Shin Dong-hyuk, a North Korean defector born in a prison camp, has been selected as a winner of the Human Rights Watch's annual award for his efforts to promote the awareness of the North's horrific human rights situation, the group said Tuesday.
Shin "experienced brutality and starvation growing up in one of North Korea's forced labor camps and has worked tirelessly to alert the world to these horrors since his escape in 2005," it said. "Human Rights Watch honors Shin Dong-hyuk for his efforts to expose and end atrocities in North Korea."
The 31-year-old is the only known escapee of Camp 14, one of North Korea's camps for political prisoners, and he witnessed numerous executions, including those of his mother and brother, and was beaten, tortured, and routinely starved.
SOURCE: YONHAP NEWS
