Category: North Korean refugee

South Korea should welcome defectors, not pander to Kim Jong Un

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One of the more troubling questions facing the government South Korean President Moon Jae-in is how to deal with defectors from the North. If Moon appears to welcome and support them, he risks incurring the wrath of the North. If he tries to cut back on aid and other forms of support for these people, many of them women, all of them lost in their new environment, he appears heartless and unconcerned about frightened people who must fend for themselves.

South Korea routinely puts defectors through several months’ training and then provides them with limited resources for living on their own. Moon is not inclined to do more for them and might even like to do less while hoping for ever more contact with the North.

In a competitive society where they’re viewed as strangers from a strange land, defectors tell stories of slights and slurs, fruitless searches for jobs. It’s not uncommon for defectors to try to get around questions about their northern accents by saying they’re from Gangwon province, divided between North and South, though most of them come from the northernmost provinces bordering China across the Yalu (Amnok) or Tumen rivers.

It’s out of the question that President Moon would openly talk about North Korea’s horrendous human rights violations, the quickest way to trigger a volley of denunciations in the North Korean media. But South Korea should remain a safe haven for those fleeing the North. The South Koreans should also never stop demanding that China view defectors as victims of the North’s inhumane policies rather than as economic migrants.

[Excerpts of Opinion piece by Donald Kirk, writing in Las Vegas Sun]

Empathy for defectors even in the top ranks of North Korean society

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Even in the top ranks of North Korean society, there are some who spit on the dictatorship and the hereditary politics of the Kim family — case in point, the incident of Mr. Lee.

A North Korean defector, now living in the South, recalls, “While I was serving a 10-year prison term in North Korea, Mr. Lee gave my son money to get some food for me.

“Sad to say, Mr. Lee, who worked at Ryanggang province’s Ministry of State Security, later shot himself with his own gun, allegedly after being harassed for helping would-be defectors.

“One may consider suicide as merely a cowardly evasion of one’s responsibility, but in North Korea it is considered an act of rebellion and thus the person’s bereaved family is punished severely. His son who was working in the Bodyguard Bureau in Pyongyang was subsequently discharged, leaving the family with no way to support themselves.

“Given Mr. Lee’s rank in the Ministry of State Security, a very authoritative institution, and the fact that he committed such ‘treacherous behavior’ against the government shook all of Ryanggang province, as well as throughout the entire country.”

[Written by Tae-il Shim, the pseudonym of a North Korean defector who arrived in South Korea in 2018.]

North Korean artist defector Sun Mu

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Sun Mu was trained in the North Korean Army to be a propaganda artist and assigned to paint murals and posters for the Communist government in the North and to honour Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-un. Having defected from North Korea in 1999 amidst a deadly famine, Sun now uses his experience as a former creator of propaganda to create satirical art that blends images of North Korea’s Communism with pop aesthetics.

Sun Mu has seen his art cause major uproars due to the subjects that it touches on. In 2015, an exhibition of his work in China was unexpectedly shut down, an incident that he believes was orchestrated by the government of North Korea.

This autumn, his works are on display in a solo exhibition at the Kunstraum in Munich, Germany, where addresses the recent summits between the two Koreas and the United States. He also shows the interrelationship, the similarities, and the differences between the South and the North, as well as their tangible dependence on the US. 

Sun Mu explains, “In February of this year I had an exhibition in Los Angeles which was founded by an American scholar of European history… One day I saw a woman who was standing in front of my painting and crying. I think she was from East Germany. … The crying woman understood something that many others do not understand because art is always something personal. The more personal it is to people the more they are touched by it.”

“The freedom to have political and artistic expression in South Korea gave me space to create paintings filled with strong satirical messages aimed at the North Koran regime, but it also attracted controversy and threatened the safety of my family members living in North Korea. Under the Communists’ “three generations of punishment” – three generations of a family can be disciplined by the North Korean government if a relative has gone against the state. For this reason, I work under a pseudonym and hide my face. Instead of my birth name I am using the pseudonym ‘Sun Mu’ which means ‘without borders’ or ‘boundlessness.”
Read full article by clicking link below

Fearless art and faceless painter: Interview with artist and North Korean defector Sun Mu

North Korean defectors reveal 30 times safe level of radiation exposure

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Tests on North Korean defectors in September who lived near the secretive state’s Punggye-ri region have revealed dangerously high levels of radiation exposure. Radioactivity levels exceeding 250 millisieverts (mSv). Exposure to just 100 mSv a year is considered the threshold for cancer risk.

