Escape from North Korea / Shin Dong-Hyuk

You can really just hone down Shin Dong-Hyuk's chart reading into a study of a Bundle Chart Shape. According to Bob Marks this chart shape can result in a person who has a lot of focus and who doesn't let the outside World interrupt his thoughts. Shin Dong-Hyuk is a Scorpio Sun so he's going to do this anyway. His planets are all contained within a small space within 4 signs in his chart. There's a Saturn-Pluto conjunction at 29 Libra on one end and Mars at 14 Capricorn on the other end. Mars might either be unaspected or conjunct only his Moon. Mars is also Out-of-Bounds. Is this painting a pretty grim picture? Nah, well not that grim after all, Shin has 4 planets, maybe even the Moon in Sagittarius, in his heart he travels light.

Shin Dong-Hyuk
b. Nov. 19, 1982 Camp No. 14, Working Village No. 8, Kaech'on, South Pyongan Province, North Korea

Sun 27 Scorpio; Moon either in Sagittarius or Capricorn; NN 5 Cancer

At Age 22 Shin escaped from his birthplace. He was born in a Political Prison Camp in North Korea and had lived there his whole life. His story is really gruesome, some people maybe don't believe it. His chart certainly agrees with his story.

Here's the link to his own telling of his story: http://www.northkoreanrefugees.com/2007-09-atbirth.htm.

Shin has just written a book called Escape to the Outside World. His parents really didn't know each other, they were given 5 days together for good behavior. He also had a brother. As was typical in the camp, Shin was taken away from his Mother when he was 12 years old (Jupiter Return in Scorpio). His Mother and Brother eventually tried to escape the camp in 1996; they were caught; Shin and his Father were tortured (Apr. 6-7, 1996) and imprisoned for months to try to find out if they were also involved. On Nov. 29, 1996 they were released after signing papers to say that they would keep secret. That day he watched his Mother and Brother get executed. Shin describes how he generally just felt nothing for what was going on. It seems that his Bundle Chart protected him in this way. He was beaten and needless to say tells a very awful story of life in the camp.

All of a sudden it seems all of a sudden he decided to try to escape when he was 22 on Jan. 2, 2005. This was his Uranus Square with a one-degree orb. Transiting Uranus at 4 Pisces was trining and sextiling his Nodal Axis at 5 Cancer/Capricorn (Home). The story is even Uranian. He escaped with a friend who was electrocuted on the fence that surrounded the camp.

Here are some of the other aspects for Jan. 2, 2005, date of his escape:

t.SN c. n. Saturn Pluto 29 Libra.
t. Mars 6 Sagittarius c. n. Uranus 5 Sagittarius (and square t.Uranus)
t. Mercury-Venus-Pluto all within 3 degree conjunction in Sagittarius c. n.Neptune and progressed Venus

And here's the kicker: When a person has all the planets concentrated within one section of the chart like this you always want to take a look at what happens when slow moving planets and progressed Planets either leave the formation and start to transit over everything. It usually shows a huge change, or at least I've seen this before. Remember Shin has the Saturn-Pluto conjunction on one side and unaspected Mars & maybe Moon on the other end. The only major aspects he has between Planets (MOon unknown) are conjunctions and one Outer planet sextile between Neptune and Saturn-Pluto. The Sun was just approaching natal Mars and was about to leave the rest of his planets behind. Shin's Progressed Sun was at 18 Freedom loving Sagittarius conjunct transiting Pluto-Mercury-Venus. His progressed Venus and Mercury were conjunct his Freedom loving Sagittarius Neptune, sextiling Saturn-Pluto. He grew up in a prison and was fleeing out somewhere toward China, he didn't really know the World at all, he just ran.

I'll repeat, the name of his book is Escape to the Outside World. He might as well have just blasted off into a Twilight Zone episode. If you're going to do it, best to do it during a Uranus transit with double backings from Mars and Progressed Sun.

The articles say that Shin is suffering from the effects of his past. You can see that with t. Pluto conjunct his Neptune and progressed Sun approaching within orb he's probably extremely disoriented and confused right now. He's remarked in an interview that he's so hurt when people question the truth of his statements. He's finding that the life that he grew up in and and took for granted is completely unbelievable to the outside world. Shin has managed to move to South Korea after spending a year and a half in China. It sounds like he's surrounded by many protective people which his Cancer North Node needs. I hope this continues for a few more years.