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omonatheydidNK defector details ordeal after repatriation
This is the first in a series of articles shedding new light on China’s repatriation of North Korean defectors and ensuing ordeal they have to go through. ― ED.
By Kang Hyun-kyung
A North Korean defector said she can’t sleep soundly at night because of the increasingly precarious fate that her compatriots, who are being held in China, will face if they are repatriated. Hong Choon-ok, 46, told The Korea Times Tuesday that the worst-case scenario is that her relatives could be among the reported 34 defectors.
“This has never gone away from me, and made me stay awake all night after having nightmares,” Hong said. “I have a lot of worries. What if my sister is one of the defectors held in China? What if my niece is one of them?”
There is a good reason for the mother of a 12-year-old daughter to live with this anxiety. Before arriving in Seoul in 2008, she was sent back to the Stalinist state twice in 1999 and 2007 from Yanbian Prefecture in the northeastern Jilin Province in China.
Kim Jong-un, who took power in the wake of the death of his father Kim Jong-il, reportedly warned his people of the consequences of their possible defection.
Defectors and their parents as well as their children will be “completely destroyed,” Kim was quoted as threatening. Speaking of her experience after repatriation, Hong said she lived in extreme fear and humiliation.
“In 1999 when I was first sent back to the North, I had no child. So I thought I could take care of myself on my own and would see if there were opportunities to cross the border again to see my family in China,” she said.
“In retrospect, the circumstances facing me back then were a lot easier. At that time, the leader Kim Jong-il instructed security forces to forgive defectors as he believed they crossed the border because they were hungry.”
But, Hong said, her experience after repatriation in 2007 was very different.
She was forced to leave her six-year-old daughter and her physically-challenged Chinese husband behind in China. Her mother-in-law was there but she was unable to take care of herself as she was in bed after undergoing spinal surgery.
“As a mother, leaving the poor little girl at home with a sick mother-in-law as the only guardian was painful. I had to live in acute anguish and was desperate to see my girl again,” she said.
Speaking about her daughter, Hong had to pause for a moment as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Hong has yet to have a reunion with her daughter, who is now 12 years old and live in China, as she has been so sick as a result of the torture and inhumane treatment she underwent in the North.
Maternal love
She had the baby girl when she was 35. Hong recalled she had the happiest moment in her life when she had her daughter. Maternal love helped Hong weather the ordeals.
“In 2007, I was taken to a facility for interrogation run by the security forces in the North. I had to walk down a long, dark hall with my head bent down. The smell of blood and screams from rooms on both sides of the hall put me in extreme fear.”
The North’s security forces torture repatriated defectors with devices imported from China.
“For 15 days, I was forced to kneel down in an interrogation room for 24 hours. I had to look straightforward and was not allowed to turn my head,” she said. “There was a closed circuit camera inside the interrogation room and if I attempted to change my position, severe punishment followed.”
Hong declined to elaborate how cruel the torture she had gone through was, saying it is still too painful for her to look back on what happened to her at that time. She saw one person who had brutally injured legs after being beaten. He put toothpaste on his damaged body in an attempt to sanitize the scars, she said. After 15 days, Hong was sent to a training camp. North Korean instructors there brainwashed what they called criminals. Following this, she was put behind bars.
Near the end of the interview, Hong said she is neither eloquent nor a good story teller. But she was determined to be courageous for the interview because she wanted to let the outside world know more about the ordeals facing North Korean defectors if they are repatriated.
Source: Koreatimes
This is the first in a series of articles shedding new light on China’s repatriation of North Korean defectors and ensuing ordeal they have to go through. ― ED.
By Kang Hyun-kyung
A North Korean defector said she can’t sleep soundly at night because of the increasingly precarious fate that her compatriots, who are being held in China, will face if they are repatriated. Hong Choon-ok, 46, told The Korea Times Tuesday that the worst-case scenario is that her relatives could be among the reported 34 defectors.
“This has never gone away from me, and made me stay awake all night after having nightmares,” Hong said. “I have a lot of worries. What if my sister is one of the defectors held in China? What if my niece is one of them?”
There is a good reason for the mother of a 12-year-old daughter to live with this anxiety. Before arriving in Seoul in 2008, she was sent back to the Stalinist state twice in 1999 and 2007 from Yanbian Prefecture in the northeastern Jilin Province in China.
Kim Jong-un, who took power in the wake of the death of his father Kim Jong-il, reportedly warned his people of the consequences of their possible defection.
Defectors and their parents as well as their children will be “completely destroyed,” Kim was quoted as threatening. Speaking of her experience after repatriation, Hong said she lived in extreme fear and humiliation.
“In 1999 when I was first sent back to the North, I had no child. So I thought I could take care of myself on my own and would see if there were opportunities to cross the border again to see my family in China,” she said.
“In retrospect, the circumstances facing me back then were a lot easier. At that time, the leader Kim Jong-il instructed security forces to forgive defectors as he believed they crossed the border because they were hungry.”
But, Hong said, her experience after repatriation in 2007 was very different.
She was forced to leave her six-year-old daughter and her physically-challenged Chinese husband behind in China. Her mother-in-law was there but she was unable to take care of herself as she was in bed after undergoing spinal surgery.
“As a mother, leaving the poor little girl at home with a sick mother-in-law as the only guardian was painful. I had to live in acute anguish and was desperate to see my girl again,” she said.
Speaking about her daughter, Hong had to pause for a moment as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Hong has yet to have a reunion with her daughter, who is now 12 years old and live in China, as she has been so sick as a result of the torture and inhumane treatment she underwent in the North.
Maternal love
She had the baby girl when she was 35. Hong recalled she had the happiest moment in her life when she had her daughter. Maternal love helped Hong weather the ordeals.
“In 2007, I was taken to a facility for interrogation run by the security forces in the North. I had to walk down a long, dark hall with my head bent down. The smell of blood and screams from rooms on both sides of the hall put me in extreme fear.”
The North’s security forces torture repatriated defectors with devices imported from China.
“For 15 days, I was forced to kneel down in an interrogation room for 24 hours. I had to look straightforward and was not allowed to turn my head,” she said. “There was a closed circuit camera inside the interrogation room and if I attempted to change my position, severe punishment followed.”
Hong declined to elaborate how cruel the torture she had gone through was, saying it is still too painful for her to look back on what happened to her at that time. She saw one person who had brutally injured legs after being beaten. He put toothpaste on his damaged body in an attempt to sanitize the scars, she said. After 15 days, Hong was sent to a training camp. North Korean instructors there brainwashed what they called criminals. Following this, she was put behind bars.
Near the end of the interview, Hong said she is neither eloquent nor a good story teller. But she was determined to be courageous for the interview because she wanted to let the outside world know more about the ordeals facing North Korean defectors if they are repatriated.
Source: Koreatimes
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no subject
Date: 2012-02-28 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-28 08:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-28 09:52 pm (UTC)The things people do to other people...it's beyond wrong ;____;
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Date: 2012-02-28 10:51 pm (UTC)She is so strong for holding on and spreading the word. I'll be keeping her and the country in my prayers.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-28 11:33 pm (UTC)My heart goes out to this woman and her family, and the defectors being held in China.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 03:01 am (UTC)That's so sad that people have to leave the country because they are hungry and their "leader" even acknowledges it. Instead of "forgiving" them, how about he makes conditions better so that they don't have to leave in the first place.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 03:18 am (UTC)I still remember stories of Vietnamese defectors (boat people and the like) who landed in the Philippines shortly after the war ended and, when about to be repatriated, went through the same things. There was a news crew there and one defector even cut off her hand on live television to show how desperately she didn't want to go back.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 09:09 am (UTC)