Customer Reviews

Eyes of the Tailless Animals: Prison Memoirs of a North Korean Woman

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This book was the most heart-wrenching book that I have ever read. I have bought a number of copies of it to send to legislators. They need to know what is happening in North Korea. I am a pacifist and do not believe in war generally or usually support the use of force to solve problems. But when I read this book, my opinion changed about North Korea. We, the human race, the US, the UN, or whatever, need to go in there and stop what is happening NOW... Read the accounts directly.. And cry.. you will need to cry... Buy this book, but dont read it less than four or five hours before you go to bed.. you wont be able to sleep. Not for children!

I was so moved by Ms. Lee's testimony that I have been writing letters to lawmakers here in the US about it. You should too...

This book is a wake-up call to those of us in free nations: an icy bucket of water to help us open our eyes and appreciate the freedoms we have.

Soon Ok Lee was living the easy, ordered life of a Communist party worker in North Korea. She was able to travel some in her job as a procurer of goods. However, when one official requested more than his share, Soon Ok told him no, making an enemy for life, and an enemy that cost her the life she had known.

Set up on false charges, she was sent to prison camp. She was told at the gate to forget that she was human if she was to have any hope of survival. Her story is graphic in its details and shocking at the total lack of value given to human lives in North Korea.

Singled out for some of the worse treatment in the prison were people of one group: Christians. The so called "heaven people" (for it was illegal to mention God) were treated even worse than the general prison population. Soon Ok couldn't understand why these people refused to deny their God and save their lives. She was even more surprised that these believers would willingly take the punishment of others on themselves, sometimes even to the point of giving their lives for another prisoner.

Miraculously, Soon Ok survived the prison. She was released and returned home only to find that her husband had disappeared. With her son, she determined that she could no longer live in a country that promised equality for all people and then treated so many as "tailless animals."

This narrative goes quickly, but will stay with the reader, haunting with its descriptions and with the thought of what is still going on in North Korea.

May it drive us to prayer for those still under the boot of oppression in North Korea.

This book is amazing. The prison camp conditions and treatment of the prisoners described are something that is so difficult for the human mind to comprehend. The only thing that I can think of to compare it to would be the Holocaust under the Nazis. Somehow, however, the story described within has escaped the eyes of the West -- Soon Ok Li's experience is one among hundreds of thousands of others -- she was released in the early 1990's but since then nothing has changed inside NK. If anything, things have gotten worse -- and there has been no outcry from the rest of the world. If you are willing to be challenged this is a book for you -- but be warned, after reading it you will find it impossible to do nothing -- her story and those of others cry out for justice.

You know, I read this book thinking wow, this must have been written way back in the post-war era. And as I read further and further, with tears welling up from the pain, I realized it wasn't post-war at all. It was modern. It was happening during the years I lived in South Korea. Soon Ok Li's pain was exquisite and the scars she carries with her must be excruciating reminders of life... But as I am reading more and more of the NK stories, what amazes me most is the strengh, courage and compassion that that reign supreme in these brave souls that risk everything and lose everything, just for a chance...

This was an amazing book of an unthinkable life and I thank her for writing so frankly about her experiences, helping the world to learn a little more about the people in a country and we really don't know.

The purpose of this novel is not only to reveal the atrocities that occur in the prison camps in North Korea, but also to explain the mentality of the North Koreans that enforce these crimes.
The author explains that because all organized religion is banned in North Korea, the cult of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il takes the place of religion. The North Koreans have no concept of God, and instead, they worship a man and consider his state policies to be the divine word: "...Several books of anecdotes illustrating the infinite wisdom and love for the people of the Great Leader Comrade Kim Il Sung ... are like books of stories about Jesus ... Obviously it aims at binding the hearts of the people to their leader to obtain their unquestioning loyalty and obedience and unite them in a common faith. The quasi-religious element has been explicitly acknowledged."**
Soon Ok Lee's goal is not to explain her suffering in graphic detail, but to show what can happen in a society in which the morals of a mad-man are worshiped: Torture becomes acceptable, brutality becomes the norm, and no human life has value, except for those of the "Great Leader" and the "Dear Leader." [...]
The author believes that the only way to combat the ignorance of the brainwashed North Korean people is to bombard them with bibles, for it will teach them to question the status of their "godly" leaders, while it will also instill in them a respect for humanity.[...]The author lived through this, we did not, and she offers insight, ideas, and solutions to human rights violations in North Korea -- [...]**Quoted from "A Year in Pyongyang," : http://www.aidanfc.net/a_year_in_pyongyang_p.html

This book opened my eyes about the true intentions behind the North Korean regime. This reclusive regime thought it could keep its political prisons secret to the world. However, thanks to such courageous survivors as Ms. Lee we now know what is really going on in the hermetic North.

Those interested in human justice must read this book.

Eyes of the Tailless Animals: Prison Memoirs of a North Korean Woman by Soon Ok Lee is the second account I have read of life in a North Korean labour camp. Neither her memoir nor The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Kang Chol-Hwan and Pierre Rigoulot should have been written since the North Korean government never would have expected these former prisoners to flee the country.