One 48-year-old woman, reports Chosun Ilbo, showed 1,386 mSv of radiation. That’s nearly 30 times the level allowed for workers in the nuclear industry. Tests on half of the defectors also revealed significant genetic damage.

Punggye-ri is the site of three nuclear weapons tests undertaken by the Kim regime between 2006 and 2013.  Observers suspect the nuclear tests have contaminated the soil and ground water table in the area.

Kim Tae-woo, the former head of the Korea Institute for National Unification, told Chosun Ilbo: “Residents of Kilju county and other areas near the test site get their drinking water from underground springs emanating from Mt. Mantap. “I believe a lot of the exposure to radiation comes from the drinking water.”

Jeong Yong-hoon from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology added: “There is no way these levels of radiation exposure could happen under normal conditions. … The reason must be that a tunnel at the test site collapsed, so it is urgent to check how the site is being managed.”

Joo Han-gyu at Seoul National University said that “the radioactivity levels found in North Korean defectors is hundreds of times higher than normal and can only be the result of exposure to severe radiation.”

There are fears not only for the health of people still living in the region, but for South Koreans as well – water from springs in Punggye-ri eventually flows into the Sea of Japan, known in Korea as the East Sea. Korean cooking involves a good deal of fish, and a threat to fish stocks represents a significant danger to food supplies in general.

[Daily Star (UK)]

How the North Korean mobile phone industry is changing the country

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North Korea is evading U.N. sanctions to cash in on soaring domestic demand for smartphones, using low-cost hardware imports to generate significant income for the regime, according to defectors, experts and an analysis of North Korean-made phones. Economists estimate as many as six million North Koreans – a quarter of the population – now have mobile phones, a critical tool for participating in an informal market economy that has become a key income source for many.

Reuters spoke to some 10 defectors and experts about the use of mobile devices in North Korea, as well as reviewing advertisements for mobile devices, and examining two North Korean-branded smartphones. The phones feature Taiwanese semiconductors, batteries made in China and a version of Google’s open-source Android operating system, analysis of the North Korean phones revealed. These basic North Korean phones typically cost between $100 and $400 at state stores or private markets.

One young North Korean woman surnamed Choi recalled selling two pigs and smuggling herbs from China to raise the 1,300 Chinese yuan ($183) her family needed to buy a mobile phone in 2013. She used the phone to help successfully run a retail business selling Chinese clothes and shampoos, arranging deliveries from wholesalers. “It turned out we could make a way more money than our official salaries,” said Choi, who has since defected to South Korea.

Phones are typically sold with service plans that include 200 minutes of calling time. Prepaid plans cost about $13 dollars for 100 minutes. While those prices are comparable to or higher than what mobile phone customers pay in other countries, North Koreans only earn an average of about $100 per month.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has endorsed wireless networks, some reportedly built with the help of China’s Huawei Technologies, and local mobile phone brands through public speeches and state media reports.

[Reuters]

Why don’t more defect from North Korea?

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It’s said that the thousands of East Germans used to cross the border to the West in a day.  So why don’t more people defect from North Korea?

Families of defectors and those with suspicious anti-state thoughts are closely watched and controlled by the authorities. And the North Korean self-monitoring and report system has taken firm root in general society, thanks to over 70 years of brainwashing education. I’ve heard that the person in charge of neighborhood security has detailed information on who in their unit is blacklisted, the number of people per household, each person’s employment status, their personal connections, and even the number of spoons and chopsticks in each household. Considering such circumstances, how could you risk sharing your plans about defection with others, even to close friends?

