Kang Chol-hwan is a journalist, author, and North Korean defector. As a nine-year-old child, he and his entire family were imprisoned in the Yodok concentration camp by the government of dictator Kim Il-sung. For ten years, he was subjected to the brutal conditions of the camp, where he and his family were in constant danger of starvation and death from exposure. They were assigned to exhausting and dangerous work details; beatings were routine, and public executions were common. After his release he managed to flee the country, first to China and eventually to South Korea. In 2000, Kang published The Aquariums of Pyongyang, a heart-wrenching description of his experiences and the very first survivor account of North Korea’s concentration camps. He currently works as a journalist in Seoul.