Nineteen years in South Korea's Gulag

Abstract

Abstract The following are excerpts from the Foreword and the opening chapter of a powerful memoir written by Suh Sung, a former political prisoner in South Korea. In these passages Suh Sung discusses details of his arrest, torture, and imprisonment; describes his desperate attempt at self-immolation; and comments on an uprising by South Korean troops in Seoul, the “nightmare” in Vietnam, and prospects for North-South reunification.