I finally fled North Korea last October after a few attempts, along with my wife and son. None of my brothers or relatives were even aware of what we’d done.

Until around 10 years ago, people kept their cell phones for calling China and South Korea a secret. The phones must stay switched off, because illegal overseas calls are strictly banned and severely punished depending on the extent of the breach. Calls are made at a pre-arranged date and time, agreed upon by the caller in North Korea and the recipient in either China or South Korea.

The Ministry of State Security’s detection police, called the ‘111 Command Squad’, watches for anti-state crimes such as escape attempts and trading South Korean cell phones. They monitor 24 hours a day and even wait in the mountains with a radio locator to ambush callers. To avoid them, the call must be as brief as possible.

[However, the biggest challenge] to defecting is the so-called ‘cover fee’ (a bribe you pay to the border guards who, in return, secure your smuggling passage). The price varies depending on the crossing point but on average (based on my knowledge as of October 2018, when I defected) it ranges between 30,000 RMB -150,000 RMB (equivalent of $4200-21,000).

So defection, to a large extent, revolves around money.

[Tae-il Shim, is a pseudonym for a North Korean defector, writing in NK News.org]

North Korean YouTubers in the South share experiences of life under Kim Jong-un’s rule

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While mainstream media reports on North Korea focus on heavy subjects like its nuclear programme or internal power hierarchy, young defector YouTubers feed a growing demand for softer news related to daily life in their former home country.

Wearing a fedora, Jang Myung-jin shouts “Hello, comrades!” as he begins his YouTube broadcast, titled “A North Korean man, Tango”. Video clips uploaded on Jang’s YouTube channel showed him saying that ordinary North Koreans usually raise dogs, rabbits, pigs and chickens, but to either eat or sell to markets. He also said he never heard about the existence of transgender people in North Korea, though he heard about gay people in the country.

He shares that calling someone “a baby born by a young female slave” is considered a profanity in North Korea, and that people there say “Do you want to have the order of your ribs revolutionarily reorganised?” when trying to intimidate others.

Jang, 32, is among a handful of young refugees in South Korea who have launched YouTube channels that offer a rare glimpse into the everyday lives of people in North Korea, one of the world’s most closed-off and repressive countries. He uses his Samsung smartphone to film himself at his small Seoul flat, and sometimes invites fellow North Korean refugees as guests and has friends shoot him when he ventures out.

Jang, who has about 7,000 subscribers to his two-year-old channel, said he does manual labour and delivers fried chicken as a means of living in South Korea because his YouTube-related income is too small. But he feels it’s worth keeping his YouTube career going because some subscribers have left messages saying his broadcasts help resolve their misunderstandings of North Korea.

“There are people who yearn for real scenes showing how people in North Korea live. There is a niche market for that,” said Jeon Young-sun, a research professor at Seoul’s Konkuk University. Read more

North Korean YouTubers in the South – Part 2

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Some North Korea-born YouTubers talk about why they left their homeland and the experiences they’ve had in South Korea. Some also broadcast themselves putting on North Korean-style make-up or eating foods from the country.

Kang Na-ra, a North Korean escapee who regularly appears on two YouTube channels and two TV programmes, is called “Princess Na-ra” by her fans. The 22-year-old with long, brown-dyed hair said she has a 200-member fan club that has sent her a cake topped with a mini-Kang doll on her birthday for the past three years.

When Kang, dressed in a North Korean military uniform, showed how to put on North Korean-style make-up on her YouTube channel, her subscribers wrote, “You are so pretty even without make-up” and “You’re such a beauty”.

The YouTubers, however, also have anti-fans who often vent their anger at them when Pyongyang does something provocative like conduct a weapons test. Jang said some messages have been left for him wishing for him to be assassinated with a poisoned needle or banished to a North Korean coal mine. Kang said she feels a “little sad” when she reads malicious messages from people such as “Go back to your country” and “Why does a Red live here?”.

Jang said a middle school student once asked him if North Koreans eat dirt when they’re hungry, while another escapee-turned-YouTuber, Lee Pyung, said he was asked whether North Koreans give potatoes instead of money to a driver when they take a bus.

