26

 

Camp 16

North Korea

It was ironic. The very same person at the highly secret nuclear research compound who’d once turned Kim Grace in to the authorities for privately expressing doubts about the direction of North Korea’s nuclear program was now entering the gates of Camp 16.

Times change, Kim thought. There may be a new leader in Pyongyang, but the military still purges all dissenters.

Yet Kim harbored no thoughts of revenge toward her former colleague as she watched him trudge down the steps of the dilapidated bus that had creaked slowly through the main gates of the prison camp. Kim felt only sadness for him. She knew that he, too, would die in this terrible place.

The guards generally allowed the prisoners to watch as every new group of prisoners entered the camp compound. It was a reminder of just how hopeless their situation truly was. They could see the desolate mountain range through the gates and the downtrodden prisoners enter with bewilderment, fear, and panic on their faces.

Kim had watched every bus enter the gates. Against all rational hope, she scanned every face, hoping to see one of her children or her husband. She knew it made no sense. Yet she refused to give up the only thing that kept her alive—the possibility of seeing her family again someday.

There had been a flicker of anticipation when the peace talks between the North Koreans and the United States had been announced. Some of the prisoners even talked of release and going home to their families.

Yet those days were long behind them. No one had been released. If anything, the days had become longer, the labor much harder, and the hope of an end to their misery a distant memory.

Kim approached her former colleague as he left the bus and made his way toward the throng of prisoners who’d gathered near the bus. “My friend,” Kim said to her colleague.

Her former colleague looked up. Consternation, then recognition, and finally sadness swept across his face as he spotted Kim. “Oh my. It is you. I had forgotten that you were here.”

“It is where I was sent after…” She didn’t have the heart to remind him that he had been the one responsible for her imprisonment. When Kim had expressed doubts to him about her work with a nuclear doomsday device, in confidence, the colleague had reported her. She, her husband, and her children had all been sent to camps within days.

“Yes, I remember,” her dispirited colleague said. “I am so very sorry. I had no idea they would arrest you and send you…to a place like this.”

“It is just what they do,” she said simply. “So can you tell me? Is there news of my husband? Of my family?”

The man’s face fell even further. “Oh, I am so very, very sorry. I thought you’d have heard.”

“What?” Kim held her breath.

“Your husband. He has…he died two years ago, in another camp. We heard the news. I thought they would tell you something like that.”

Kim fought the tears. Long, hard years at Camp 16 had made it much easier to suppress her emotions. “No, they tell us nothing here. I’ve heard nothing of my family. Have you heard anything about my children?”

Her colleague shook his head. “I have heard nothing of your children. Prisoners were released at some camps. I know that…”

“Though not here.”

“No, I suppose not. This is a camp for political prisoners, and I suppose it would be too much to expect that anyone would see freedom here.”

“But you said some of the camps released prisoners?”

“Yes, as a show of good faith to the Americans. Some camps allowed prisoners to go home.”

“But you have heard nothing about any of my children returning home?”

The man looked genuinely heartbroken. “No, I have not. I am sorry.”

“At least there is still hope,” Kim said wistfully. “Perhaps they have left their camps and are in other countries. Perhaps they did not feel it was safe to return home and left the country.”

“Yes, we can hope.”

“So my friend, why have they sent you here?”

The man shook his head. Like other prisoners before him, he was still mostly in shock. The fall from grace had been swift and severe. “There was nothing I could do about it. We were told to secure nuclear materials and weapons. We had to prepare some for inspection and others for shipment.”

“Shipment?”

“Yes, not all of the nuclear weapons are to be destroyed. Many, many of them—along with a considerable amount of highly enriched material—were to be sent out of the country. The Americans knew nothing about any of it.”

“Where was it going?” Kim asked.

“I don’t know for certain, but it appears that it was going to Iran. Unfortunately, those of us who knew about the secret arrangements to ship the nuclear material to another country were felt to be a liability. We—all of us—were rounded up, forced onto a train, and sent here. It happened very quickly. I had no time… No time even to pack.”

Kim could see that her colleague still wore the very same clothes he’d likely come to work in. He seemed dazed. “And your own family?”

“I—I do not know. I was sent straight here.” The man glanced around nervously and then lowered his voice. “It happened so quickly, you know—and the police were so disorganized—that they did not search us.” He patted his suit coat pocket. “I still have my mobile with me.”

Kim moved closer. “Quiet. Say no more. The guards will take it from you if they think you might have something of value.”

“But it is really of no use here—not any longer. Who can I call? And who would help?”

“You never know what tomorrow will bring. The guards have told me for weeks that my days are numbered because of my role in the Pak Jong Un matter, but I am still here,” Kim said. “For now, let us hold to hope.”