The global spotlight was a double-edged sword. For Yuna, it provided a shield. Any “accident” that befell her now would be immediately linked to Pyongyang. For Jun, it made him both more valuable and more vulnerable. Colonel Park could no longer simply make him disappear; he was a high-profile asset. But the regime’s anger at being publicly shamed was vicious.
Jun was moved from the standard prison to a kwanliso—a political prison camp hidden deep in the mountains. The conditions were brutal, designed to erase a man’s identity through back-breaking labor, starvation rations, and psychological torment. The world’s attention meant they couldn't kill him outright, but they could try to make him wish for death.
His days were a blur of digging frozen earth, hauling rocks, and enduring the con
