Former foes unite against Pyongyang's rule

eoul, South Korea - One was a North Korean political prisoner, the other a prison camp guard. Now in South Korea, the two defectors are working together to bring about change to the fearful regime they fled.

Inside Story - North Korea : Challenges of a 'pariah state'

Kang Chol Hwan, 46, is perhaps the most famous North Korean defector in South Korea.
His memoir, The Aquariums of Pyongyang, was the first personal account of the North Korean gulag to win international recognition. He was even invited to meet then-president George W Bush to discuss his experience.  
Born into a well-connected Pyongyang family, Kang's fortunes plunged when he was still a child, and his grandfather was accused of treason.
On North Korea's notorious principle of "joint responsibility", he and his family were dispatched to the Yodok political prison camp, where inmates suffered starvation, violence and other abuse.
After a decade, Kang was released. He defected, reaching South Korea in 1994. In 1995, in the capital Seoul, he was invited to meet one of his former tormentors.
"Like in the Nazi concentration camps, sometimes people are forced to do things that they don't want to do under intense situations," Kang said. "I felt it was not his fault. I did not see him as someone I needed to distance myself from."
Ahn Myeong Chul, 46, was from a well-connected North Korean family as well. Considered politically reliable, he was assigned as a guard in the cruelest segment of the penal system: the political prison camps.


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