by Daniel Tudor
When people cross the river, money comes too. This money goes through the hands of a broker and into the pockets of the border guard and state security officer. Due to this trend, defection has become an industry in the border area. This illegal industry has grown steadily, steeped in women’s tears and with medieval torture and public execution excreted as its byproducts.
The commercialization of defection adds cost as another hurdle. Defection has become a luxury product that can only be enjoyed by those brave enough to mortgage themselves to the brokers. It is so expensive that the only way an ordinary person would be able to afford it would be if they were to rob a bank or sell drugs. What I’m saying is that without outside help, it is almost impossible to defect. This situation has led to serial defections of family members, who are assisted from outside by relatives who defected previously. This trend still continues.
Recently, other reasons for defection have emerged. The increasing number of mobile phones and other electronic devices has created an environment in which people can easily access external information. When young people whose blood boils for justice access such information, their desire to defect reaches extreme proportions.
I lived far from the border, and first heard news about South Korea via the radio. I listened to South Korean radio for a long time, and became convinced that if I went there and worked hard, I would have a chance in life. I resolved that I would go, even if I died in the process. And after undergoing tribulations worthy of a novel, I finally arrived in South Korea.
Having come to the South and met young [defectors], I saw that they had used many varied ways of escaping—via the East and West seas, over the DMZ, and by plane, boat, train, and bus. But we all had one thing in common: the dream of a better life.
Despite the heartrending inability to see them again, parents see defection as a blessing for their children, and this outweighs their fear of the dangers of escape. This is because they know it is a better choice for their children. There are middle and upper class parents in North Korea who pay the defection expenses and push their children to leave. There are increasing numbers of people who are leaving North Korea, in spite of the fact that they have enough money to survive. The 18-year-old student who recently defected while in Hong Kong for a Mathematics Olympiad, and Thae Yong-ho [who defected from the North Korean Embassy in England in 2016], are good examples of how the reasons for escaping are changing.
From the simple reason of survival to the desire for a better future, everyone has a different reason for defection. They all just have one thing in common, and that is the sadness of leaving behind their loved ones in their home towns. When reunification comes and they can visit their loved ones whenever they like, they will be able to look on their defection as a proud decision. I hope that day does not come too late.
Why doesn’t every North Korean who travels abroad just defect?
DT: North Koreans who go abroad are usually from the elite. They therefore have less motivation to defect. It is also of course the case that, as with anywhere, a better life elsewhere may be outweighed by the attachment to family and friends. However, there is a darker, additional reason: Whole families are very rarely allowed to leave. Those left in North Korea would be swiftly dispatched to a prison camp if their family members did not return home. This awful rule is being applied even more strictly these days, in the wake of the defection of Vice-Ambassador Thae Yong-ho, his wife, and children from the North Korean embassy in London in 2016.
Ji-min Kang:
There aren’t many ways of traveling outside the country, especially for those who are not in the privileged class. In most cases, those who can go to foreign countries are diplomats and students, as well as athletes who participate in international competitions. In other instances, people who want to visit their relatives in China or work as a logger in Russia can do so, but these are rare cases.
North Korean society maintains its rigid caste system, and while the ruling class inherits all the privileges of their fathers’ generation, it is as difficult for children of ordinary citizens to become a diplomat as it is for a dragon to be born in a ditch, as we would say in Korea. In order to be a diplomat you have to be intelligent, good-looking and have an impeccable family background. Among ordinary people, there is hardly anyone who can fulfill these requirements.
In Pyongyang, there are many sports organizations that have a lot of talented athletes picked from all over the country. Sportsmen and women are potentially less loyal to the government than other elites, and being a sportsman does not always require a spotless family background. This is pretty much the only way ordinary people can go abroad. However, this is only possible after winning countless national competitions, and even then, if their class background is very bad, they will eventually be barred from their organization.
How about overseas students? As a matter of fact, the government did not officially acknowledge the need for such education while Kim Il Sung was alive. Egalitarianism, based on socialist doctrine, did not recognize individual abilities and talents, since everyone is equal. Everyone had the same kind of education. Consequently, studying abroad is considered an advantage given to a lucky and privileged few.
Do you think that such students will be “workers of the country” after coming back? Often, students who come back to North Korea from overseas studies have to endure monitoring, wiretapping and harassment from government intelligence institutions. If they say too much about what they saw and heard in foreign countries, they will face consequences from the government.
This monitoring system indicates how terrified the government is regarding the flow of information from overseas. The reason why they block the border between North Korea and China and punish defectors is also because freedom of movement can undermine the establishment.
