Editor's note: Shin Dong-hyuk is a human rights advocate and subject of the best-seller "Escape From Camp 14," which tells his story about being born and raised in a brutal political prison camp in North Korea. Shin is the only man known to have been born in and to have escaped such a facility. He's the founder and executive director of the group, Inside NK where he raises awareness about North Korea's human rights abuses. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.
It maintains this position even though I was born in the most infamous, political prison camp in North Korea: Camp 14. Even now, there are people who are born into a life of an inmate in a political prison camp.
North Korea also denies committing human rights violations, threatens and intimidates defector activists working to raise awareness of human rights issues, and attacking and criticizing those who have testified during the United Nations Commission of Inquiry's investigation, calling these defectors "human scum."
Only recently did they concede that "labor detention centers" exist, but solely for the incarcerated to have their lives improved "through their mentality and to look on their wrongdoings."
Earlier this year, the UN published a report on the human rights situation in North Korea, through the Commission of Inquiry that was established last year.
It was followed by a special North Korean human rights side event during the recent UN General Assembly in New York in which U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the newly appointed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, and the Foreign Ministers of Japan and South Korea demanded improvements in North Korea's human rights record.
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