Blaine Harden

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Blaine Harden (born 1952) is an American journalist and author. His 2012 book Escape from Camp 14 is an official biography of North Korean defector Shin Dong-hyuk.

Contents

Journalism

Harden worked for 28 years for The Washington Post as a correspondent in Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia, as well as in New York and Seattle. [1] Harden worked for 4 years as a local and national correspondent for The New York Times and a writer for the Times Magazine . He has also worked as a reporter for Frontline , The Economist , Foreign Policy , National Geographic and The Guardian . [1]

Books

Harden's debut book was in 1990, called Africa: Dispatches from a Fragile Continent. [2]

His second book was in 1996, titled A River Lost about the damming of the wild Columbia river and its ecological consequences. Harden and his book are featured in the PBS American Experience program titled Grand Coulee Dam, about the Grand Coulee Dam. [3] [4] [5]

His third book came out in 2012 titled Escape from Camp 14. It is an official biography of North Korean defector Shin Dong-hyuk. [6] [7] [8] In January 2015, Harden announced that Shin had admitted to lying about several aspects of his story. [9]

Harden's fourth book The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot was released in March 2015. [10] It is a dual biography of Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea and No Kum-sok, a defector who stole a MiG-15 and landed it in South Korea. [11]

Harden's fifth book King of Spies was released in October 2017. It is a biography of Air Force Major Donald Nichols, an intelligence officer who operated for 11 years in Korea before, during and after the Korean War. In 2021, Harden published Murder at the Mission, which explores the truth behind the popular myths of the Whitman massacre. [12]

Works

Awards and honors

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Coulee Dam</span> Dam in Grant and Okanogan counties, near Coulee Dam and Grand Coulee, Washington, US

Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had two powerhouses. The third powerhouse ("Nat"), completed in 1974 to increase energy production, makes Grand Coulee the largest power station in the United States by nameplate capacity at 6,809 MW.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">No Kum-sok</span> Korean-American aviator (1932–2022)

No Kum-sok was a North Korean-born American engineer and aviator who served as a senior lieutenant in the Korean People's Army Air and Anti-Air Force during the Korean War. Under colonial rule, No was required to adopt a Japanese name, Okamura Kiyoshi. Approximately two months after the end of hostilities, he defected to South Korea in a MiG-15 aircraft, and was subsequently granted political asylum in the United States. He then adopted the English name Kenneth H. Rowe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberty in North Korea</span> United States-South Korean nonprofit

Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. It has offices in Long Beach, California, United States, and Seoul, South Korea. The organization rescues refugees hiding in China and resettles them in South Korea or the United States, so that they can avoid being forcibly repatriated back to North Korea, where they can face harsh punishments. The refugees first travel from China to Southeast Asia through what the organization calls an "Underground Railroad", and then on to South Korea where they are recognized as refugees.

Yodok concentration camp was a kwalliso in North Korea. The official name was Kwan-li-so No. 15. The camp was used to segregate those seen as enemies of the state, punish them for political misdemeanors, and put them to hard labour. It was closed down in 2014.

People defect from North Korea for political, material, and personal reasons. Defectors flee to various countries, mainly South Korea. In South Korea, they are referred to by several terms, including "northern refugees" and "new settlers".

Lee Soon-ok 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Committee for Human Rights in North Korea</span> U.S. non-governmental organization

The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), formerly known as the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, is a Washington, D.C.-based non-governmental research organization that "seeks to raise awareness about conditions in North Korea and to publish research that focuses the world's attention on human rights abuses in that country."

Oh Kil-nam is a retired South Korean economist, who was offered a job as an economist in North Korea, and so defected to North Korea with his wife Shin Suk-ja and daughters, then left them behind when he obtained political asylum in Denmark, where he was working in the North Korean embassy.

An Hyuk is a North Korean defector.

Kaechon Internment Camp is a labor camp in North Korea for political prisoners and descendants of alleged criminals. The official name for the camp is Kwan-li-so No. 14. The camp is commonly known as Camp 14. It is not to be confused with the Kaechon concentration camp, which is located 20 km (12 mi) to the northwest. Nearest train station is the Oedong station of the Taegon Line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shin Dong-hyuk</span> North Korean defector

Shin Dong-hyuk is a North Korean-born human rights activist. He claims to be the only prisoner to have successfully escaped from a "total-control zone" grade internment camp in North Korea. His biography, Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey From North Korea to Freedom in the West, was written with the assistance of former Washington Post journalist Blaine Harden.

