin that can be used purposefully as a weapon in bioterrorism ...

on prisoners (see

human experimentation in North Korea Human experimentation in North Korea is an issue raised by some North Korean defectors and former prisoners. They have described suffocation of prisoners in gas chambers, testing deadly chemical weapons and surgery without anesthesia. Sources Hum ...

), extreme

malnutrition Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues ...

, and other forms of inhumane conditions and depravity. It is not clear why she was released, although Lee suspects that the officials responsible for jailing her were the subjects of investigations by higher-ranking members of North Korea's government.

Defection

Following her release, Lee wrote several letters of protest to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il about her cruel treatment in the camp but never received a response and was eventually threatened with unspecified consequences if she wrote any more letters. She managed to reunite with her son and escape from North Korea soon afterward, converting to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

along the way. Her husband disappeared during her imprisonment and she has not heard from him since. Since escaping with her son via China to South Korea in 1995, Lee has written '' Eyes of the Tailless Animals: Prison Memoirs of a North Korean Woman'', a memoir of her six-year imprisonment on false charges in Kaechon concentration camp. She has testified before the

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...

and spoken at churches worldwide; she estimated that in her camp alone there were at least 6,000

political prisoners A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although nu ...

. Lee says she has been partially disabled due to the physical torture she was subjected to for well over a year, including but not limited to water torture. Along with fellow North Korean prison camp internees Kang Chol-Hwan and An Hyuk (both were in Yodok concentration camp), she received the Democracy Award from the American non-profit organization

National Endowment for Democracy The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is an organization in the United States that was founded in 1983 for promoting democracy in other countries by promoting political and economic institutions such as political groups, trade unions, ...

in July 2003.

Reception

Lee's accusations of human experimentation in North Korea have been described as "very plausible" by a senior US official quoted anonymously by

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

. The authenticity of some of Lee's accounts of North Korean prison camps have been questioned by some South Korean researchers and North Korean defectors.

References

External links

"A survivor: Soon Ok Lee"
''Crisis in the Koreas'', MSNBC, 2003
"Soon Ok Lee"
World Christian Ministries

AsiaLink, 2003 *Martin, Bradley K
"Under the loving care of the fatherly leader"
2004; p. 611

Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
"Praying for a Revolution in North Korea"
Persecution.tv; pp. 6–7 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Soon-ok Human rights abuses in North Korea North Korean defectors Living people People from North Hamgyong People from Chongjin North Korean prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of North Korea 1947 births North Korean Christians North Korean women activists 20th-century North Korean women 21st-century North Korean women Converts to Christianity from atheism or agnosticism

Imprisonment

Defection

Reception

See also

References

Further reading

External links