The shocking story of a young North Korean who managed to flee her country to South Korea

At the age of eight, Kim So Yeon first considered running away. “But back then I didn’t think about South Korea, I just wanted to leave,” the 29-year-old North Korean calmly recounts.

Kim recounts that he was hungry, had to work early and did not attend school during his teens. She says that she was also threatened, that she fell into the hands of human traffickers and that her experiences as a refugee haunt her dreams to this day.

Kim So Yeon is not her real name. The young woman lives in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and is training as a “beauty designer”. She only agrees to be photographed wearing the mask that protects against the coronavirus, for fear of possible reprisals against her family by North Korean state services if her identity is recognized. He also has dyed hair.

The young woman is one of the many North Korean refugees who have settled in South Korea. The Unification Ministry in Seoul has officially registered some 33,800 North Koreans who arrived in South Korea since 1998.

In the mid-1990s, North Koreans suffered from a severe famine, which is estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands of people. Since then, more and more North Koreans have left their country, ruled by a totalitarian regime.

Most fled across the Chinese border, where many lived in hiding for fear of being captured and returned by the Chinese Police. The true number of North Koreans who fled their country in this way is unknown.

“The reasons for fleeing vary, depending on individual circumstances and the moment,” says Jung In Sung, director of the Korea Hana state foundation in Seoul.

According to a survey of refugees, the main reasons between 2011 and 2016 were food shortages and economic difficulties. Meanwhile, according to Jung, for the period between 2017 and 2020, the most recurrent response was “because I could not bear to be watched and controlled by the North Korean system.”

Like Kim So Yeon, most of the refugees come from the border region with China. Kim grew up in Hyesan, in North Korea’s Ryanggang province. Nine years ago, she arrived alone in South Korea via China and Southeast Asia. His escape route is typical of many refugees, who mostly rely on help from South Korean organizations.

Kim’s father and younger brother still live in North Korea, while his mother died in a traffic accident when he was very young.

“I had to take care of my brother,” explains one of the reasons why he never attended high school. Even as a teenager, to make ends meet, he traded foods such as beans throughout the country. He often traveled by truck or train and, like other traders, had to bribe security forces with cigarettes or other items to cross provincial borders.

Kim’s account echoes that of many other refugees, indicating that it is not easy for North Koreans to travel within their own country, as an official travel certificate is required to visit many regions, including the capital Pyongyang.

However, since the famine in North Korea, street markets, the so-called “jangmadang”, where mainly women trade, have become more and more widespread. Trade also forces many to move around the country.

“At that time, I thought my life was too hard and I tried to kill myself,” Kim says. He adds that he later grew potatoes and other crops in the nearby mountains to have some food. “Especially in spring and summer there was rarely enough food,” he notes.

At the age of eleven, Kim attempted to cross the border Yalu River into China, at first out of curiosity. But she was captured by border guards and later beaten. However, he says he was lucky. “Because I was so small, they didn’t send me to a labor camp.”

Today she is haunted in her dreams by the experiences of that time. “Sometimes I dream of what I felt then. I run fast up a hill so they can’t catch up with me,” he reveals.

Finally, an older friend convinced her to run away together to South Korea, where they could have a “good life.”

Kim herself did not know much about life in the neighboring country. It was only by attending a “school” for refugees that she learned more about life in the capitalist south of the Korean peninsula.

Before swimming across the Yalu River to China, Kim asked an aunt to take care of her brother. He was then 18 years old. His idea was to earn money and, if possible, then return to North Korea.

“But my plan didn’t work, I was kidnapped by human traffickers who married me to a Chinese man. There is a shortage of women in rural China and therefore North Korean women are welcome,” explains the young woman.

In addition to forced marriages, many North Korean women in China are also victims of trafficking and sexual slavery and systematic abuses, according to reports from human rights groups.

In her account, Kim says that she tried to escape from her new home, but was recaptured and locked up. When she finally managed to escape, she managed to contact her North Korean friend, who put her in touch with a “middle man”.

Kim had to take out a loan to get to Beijing, from where he took a bus via Laos to Thailand. But upon her arrival she was captured by the police and imprisoned for two months. Thanks to contacts with local authorities and the South Korean embassy, ​​she was released and managed to travel to South Korea.

“When I got there I felt relieved and thought: I’m fine now,” she recalls.

For most refugees like Kim, the time that elapses between the flight and its destination is full of uncertainty. But even in South Korea, many of them initially experience a difficult environment after weeks of acclimatization and training at a government reception center.

The director of the state-owned Korea Hana Foundation stresses that North Korean refugees experience both economic instability and loneliness. “They experimented with two completely different systems,” Jung In Sung tells dpa.

According to Jung, finding a suitable job is the most difficult task for those who fled North Korea.

For this reason, its foundation created in 2010 tries to create an environment in which they can fend for themselves. It also tries to help in social integration. He stresses that raising awareness about the plight of refugees is a prerequisite for them to settle.

“Living in North Korea was physically tough, and here it’s especially tough emotionally,” Kim says.

Although she stresses that she came to South Korea with high expectations, living without her family is difficult for her. “I often miss my family, and it’s also hard to get used to South Korean culture,” he adds. But nevertheless, makes it clear that he does not regret having taken this step.