Let me tell you bit more about athletes in relation to this issue. I have many athlete friends who were able to go to foreign countries several times. Even though they did not achieve great things internationally, they were really proud of their experience. All of them, however, were very reluctant to talk about the world outside North Korea.
Or maybe they had nothing to talk about, as they were not allowed to see anything. I heard that team buses taking athletes from the airport to the hotel would have their curtains completely shut. Looking out of the window or waving at people is prohibited, not to mention switching on the hotel room TV. All these actions can result in punishment. The only places the athletes can visit are the hotel, training area and stadium. For this reason, they cannot even buy a little souvenir for their family on the way home. Therefore, their memories of other countries are limited to the time on the bus and in the hotel, training camp and stadium. Surely the magnificent stadium filled with so many spectators and flashy advertisement boards will be unfamiliar and marvelous for them, though.
What is worse, they even have to swear on an oath that they will not disclose what they saw to anyone after returning, as well as having their fingerprints taken. For a long period of time they will be under close government surveillance. Nonetheless, fragments of the outside world are by no means meaningless to these people. The liberating sense of freedom and wealth of the society seen through the little gap between curtains makes them realize they aspire to the same, and the much more scientific and advanced ways of training shocks them.
However, the fear that surpasses the desire for anything mentioned here is the pain that can result from seeking one’s own happiness. North Korea has long had a law of guilt-by-association, and punishes its people accordingly. I cannot think of any other government that utilizes such a savage and cruel system. When I was living in North Korea, if someone defected, it was inevitable that their family, including distant relatives, would be jailed and sent to a camp. Because of this barbaric law, no one in North Korea ever thought about opposing the government through real action.
So why do they need this system? In North Korea, there is no one more aware of the absurdity and
irrationality of the North Korean system than the diplomats themselves. In this respect, the government is well aware that brainwashing diplomats and asking for their loyalty will be ineffective in reining them in. Alternatively, the authorities use parents’ love for their children as leverage. As such, it is obligatory for North Korean diplomats to leave at least one of their children at home when going abroad. Those children who stay at home are then looked after by relatives.
I’m sure that North Korean diplomats feel ashamed of their own government. It cannot afford to pay full wages to diplomats and even shamelessly and openly orders them to finance their operations abroad through drug dealing and counterfeiting. It cannot be any more shameful.
What will North Korean citizens think once North Korea is open to the outside world? Do you know that most North Koreans have never seen commercial airplanes? They are not even allowed to travel around North Korea without government-approved travel documents. I really wish that one day everyone in North Korea will be able to enjoy freedom of movement and the joy of travel.
As a defector, would you ever return to North Korea?
DT: For most, the answer would be a definite “No.” However, life for North Koreans in the South is tough, and there are some who do regret their choice. In recent years the North Korean government has been making great use of “re-defectors” as propaganda tools, having them appear in videos criticizing the South, and thanking the Dear Leader for forgiving their apparent treachery. The regime sometimes coerces defectors into returning; if a defector’s cover in the South is blown, authorities in the North may threaten the safety of his/her family members back home.
Ji-min Kang:
Many people often ask me: Would you ever go back to North Korea? If so, under what conditions?
I’ll admit that I have mixed feelings towards North Korea, but it is impossible to put all of my memories behind me and move on. It would’ve probably been a lot easier for me to forget all about North Korea if I didn’t have such horrific memories of it.
North Korea is where my father still lives. Some friends of mine do not want to go back to North Korea. There they’ve lost their parents and friends, and suffered all the sorrows a human being possibly can. Life in North Korea was a nightmare, and they don’t ever want to go back.
Still, it’s a country in need of a lot more attention from the outside world. It’ll require a lot of help from the outside world in order to rebuild the country after the collapse of the dictatorship. They’ll need to model it after an already-existing democratic form of government, with new methods of public education and a thorough introduction to capitalism. North Korea will have to start off with a clean slate, and it’ll need help and guidance in almost every aspect.
But before I go back I’d like to point out three things in particular that North Korea will need right after the collapse of the current dictatorship.
Firstly, what does North Korea need most following the collapse of the totalitarian dictatorship? Some say democratization, but I can’t agree. They say democratization will be a true blessing for all the people in North Korea after suffering under dictatorship for decades, but I have a slightly different answer. I’d like you to understand that this is my very personal opinion: North Korea will need Leviathan. Of course, I’m not saying the country should have another brutal dictator like Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Il, who were hedonistic and extravagant. I’m saying it should have a highly patriotic leader. I will give you two examples: Park Chung-hee of South Korea and Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore.
