Kang Chol-hwan (; born 18 September 1968) is a North Korean defector, author, and the founder and president of the North Korea Strategy Center. As a child, he was imprisoned in the Yodok concentration camp for 10 years. After his release he fled the country, first to China and eventually to South Korea. He is the author, with Pierre Rigoulot, of The Aquariums of Pyongyang and worked as a staff writer specialized in North Korean affairs for The Chosun Ilbo. Early life According to his autobiography, Kang was born in Pyongyang, North Korea, and spent his childhood there. He had a good relationship with his grandfather. He had a happy childhood. His grandfather was the Vice President of the Commercial Management office in Pyongyang, supervising all the commercial stores and department stores in Pyongyang. His grandmother was a member of the Supreme People’s Assembly and was the deputy head of the Workers’ Party organization of female members. She was deputy to Kim Il Sung’s wife. His family lived in relative luxury from his grandfather's position and the fortune that he had given to the country upon the family's return from Japan. Though they had never renounced their North Korean citizenship and Kang's grandmother had been a staunch party member in both countries, Kang has stated that the family remained under a cloud of suspicion for having lived in Japan. Concentration camp In 1977, his grandfather was accused of treason and was sent to the Senghori concentration camp. According to current KCNA, the elder Kang was an agent of the Japanese National Police. As the family of a traitor, Kang, 9, and his family were sent to the Yodok concentration camp. Kang's autobiography describes a brutal life in the camp. Death from starvation or exposure to the elements was common, with routine beatings and other punishments. His education consisted almost solely of memorizing the sayings and speeches of Kim Il-sung; at 15, his education ceased and he was assigned to exhausting and dangerous work details, and was made to view public executions. He said of the camps, "It was a life of hard labour, thirty percent of new prisoners would die. And we were so malnourished, we would eat rats and earthworms to survive." There was an order by Kim Jong-il that those in the prison with relatives in Japan had to be released after 10 years. In the mid-1980s North