Prisons in North Korea have conditions that are unsanitary, life-threatening and are comparable to historical concentration camps. A significant number of inmates have died each year, since they are subject to torture and inhumane treatment. Public and secret executions of inmates, even children, especially in cases of attempted escape, are commonplace. Infanticides also often occur. The mortality rate is exceptionally high, because many prisoners die of starvation, illnesses, work accidents, or torture.

Shin Suk-ja is a South Korean woman who is currently imprisoned, along with her daughters, in North Korea after her husband Oh Kil-nam defected from North Korea to Denmark, having been given a political asylum. The case received international attention, including Amnesty International's naming her a prisoner of conscience and campaigning heavily for her release; this appeal remains ignored by North Korean authorities.

<i>Deep Rooted Tree</i> 2011 South Korean historical television series

Deep Rooted Tree is a 2011 South Korean television series starring Han Suk-kyu, Jang Hyuk and Shin Se-kyung. Based on the novel of the same name by Lee Jung-myung, it aired on SBS from 5 October to 22 December 2011 on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:55 for 24 episodes.

Jang Jin-sung is the pseudonym of a North Korean poet and government official who defected to South Korea. He had worked as a psychological warfare officer within the United Front Department of the Korean Workers' Party. Jang specifically worked within the United Front Department Section 5 (Literature), Division 19 (Poetry) of Office 101. Office 101 created propaganda intended to encourage South Korean sympathy for North Korea. One of Jang's job duties was to create poetry under a South Korean pseudonym Kim Kyong-min and in a South Korean style. His poetry was intended for distribution within South Korea. A South Korean court has sentenced him to six months in prison, after finding him guilty of a sexual crime against a former female coworker.

Hyuk, also spelled Hyeok, or Hyok, is a Korean masculine given name, an element in two-syllable Korean given names. As given name meaning differs based on the hanja used to write it. There are 12 hanja with the reading "hyuk" on the South Korean government's official list of hanja which may be used in given names.

Media coverage of North Korea is hampered by an extreme lack of reliable information, coupled with an abundant number of sensationalist falsehoods. There are a number of reasons for this lack of information and incorrect stories.

<i>Camp 14: Total Control Zone</i> 2012 German film

Camp 14: Total Control Zone is a 2012 German/South Korean documentary film directed by German filmmaker Marc Wiese. It features interviews with Shin Dong-hyuk who was born and grew up in the Kaechon internment camp in North Korea. Through interviews and animated sequences, the film details human rights abuses that were inflicted on him and witnessed by him as prisoner there, including the public execution of his mother and brother. Also interviewed in the film are a former commander of the guards at Camp 22 and an ex-secret policeman, both of whom admit to committing various crimes including torture, rape and murder.

Ann Shin is a filmmaker and writer based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

References

  1. 1 2 "About". blaineharden.com. August 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  2. ↑ Armour, C. (1992). "Africa: Dispatches from a fragile continent". African Affairs . 91 (362): 163–164. doi:10.1093/afraf/91.362.163. Archived from the original on 2014-12-21. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Grand Coulee Dam". American Experience . Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  4. ↑ "A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia". Publishers Weekly . Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  5. ↑ "A River Lost". Kirkus Reviews . May 1, 1996. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  6. ↑ Andrew Salmon (April 27, 2012). ""Escape From Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  7. ↑ Janet Maslin (April 11, 2012). "The Casual Horrors of Life in a North Korean Hell". The New York Times. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  8. ↑ Andrew Anthony (April 13, 2012). "Escape From Camp 14 by Blaine Harden – review". The Guardian. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  9. ↑ Anna Fifield (17 January 2015). "Prominent N. Korean defector Shin Dong-hyuk admits parts of story are inaccurate". The Washington Post.
  10. ↑ "The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot". Kirkus Reviews . December 11, 2014. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  11. ↑ Terry Hong (March 19, 2015). "'The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot' presents a riveting slice of North Korean history". The Christian Science Monitor . Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  12. ↑ "How a journalist unraveled a gory founding myth of the Pacific Northwest". Los Angeles Times. April 22, 2021. Retrieved August 7, 2021.
  13. ↑ "Past Winners : 1985". Livingston Award . Archived from the original on March 22, 2013. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  14. ↑ ASNE (1988). ASNE: Proceedings of the Convention of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. The Society. p. 321. Retrieved December 21, 2014. Our first winner this morning, in the category of non-deadline writing, is Blaine Harden, African correspondent for the Washington Post.
  15. ↑ "Previous Winners" (PDF). Scripps Howard Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 6, 2012. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  16. ↑ "Le Grand prix de la biographie politique pour Blaine Harden". magazine-litteraire.com (in French). November 19, 2012. Archived from the original on December 21, 2014. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  17. ↑ "2013 Dayton Literary Peace Prize Finalists". Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Archived from the original on August 24, 2013. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
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