Shin was preparing for school one day when he was summoned by his teacher. Some uniformed men subsequently took him to an office in an underground prison, where he was interrogated by a military officer, much to his confusion. When the officer stated that Shin’s mother and brother had been caught trying to escape, Shin insisted that he knew nothing of their plans.

This was the story that Shin told when he arrived in South Korea and was interviewed by the government’s National Intelligence Service, along with psychiatrists, human rights activists, other defectors, and national and international news media. There was no one around to support or refute his story, and the North Korean government denied the camps’ existence. However, while being interviewed for this book, Shin revealed that he had lied about his brother’s attempted escape. Lying was natural to him while he was in the camp, but he had since realized the value afforded to honesty in the outside world. He also came to feel guilty about his actions, but as he has tried to explain, the camp had its own rules and values that shaped—or warped—his character.