|
 "Escape from Camp 14", written by former Washington Post
journalist Blaine Harden, brought Shin Dong-hyuk international
fame.
Shin, one of the best-known defectors from reclusive North
Korea, said on his Facebook page he had tried to hide parts of
his past.
"To those who have supported me, trusted me and believed in me
all this time, I am so very grateful and at the same time so
very sorry to each and every single one of you," Shin said.
He also said he may end his campaign to shut down prison camps
in North Korea, which was instrumental in bringing a U.N.
resolution urging the referral of the country to an
international criminal tribunal.
But Michael Kirby, an Australian judge who headed a U.N.
commission of inquiry that documented what it said were crimes
against humanity committed by Pyongyang, said the findings of
the year-long investigation stood.
"Our concern focuses on 70 years of grave human rights
violations. The COI (commission of inquiry) had hundreds of
witnesses, many online, so they can be judged by the whole
world," Kirby told Reuters in a email reply from Sydney.
"Collectively, their testimony is compelling."
On his website, Harden said he had contacted Shin, "pressing him
to detail the changes and explain why he had misled me". Harden
added that he had given the information to the Washington Post,
for which he originally wrote about Shin in 2008.
Neither Harden nor Shin gave details about the changes.
Shin had said in the book that he was tortured at age 13 after a
failed attempt to flee Camp 14, where he was born into
captivity. He finally escaped in 2005, climbing over the body of
a fellow inmate who died on an electrified fence during their
planned escape.
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He said he had informed a prison guard of a plan by his mother and
brother to escape Camp 14 and both were executed.
According to the Washington Post, Shin told Harden that he had been
moved from Camp 14 to a different camp, Camp 18, and it was there
that he betrayed his mother and brother.
He also told Harden that he had escaped the prison and fled to
China, where he was caught and sent back to the North, the newspaper
said. In his original account, he said he had lived all his life in
Camp 14 until his escape.
The Washington Post cited Harden as saying he would seek to correct
the book, but that he was convinced key elements were correct.
Shin, who has lived in South Korea, could not be reached for
comment. A recorded message showed he has cancelled his mobile phone
subscription.
Last October, after Shin's father appeared in a North Korean video
seeking to discredit him, Shin said his father had been taken
hostage by the Pyongyang authorities, perhaps in an attempt to
silence Shin.
(Reporting by Jack Kim and Sohee Kim in Seoul and Stephanie Nebehay
in Geneva; Editing by Nick Macfie and Kevin Liffey)
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