They believe their YouTube programmes help address the widespread misinformation about North Korea in the South.

[South China Morning Post]

How a sanctions-busting smartphone business thrives in North Korea

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In 2017, official customs data show North Korea imported $82 million worth of mobile phones from China, the third biggest import item after soybean oil and fabrics. That number dropped to zero in 2018 as sanctions bit. But while sanctions eliminated official imports, informal trade along the China-North Korea border appears to be ongoing, experts and defectors say.

The availability of North Korean mobile phones are a big asset in North Korea’s flourishing grey market economy. One young North Korean woman surnamed Choi recalled selling two pigs and smuggling herbs from China to raise the 1,300 Chinese yuan ($183) her family needed to buy a mobile phone in 2013. She used the phone to help successfully run a retail business selling Chinese clothes and shampoos, arranging deliveries from wholesalers.

“It turned out we could make a way more money than our official salaries,” said Choi, who has since defected to South Korea, declining to give her full name for fear of retribution against relatives still in North Korea.

In a survey this year of 126 North Korean defectors who had used mobile phones, more than 90% said cellphones improved their daily lives and about half said they used them for market activities. “Millions of people are using mobile phones and need them to make a living or show off their wealth,” said Shin Mi-nyeo, executive director of the Organization for One Korea, a South Korean support group for defectors that conducted the poll.

Sin adds: “Then their phone bills create huge income for the government.” Kim Bong-sik, a researcher at South Korea’s Korea Information Society Development Institute, said estimating revenues was difficult, but it was likely to be one of the state’s biggest earners given the scale of the business.

North Korean phones can only be used to call domestic numbers and have some unique security features. Downloading or transferring files is severely restricted. Reuters found a warning pop-up when installing an “unidentified program” on the Pyongyang 2418 smartphone stating: “If you install illegal programs, your phone can malfunction or data will get destroyed.”

“North Korea puts algorithms and software in its mobile phones to keep data from being copied or transferred,” said Lee Young-hwan, a South Korean software expert studying North Korean smartphones. The regime has also developed a home-grown surveillance tool on mobile phones, according the U.K.-based cybersecurity company Hacker House. When a user accesses illegal or non-state approved media, an alert is generated and stored inside the phone. A modified version of Android also conducts surveillance and tracks users, Hacker House said.

[Reuters]

North Korean refugees share their experiences

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Nine North Korean refugees living in South Korea each gave 10-minute speeches at an English speech contest held by the Teach North Korean Refugees Global Education Center (TNKR).

The grand prize winner was Song Chaeeun, who escaped to South Korea in 2007. Her speech on the “three types of freedom” told of the importance of free speech, education and private property as fundamental freedoms. “Having experienced years of oppression and tyranny, I am finally able to talk about true freedom,” she said. At age 21, Song escaped from North Korea, arriving in China before moving to Myanmar and then Thailand, where she spent five months in jail before she was released and traveled to South Korea. “In time dictators will fail and freedom will prevail,” Song told the audience. “To all of you, the rights and freedoms you enjoy are fundamental from the day you are born.”

Next prize went to Eom Yeong-nam (Ken), who served in the North Korean military until “life threw (him) a curveball” and he escaped to South Korea. After working and studying in Canada, Eom returned to Seoul to earn a master’s degree at Korea University. Eom spoke of the difficulties he had after graduating from Hanawon and feeling shameful about his North Korean origins. He tried to hide his identity but opened up to his teacher and classmates in Canada. “That day was the greatest day of my life. I became a star,” he said. “If you do not accept yourself for who you are, then how can you expect others to accept you?”

Ju Chan-yang, who has been a prominent advocate for other North Korean refugees, also received a prize. She spoke of her childhood in North Korea, growing up listening to the Voice of America on a black market-bought radio and watching American movies like “Charlie’s Angels.” Her father escaped from North Korea in 2008, and her mother and siblings followed soon after. Finally, she was able to escape too with their help. “I remembered dreaming of my family every night, and I was afraid that this too was a dream,” she recalled.

[The Korean Times]