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U.S. President George Bush¡¯s concern about human rights violations in North Korea was fueled by a book by a North Korean refugee which he now hands out to his staff, the Yomiuri Shinbum reported Saturday. The book is ¡°The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years In The North Korean Gulag,¡± by Kang Chol-Hwan, who escaped North Korea and is now a reporter for the Chosun Ilbo, and Pierre Rigoulot, a French journalist and historian.
After his grandfather was arrested as a political prisoner Kang and his family were moved to remote concentration camp when he was nine years old, and lived there for next 10 years. The book, published in France in 2000 and translated into English in 2001, portrays the desperate conditions of North Korean people, from forced labor and public executions on all kinds of charges, to inadequate distribution of food rations that barely keep people alive. An insider at the White House said that an official with a Christian human rights organization recommended the book to Bush.
The paper quoted a diplomatic source as saying the book was one reason Bush will not compromise with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il even though China is asking the U.S. Administration to yield to Pyongyang on certain points so six-party nuclear disarmament talks can resume.
(Jung Kwon-hyun, khjung@chosun.com )
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