I realize this post is somewhat old but I think I can answer some of these.
First, the story that was given in this film is not entirely true. It was later discovered that he had actually attempted escaping twice before, and that he had made it into China on a previous occasion, but was caught three months later. Knowing this, you can see how he would have known how to act and how to avoid suspicion, and also what direction he should head. I assume the government was pursuing him, but it may have taken them some time to find the dead body of his friend in the fence, and even more time after that to realize that another prisoner was missing and was probably successful in his escape.
As far as him getting away with stealing food, and where he slept, etc. I can't really offer any concrete answer, other than to say that it's not unbelievable that he could successfully do that, especially after having escaped twice before. I'm sure that he also had lots of input from people inside the camp as to what the outside world was like, even if he had never experienced it himself. That assumption seemed pretty obvious to me when I first heard about this story and made me skeptical from the beginning that someone could be completely ignorant of the world in his case. Despite all of this though, the majority of his story is still likely to be true, and he did grow up in labor camps. It's just not quite as amazing as the story in this film.
I can certainly understand his complaints about the money system. His work ethic may be great, but that's not all there is to making money in a capitalist society. It's so incredibly complicated in comparison to what he was used to. In a labor camp, you work, and then you eat. End of story. In a modern big city, your financial security is dependent on so many other factors besides simply how hard you work.
Even the most simple jobs would require many more skills than working in a labor camp would, mostly social skills. And after you get your money, there are so many entities involved in how you might use it. Companies, government organizations, legal regulation, banks, credit cards, checking accounts, loans, stocks, and so on. You also have to be smart with your money and make good decisions on what you buy, what brand, how much to buy, what store to buy it at, etc. Next time you go through a normal day, think about how many aspects of your financial life would be brand new to somebody whose only working experience is manual labor followed by predetermined food rations. I found his point at the end to be pretty insightful, about how many more people kill themselves in Seoul than in the camp. Modern life is very stressful and at times it can truly drain your soul, to some more than others. I think we can all relate to that. As horrible as labor camp life is, it's immeasurably simpler than the lives we lead.
I'm almost certain that the prison guards have defected to South Korea now, which is why one of them was saying that he's afraid of possibly having to meet the people he tortured one day, who are likely still in the North Korean camps. As far as why they would speak to those things, I'm not sure. I don't think their interviews put them in a very good light. The main reason is because they didn't seem to be showing much remorse. I'm not asking them to break down and cry, but if I was them, I'd think it would be common sense to avoid laughing or smiling at any time during the interview, at the very least. I think they both ended up saying they felt guilty though. But it's hard to just give somebody a pass when they're a full-grown adult and they're killing and torturing people. If they had some great excuse to offer for why they had to do it, then maybe, but all they really have is "I was following orders", which didn't help the Nazis, so I don't see why it would help these guys. I guess the propaganda in North Korea is so prominent that it's almost equivalent to brainwashing, and thus gives pretty much anyone in the country a pass for their actions, at least in the eyes of some.
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