Lee was the supervisor of a material distribution centre, and spent six years in a labour camp on trumped-up charges for not satisfying the greed of one of her officials. She was following the party line and was a devoted Communist working for the Great Leader Kim Il Sung, and would not stoop to grease the palms of anyone, including her superiors. She had access to goods and luxuries and refused to use her position to provide an official with such items. The official took revenge on Lee and in October 1986, she was summoned outside for a supposed meeting. Without any warning whatsoever, Lee was shoved into a car, forced onto a train and transported to a labour camp where she would remain for six years. She had nothing with her but the clothes on her back.

The tailless animals in the title refer to herself and her fellow prisoners, who were subjected to the most unimaginable torture and who had to live and work in conditions that would be unfit for any animal. Kang Chol-Hwan, the boy prisoner in The Aquariums of Pyongyang did not have to suffer the years of torture as Lee, yet he wrote about it from the perspective of a witness. Lee writes about it as a genuine victim, and there were moments in her memoir where I felt as if I could not read on, as her words of pain and suffering were unbearable for my eyes to pass over. She was disfigured from various tortures and her photo on the back of the book reveals a smile now off-centre and partially paralyzed.

Lee writes about some women prisoners who were assigned the worst jobs, such as cleaning the immense feces tank. These women were sent to the labour camp since they were "superstition believers", and Lee was surprised that even though they were subject to the worst torture and given the worst work assignments, these women never complained and always sustained themselves. Lee discovered that these "superstition believers" were in fact Christians who were being punished by the North, a state which has no religion other than the worship and praise of its Great and Dear Leaders. Lee learned that these women drew their strength from the Bible and from the love of Christ.

Eyes of the Tailless Animals ends with the sudden news Lee receives of her release. One day, the prison's emergency bell rang. When the bell rings, all prisoners must gather outside and listen for names that are called out: names of prisoners who will be publicly executed. Soon Ok Lee hears her own name:

"My heart dropped. I couldn't understand what I had done wrong to deserve a public execution."

At that moment the guards lead her to a place in front of everyone, and instead of hearing her death sentence, she hears:

"Soon Ok Lee has faithfully worked for Kim Il Sung, so we decided to reward her work. She will be returned to society. I am telling all of you: If you work as hard as she did, you can also go back home."

Lee notices the Christian women in the front row. The Christians always stood in the front because blood from prisoners shot by the firing squad would splash onto them. This time, though, once the news of Lee's release was read out, the Christians raised their heads to praise God.

When Lee is released, she is reunited with her son but never sees her husband again. As Kang Chol-Hwan describes in The Aquariums of Pyongyang, spouses of prisoners were forced to divorce their imprisoned partners and never to see them again. Lee's son, Dong Chel, however, informs his mother that government officials took his father away. After Lee and her son escape to China and two years later find themselves in South Korea, they discover that her husband was taken to "a certain prison in North Korea. I later learned that he was no longer at that prison. I am pretty sure that he is no longer living. He was a good teacher who was innocent. It was only because of me that he went to prison."

Lee discovers the word of God and converts to Christianity, and draws strength from prayer. She was saved from her living Hell by the power of God:

"God brought me out of that hell to use me to proclaim the tragedy of those who live in that horror. I continually pray for the reunification of Korea and that God will protect the prisoners until that day."

Lee travels to churches all over the world, sharing her story and her belief that:

"I have been healed with the love of God and His comfort. I no longer dream dreadful dreams. I am free."

While printed by a Christian publishing house, Soon Ok Lee does not devote much space to her conversion to Christianity. I would like to know more about her rationalization of religion after growing up atheist.

The book describes Soon Ok Lee's horrible life in North Korea's gulags. Born to a well-to-do family and given a good job, she is falsely imprisoned. She tells the horror stories that she and her fellow citizen-inmates went through. It's unfortunate that her story is consistent with other memoirs of North Korean citizens, because it shows the reality of the world's most isolated country.

North Korea's prison system is the most brutal in the world. Eyes of the Tailless Animals: Prison Memoirs of a North Korean Woman by Soon Ok Lee describes in detail her six years in a North Korean prison. Tortured before her trial and told, as she entered the prison, to forget that she was human, JusticeWriter describes her story as "graphic in its details and shocking at the total lack of value given to human lives in North Korea." I read her story and whole-heartedly concur with JusticeWriter. I believed every word she wrote as she begged her readers to let the world know what was going on in North Korea. Redemption: Bible Prophecy Simplified

Eyes of the Tailless Animals is an incredibly detailed prison memoir. Soon Ok Lee's relatively short, but intense book provides unbelievably harrowing details of daily life in a North Korean prison, from frostbite and starvation to whippings and witnessing executions. These details leave the reader wondering how on earth she survived, even the first few months, let alone the six years! The writing is clear and easy to understand and seems to be an honest portrayal by a very strong and determined woman.

A note on the book's Christianity: like many who escape North Korea, Soon Ok Lee converted to Christianity when she left North Korea, so the book is published by "Living Sacrifice Book Company" and has many references to Christianity. But for those who might find it difficult to read a Christian testimony in which a higher power is credited with all things good, but none of the bad, Soon Ok Lee's story does not make so many mentions of god that it detracts from the rest of her incredible story. This is not to insult Christians, but for a non-Christian there was nothing on the Amazon page telling me that I would be buying a book from the Living Sacrifice Book Company with a preface by the US director of the "Voice of the Martyrs".