Kang Chol Hwan is doing his best to live a normal life. Can anyone imagine how abnormal his life was, by any standard the world over, living in a labor camp in North Korea?

Once settled in South Korea, he graduated from Hamyang University. After all, his former study, in prison, was limited to survival tactics and knowledge about the Kim dynasty, not far removed from the education afforded the entire nation. he needed the real thing, and got it in Seoul.

He was then employed by the Korea Electric Company for three years. He is working now, and has been for nine years, as a reporter for Chosun Ilbo, the well-known Korean daily newspaper.

Nevertheless, he has not completely severed his ties with the sorrowful past of his life. He is a well-respected member of the North Korean Democratic Movement. The Council of Five upon which he sits includes men like Voice of Freedom's Kim Seung Min and Juche architect Hwang Jang Yop.

Later editions of his book trace his journey to faith in Christ after his experiences. For the last fifteen years he has attended a Baptist church in Yeoido. For those who may remember, this is the church Jimmy Carter visited on a diplomatic trip to Korea.

Kang continues to grow in his understandings of faith, and life itself. He came to South Korea with what he describes as a "messed-up mental state." He left family in the North when he departed. The sons of North Korea are all given a legacy of misery and emotional chaos.

As he pointed out, in a democratic country, there are many choices that determine one's fate. In an un-liberated nation, the choices are already made. That puts a lot of responsibility on the free.

Taking his responsibility seriously, he -as he says - accidentally went to a church at one point in his searchings, but deliberately got on the right path when the message he heard captivated him.