For the last two weeks North Korea watchers have been much pre-occupied with what can be described as the “Shin Dong-hyuk affair.” At least some suspicions had been confirmed when Shin suddenly admitted what many had hitherto suspected: he did not spend most of his life in the total control zone of the notorious Camp 14; rather, Shin was an inmate of the more liberal Camp 18 (at least for a few years). As Shin in the last few years had emerged as the most promoted refugee worldwide, this admission changes much.

Shin’s admission, in particular, is more damaging because