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omonatheydidBy Kwon E-youn
“A few months ago, I heard the news that if anyone betrays the regime in North Korea, he or she would be executed along with all the three generations of his or her family. I pray for my family’s safety.”
When asked whether he misses his family left in North Korea, a 48-year-old man, identified by his family name Lee from North Hamgyeong Province in the North, who has now settled in the South, dropped tears, without answers. Lee crossed the Tumen River, bordering three states of North Korea, China and Russia, and then came to South Korea via China, Laos and Thailand alone in January 2011. Unlike other Saeteomin, or North Korean defectors in a formal shelter, who generally flee from their home country due to lack of foodstuffs or to earn money, he risked his life to escape the communist country because the society never accepted him anymore.
In 2005, he first watched Korean soap operas and films while working as a welder in China. Then he got quickly indulged in them.
“I was shocked to find that daily life of South Koreans was quite different from what I had imagined,” he said. “I’ve watched drama series like ‘The Trappings of Youth,’ ‘You and I’ and films like ‘The General’s Son,’ ‘Brotherhood.’”
"Video tapes of the South’s soap operas and movies have circulated in the North since 1990s. Now a considerable number of North Korean residents watch them in turns,” he said. “Even one senior member of North Korean Security Department was caught for watching tapes that he confiscated from residents.”
As a result, there are no North Korean residents who did not know that South Koreans have been living a wealthier life than them, according to him.
“Anyone hopes to come to the South when chances are given,”he said. “But since they learned that capitalism is something that only makes the rich richer, they have kind of antipathy to capitalist regime itself, at the same time yearning for life in the South.” he also said.
He smuggled 100 video tapes of South Korean dramas and films wrapped in a cloth into the North in September, 2005.
Later, his wife, parents-in-law, other relatives and friends were found by agents of the Security Department for watching the video tapes. For conviction of treason, he served five years in Correction Center No. 12 in North Hamgyeong Province. He got released from the prison in September, 2010. He described the life in the prison as a hell. “As many as 1,000 inmates were starved to death every year. The others have managed to survive hunger by eating horse fodder,”he said.
After release from the prison, he was forced to divorce on grounds that he committed treason. To make matters worse, he was also kicked out of his workplace. It was all because he was a ‘betrayer.’ He sought jobs to support his adopted daughter, elder sister and brothers but there was no place to accept the traitor. Three months after the release from the correction camp, he decided to escape to the Republic of Korea.
“Branded as a traitor, I couldn’t live in the North Korean society any more. I was afraid of sufferings that my family might receive. So I told them that I was going to neighbor China, but not South Korea, then left my home country. I haven’t heard any news about my family yet. ”
After release from Hanawon, or the temporary shelter for North Korean defectors, last December, he now resides in Yongin, south of Seoul, learning to drive heavy construction equipment.
“South Korea is wonderful place to live in. Here, you can do whatever you want to do. I wish someday I could live here with my family,” he slurred his words.
The writer is a Korea Times intern.
Source: Koreatimes
“A few months ago, I heard the news that if anyone betrays the regime in North Korea, he or she would be executed along with all the three generations of his or her family. I pray for my family’s safety.”
When asked whether he misses his family left in North Korea, a 48-year-old man, identified by his family name Lee from North Hamgyeong Province in the North, who has now settled in the South, dropped tears, without answers. Lee crossed the Tumen River, bordering three states of North Korea, China and Russia, and then came to South Korea via China, Laos and Thailand alone in January 2011. Unlike other Saeteomin, or North Korean defectors in a formal shelter, who generally flee from their home country due to lack of foodstuffs or to earn money, he risked his life to escape the communist country because the society never accepted him anymore.
In 2005, he first watched Korean soap operas and films while working as a welder in China. Then he got quickly indulged in them.
“I was shocked to find that daily life of South Koreans was quite different from what I had imagined,” he said. “I’ve watched drama series like ‘The Trappings of Youth,’ ‘You and I’ and films like ‘The General’s Son,’ ‘Brotherhood.’”
"Video tapes of the South’s soap operas and movies have circulated in the North since 1990s. Now a considerable number of North Korean residents watch them in turns,” he said. “Even one senior member of North Korean Security Department was caught for watching tapes that he confiscated from residents.”
As a result, there are no North Korean residents who did not know that South Koreans have been living a wealthier life than them, according to him.
“Anyone hopes to come to the South when chances are given,”he said. “But since they learned that capitalism is something that only makes the rich richer, they have kind of antipathy to capitalist regime itself, at the same time yearning for life in the South.” he also said.
He smuggled 100 video tapes of South Korean dramas and films wrapped in a cloth into the North in September, 2005.
Later, his wife, parents-in-law, other relatives and friends were found by agents of the Security Department for watching the video tapes. For conviction of treason, he served five years in Correction Center No. 12 in North Hamgyeong Province. He got released from the prison in September, 2010. He described the life in the prison as a hell. “As many as 1,000 inmates were starved to death every year. The others have managed to survive hunger by eating horse fodder,”he said.
After release from the prison, he was forced to divorce on grounds that he committed treason. To make matters worse, he was also kicked out of his workplace. It was all because he was a ‘betrayer.’ He sought jobs to support his adopted daughter, elder sister and brothers but there was no place to accept the traitor. Three months after the release from the correction camp, he decided to escape to the Republic of Korea.
“Branded as a traitor, I couldn’t live in the North Korean society any more. I was afraid of sufferings that my family might receive. So I told them that I was going to neighbor China, but not South Korea, then left my home country. I haven’t heard any news about my family yet. ”
After release from Hanawon, or the temporary shelter for North Korean defectors, last December, he now resides in Yongin, south of Seoul, learning to drive heavy construction equipment.
“South Korea is wonderful place to live in. Here, you can do whatever you want to do. I wish someday I could live here with my family,” he slurred his words.
The writer is a Korea Times intern.
Source: Koreatimes
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no subject
Date: 2012-02-15 02:47 pm (UTC)oh my.. :(
no subject
Date: 2012-02-15 03:10 pm (UTC)... But this is just sad. I thought that they'd get imprisoned only if they watch SK dramas. But for the government to remove him from his workplace, and force him to divorce his wife? That's just sad.
“South Korea is wonderful place to live in. Here, you can do whatever you want to do. I wish someday I could live here with my family,” he slurred his words.
-- Although I'm not really advocating for North Korea to reunite with the South (to each her own, I guess - if they don't want to, we can't force them), but I hope they'd have better living conditions, and that they'd stop resisting South Korea's aid.
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Date: 2012-02-15 10:53 pm (UTC)