Defectors recall ordeal, seek freedom for other North Koreans

SEOUL – More people in North Korea wish to leave the country as they continue to suffer poverty and oppression from the government of Kim Jong-Un, according to two North Korean defectors.

Despite his physical disability, Ji Seong-Ho, 35, took a treacherous 6,000-mile trek on wooden crutches, crossing the Tumen River before reaching South Korea.

Lee So-Yeon, 41 and a former North Korean soldier, also managed to sneak across the Tumen River to China.

The 521-kilometer long Tuman or Duman River serves as part of the boundary between China, North Korea and Russia.

 “There are many people (in North Korea) who want to defect to South Korea but they need money to escape,” Ji told visiting foreign journalists here last Wednesday.

Ji, who lived in North Korea for 24 years, said he was 14 when he lost his left hand and left leg after trying to steal coal from a moving train to trade for food.

He said North Korea does not provide support to lower class citizens such as adequate medical attention, especially to people with disabilities. “My father was just a laborer and I have siblings to feed,” he said.

“I lived in North Korea for 24 years. Some people say it may be short, but for me 24 years is so long,” he said. “I felt that there is very inappropriate living condition in this country.”

He said soldiers used to help residents who want to escape North Korea. But when the government found out about this, it gave them incentives and even promoted them if they provide information about people who want to defect.

Ji noted that many people who attempted to escape were either captured or killed. His father was captured by officials in North Korea and was tortured to death. He traveled to China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand before flying to South Korea. 

Because of his disability, he said the Thai embassy processed his papers immediately so he could go to South Korea. When he arrived in South Korea, Ji said people welcomed him, holding placards bearing the words, “Welcome to Korea!”

“I had two wishes at that time: to have an artificial leg and eat a whole chicken. And within a month, my dream came true,” he said.

Ji currently heads the Seoul-based Now, Action and Unity for Human Rights (NAUH) that provides support to North Korean defectors.

“North Korean defectors get a certain amount of around $10,000 and get a chance to study in South Korea,” he said.

He is currently taking up legal studies at a university here with the support of the South Korean government.

“Even if I live a good life here, I think of the people in North Korea who live with disability. But we have activities to help them,” Ji said.

Lee, a daughter of a university professor, along with other women volunteered for the military when famine devastated her country in the 1990s to help in food rations.

Since 2014, North Korean women have been drafted for seven years of mandatory military service. Men, on the other hand, serve 10 to 12 years.

After she was discharged from the military, Lee worked at a black market, receiving a meager wage of 2,000 won or less than a dollar from her government.

She noted that the government decides which occupation every North Korean adult should take – including his or her salary.

Sexual abuse,      violence

In the military, Lee witnessed sexual abuse and violence against female soldiers.

She tried to defect but was imprisoned and tortured. In 2008, she managed to sneak across the Tumen River to China.

“I was put in jail for a year but I was able to escape and went to China, after that South Korea,” Lee said.

Lee is currently the chairman of the New Korea Women’s Union based in western Seoul.

She said members of the Kim family are treated like gods and not human beings.

“By the time you were born, you are brainwashed that they (Kim family) are not human beings but god. And if you deny god, you have to be punished, you have to go to jail,” she said.

She said 80 percent of North Korean defectors are women.

“Many people who work in our organization are defectors because they know what to do to help these people,” she said, adding that her organization helps the defectors send handwritten letters to their families left behind in North Korea, among other assistance.

Since the division of Korea after World War II and the end of the Korean war in the early 1950s, some North Koreans have managed to defect for political, ideological, religious, economic or personal reasons.

In 2011, North Korean defectors also used the Philippines as a transit point to flee the Kim Jong-Il regime, according to a US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks.

As many as 500 refugees from the reclusive state had traveled through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport annually before they headed off to South Korea, the report said.

During the term of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the government allowed the defectors’ passage through Manila as part of her administration’s “humanitarian policy.”

 Signe Poulsen, representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Seoul, in a separate interview here, said some women defectors are forced into marriage or slave labor.

If they are sent back, they face abuse from prison guards or are sent to work in mines or political camps.

“About 80 percent are women. A lot of the women are trafficked and are sold to Chinese husbands,” she said.

Every year, there are around 1,400 defectors from North Korea, she said.

“We started seeing this trend, when people were moving from North Korea to South Korea, between 1996 to 2000,” Poulsen said.

The UN official, however, noted there are defectors who want to return to North Korea because of their families.

“There are certain people who chose to go back. We do know people who want to go back but are prevented, the main reason they want to go back has to do with family,” she said.

“They (defectors) say ‘I’m willing to take the risk if that means seeing my family,’” she said.

Poulsen said the South Korean government is doing everything to integrate the defectors in the country.

There are about 30,000 defectors in South Korea and 30,000 in China, according to Ji. 

No more tests, please

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, meanwhile, is urging North Korea to call off its announced plans to conduct more ballistic missile test launches to avoid further raising tensions in the region.

Cayetano issued the statement after North Korea announced that the launch of a ballistic missile which flew over Japan would be followed by more missile test launches towards the Pacific.

“The Philippines urges the DPRK to heed the calls of the international community to avoid taking provocative actions that contribute to nothing but heightened tensions not just in the Korean Peninsula but also in the rest of the Asia-Pacific Region,” Cayetano said, referring to the hermit state by its official name’s acronym. DPRK stands for Democratic Republic of North Korea.

He issued the call after delivering his keynote speech at the International Conference on ASEAN-Korea Partnership in Seoul.

North Korea launched a ballistic missile that traveled some 2,700 kilometers, flying over Japan before crashing into the Pacific Ocean.

“The Philippines and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), however, continue to be willing to play a constructive role in creating an environment that would help achieve peace and stability in our part of the world,” he said.

In his keynote speech, Cayetano said ASEAN and Korea have a shared stake in regional peace and stability that calls for much closer consultations in light of serious developments that could impact the security of nations beyond the Korean Peninsula.

“ASEAN had made known its position on the DPRK issue on multiple occasions with a clear bottom line, and that is to support an environment conducive to sustainable development, social progress and improved quality of life for all peoples in the region,” he said.

Also present during the conference were South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-Wha and ASEAN Secretary General Le Luong Minh.

“We were partners yesterday. We are partners today. We will continue to be partners for tomorrow,” he added.

Themed “Partnering for Tomorrow,” the conference was organized by the Korean government, the ASEAN-Korea Center, the Korean Institute for Southeast Asian Studies and Joongang Ilbo daily as part of the commemoration of the organization’s 50th anniversary this year.

“Tried and tested, ASEAN-ROK cooperation has encouraged confidence in the power of our abiding friendship to build a future of shared peace and prosperity,” Cayetano said.

The secretary stressed that the political-security engagements, based on mutual trust, continue to grow bilaterally and through ASEAN-led fora and the healthy economic ties hold the promise of greater prosperity for the people in the region.

“Our strong people-to-people connections remain solid and, through our joint efforts, will be enhanced further in years to come,” he said.

The United Nations Security Council strongly condemned the latest ballistic missile launch by North Korea.

The Security Council issued a Presidential Statement through which it condemned North Korea for its “outrageous actions” and demanded that the Northeast Asia country “immediately cease all such actions.”  –   With Pia Lee Brago