Of course, all North Koreans, including myself, eagerly await the arrival of democracy in the land of North Korea. However, who can guarantee North Koreans will have absolutely no difficulty in adapting themselves to democracy after experiencing decades of dictatorship and brainwashing? Take South Korea, for example. South Korea has one of the 15 biggest economies in the world. South Koreans also invest a lot of money in education. Yet many scholars say South Koreans are yet to possess a mature civic awareness, and they’re not as cultured as those in other developed countries. I cannot say with confidence that North Koreans would perfectly understand democratic governance if democracy were introduced right now.
Secondly, North Korea will need a whole new education system. The best adjective to describe the education system in North Korea is “Spartan.” North Koreans are taught to monitor one another while growing up and they’re not taught qualities such as compassion and perseverance in school. Terrifying and horrible slogans such as, “Be a sniper to shoot a bullet right through the chest of an American with one shot,” are what kids in North Korea are told in schools. Kids are deprived of opportunities to nurture their creativity and, instead, they’re taught to develop hatred.
While growing up and being educated in the North, I was never taught to question. The authorities want obedient people who will acquiesce to the dictatorship, not people with curious minds who will raise questions. Because I was never taught to think critically in the North, I made many mistakes while adapting to the capitalist market, and I was ridiculed and shunned in the process. Other North Koreans have gone through the same experience.
Ninety percent of North Koreans who have escaped from the country suffer from various forms of mental illness. It’s a result of living with extreme fear and tension while in China and North Korea. Those fears we had to live with were too horrible to even describe or recall. For this reason, many North Korean defectors are highly sensitive to even minor insults or stresses that others would shrug off, and so South Koreans avoid dealing with them. This is a microcosm of what will happen during democratization and the transition to capitalism in the North.
Lastly, we need to understand where we come from and we need the outside world to be more compassionate toward the ordinary North Korean people. It is not a sin to have been born in North Korea. All the mistakes we make are the consequences of what we learned in the North. And it is not within our power to change any of that. Due to decades of brainwashing, we surely will be different from you. Sometimes, you will think we’re weird and awkward. However, we learn while making mistakes in the capitalist system. The remaining North Koreans won’t be very different from me when North Korea opens up to the outside world. North Korea requires a great deal of effort and perseverance.
I will return to North Korea when it becomes full of love and hope and a proud part of the free world.
What were your first thoughts upon arriving in South Korea?
DT: It is hard to imagine two countries that are so different, and yet so similar, as North and South Korea. As a visitor to Pyongyang, I found this jarring; having lived in the South for a number of years, North Korea had a “parallel universe” type quality to me. Had I grown up in Korea, I imagine the shock would have been much stronger.
Ji-min Kang:
After receiving three months of training at Hanawon (a center that helps newly-arrived North Koreans adapt to South Korean society), I was finally able to join South Korean society.
No one welcomed us, though. The extent of the freedom and the affluent economy in South Korea were noticeable, but they weren’t mine. Even after leaving North Korea I still had to worry: Of course I wasn’t going to starve to death in South Korea, but I hadn’t come all the way there only to stand in line for free meals for the homeless.
But the biggest worry of all was that I’d finally become responsible for my own life. I bet many of you don’t understand when I say this: Why would I be afraid to finally be in control of my own life? Before arriving in South Korea, I’d never made a choice for myself, even once. It isn’t just me; North Koreans graduate from the schools we are allocated by the government. We only read books approved by the government. We work at places assigned to us by the government. We get married and have families that way. Most of us never feel the great, rewarding feeling of achieving our goals through our own efforts.
However, most North Koreans don’t have a reason to worry about their future, since every part of
their life is under the control of the government. Of course, we never find out what we’re good at or what we can do, and no one ever taught those of us who leave North Korea how we should live in a society like the South. Does this sound like an excuse to you?
In the world we live in now, people are expected to develop their own skills and strengths to stand out from the crowd. One must improve one’s skills and differentiate oneself from others, to earn respect and succeed in life. I wanted to live and succeed that way, too. I’d relinquished everything I had to come here, so no wonder I wanted to live like that in this free society. I loved that I was finally given freedom, as well as the happiness I could gain from even the smallest things.
The first job I had in South Korea was part-time work at a small convenience store, and it wasn’t even easy to get that. I made a number of calls to classified ads listed in the newspaper, but was rejected because of my awkward North Korean accent and low confidence in the way I talked. I had never been rejected so many times in my life before. While working that first part-time job at a convenience store, I began to learn how things worked under capitalism.
In North Korea, where we were told we owned our lives, no one worked as if they owned their own lives. We were expected to work equally and split the pie equally, so people would think, “What will happen even if I don’t do my best at work today?” Doing my first part-time job in the South made me realize that what we learned in North Korea had become a problem. I realized how hard it was to earn money and why I had to do my best in the job I was given.