Interviews with Ji Seong-ho

I had received a phone call from one of my friends that had defected to South Korea. This friend suggested to me that I leave North Korea as well. My friend also provided details on what South Korea was really like. I was shocked by two things.

First, I was shocked by the fact that unlike North Korea, one is not allowed to beat the disabled in South Korea, and that South Korea had good facilities that assisted the handicapped.

Second, I couldn’t believe that North Korean defectors could enter college and receive an education in South Korea.

Given my grievances towards the North Korean system and my belief that this was a good opportunity, I discussed the issue with my brother and he felt the same way, so we decided to leave the country.At that time, we couldn’t bring our father with us. You must understand that Kim Jong Il always deceived the North Korean people [and because of this brainwashing] they had a hard time trusting any information.

[Kim Jong Il (1941 – 2011) succeeded his father Kim Il Sung and led North Korea from 1994 until his death in 2011.]

I think my father’s position was that, “Unless I can see it for myself, I cannot leave the country based on another person’s words.” So it was decided that my brother and I would enter South Korea first and if we saw it was safe and a good place, then we would send word to our father. That is how we left the country, across the Tumen River. [The Tumen River forms part of the border between North Korea and China.]

The season when I defected was similar to now, in April, so it was a pleasant time during the year. We reached the Tumen River by evading soldiers. During the daytime, many soldiers guard the river area, so my brother and I hid in the mountains and decided we would cross the river at night.

Normally, the Tumen River is quite shallow in spring, which makes crossing easy. Unfortunately, there was a lot of snow and rain so the river was overflowing with water. We had to think about what to do.

At first I thought we could wait in the mountain area for a few days and wait for the water to recede, making it easier to cross.

My brother disagreed because we were already in danger of being discovered and we knew if they arrested us that we’d be dead. So we decided to cross the river right away and we actually had to swim across. Because there was so much water flowing I almost drowned to death but my brother came to my rescue. And that is how we entered into China.

A North Korean entering China is not safe. Usually, an official passport has been issued to you by North Korea which gives you passage to enter China for purchasing food or whatever. But I crossed the Chinese border illegally. If I were arrested then I would be sent back to North Korea. Once I was sent back, I would be punished under North Korean law, as many people probably know.

If North Korea discovers that a person has escaped to South Korea or if a person is exposed to a religion such as Christianity, then their punishment [should they be returned] would be a prison camp or public execution. I prayed desperately not to get arrested in China.

Ji Seong-ho is a North Korean defector and freedom activist. Growing up in the midst of North Korea’s great famine in the mid-1990s, he helped support his family by stealing coal and selling it. While doing so, Ji Seong-ho fell off a train and crushed his left hand and foot; portions of his limbs were amputated forcing him to move around on crutches.

In 2006, Ji Seong-ho escaped North Korea with his brother. They crossed into China via the Tumen River where Ji Seong-ho nearly drowned. After crossing over, Ji Seong-ho urged his brother to leave him fearing his disability would get them both captured. With the help of brokers and religious groups, he trekked across China on his crutches and eventually reunited with his brother in South Korea.

Since escaping, Ji Seong-ho has raised awareness about North Korea and encouraged activism to improve his country’s human rights situation. He founded the organization Now, Action, Unity, Human Rights (NAUH) and initiated various projects geared towards helping North Koreans and preparing for the Korean peninsula’s unification. These efforts have included enhancing mutual understanding and social integration between North and South Koreans, broadcasting information to North Korean youth via Radio Free Asia and Far East Broadcasting, and helping defectors escape and resettle in South Korea.

North Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) is a country of 23 million people in northeast Asia, ruled by Communist dictator Kim Jong-Un. His deceased predecessors—father, Kim Jong-Il, and grandfather, Kim Il-Sung – respectively retain the titles of “Eternal President” and “The Great Leader.”

The Korean War began in 1950, when Kim Il-Sung, backed by the Soviet Union and China, attacked South Korea. The conflict ended in a cease-fire rather than a peace treaty, and the border between the two Koreas remains tense and heavily militarized.

Kim Il-Sung employed harsh tactics to consolidate his power and propagated an extreme personality cult that has been continued by his successors. A blend of communist doctrine, state terror, xenophobia and hyper-nationalism has given North Korea its unique ideology. Despite some recent openings, North Korea remains largely isolated from the rest of the world.

With the end of Soviet communism and withdrawal of economic support, North Korea’s economy collapsed in the 1990s. A massive famine, aggravated by the regime’s indifference, killed as many as 2 million people between 1994 and 1998. While conditions have improved, even today, North Korea faces problems of malnutrition and insufficient access to food.

Tensions between North and South Korea remain high. In 2010, North Korea sank a South Korean naval vessel, killing 46 sailors and attacked a South Korean island, killing four civilians. North Korea has developed and tested nuclear weapons in contravention of several international agreements. The country withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 in order to test ballistic missiles and eventually a nuclear device. Multilateral negotiations have so far failed to constrain North Korea’s arms buildup and nuclear program.

North Korea is among the world’s most repressive states, engaging in widespread and systematic human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions, torture, forced abortion, arbitrary detention, and denial of the rights of expression, association, assembly, and religion. The government pervasively regulates all aspects of the lives of its citizens, each of whom is categorized as “core,” “wavering,” or “hostile,” according to the history of his or her family’s relationship with the regime. Access to housing, employment, education, and other social and economic goods depend heavily on these security classifications. The government determines where each citizen will live, and travel within the country is strictly limited.

Emigration is prohibited. Refugees who have escaped to China have frequently been forcibly returned to North Korea where they are imprisoned, subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, and sometimes executed. The government operates a network of forced labor camps for an estimated 120,000 political prisoners. While persons convicted of ordinary crimes serve fixed sentences, those convicted of political crimes are confined indefinitely. Punishment is extended to three generations – the offender’s parents, siblings, and children are also incarcerated, as a way to pressure North Koreans to conform. Political offenders are often denied food, clothing, and medical care, and many die in prison.

Freedom House’s Freedom in the World report classifies North Korea as “not free” and as one of nine nations whose lack of political rights and civil liberties are considered the “worst of the worst.”