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|title=This Is Paradise

|author=Hyok Kang

|date=July 2007

|isbn=978-0349118659

}}

North Korea is one of the world's most closed societies. Not a great deal gets in, and even less gets out. We know Amnesty International cite North Korea as a terrible abuser of human rights. Since its citizens are unable to leave the country, it's mainly from the testimonies of refugees and defectors that we glean our knowledge. ''This Is Paradise!'' is one such testimony. Before he was out of his teens, Hyok Kang had survived a famine in North Korea that took the life of millions, escaped to China - where he spent four years as an illegal immigrant under threat of forced repatriation - and finally made his way to South Korea in a forced flight through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. And ''This Is Paradise!'' is his story.