NORTH KOREA

Mass defection of North Korean refugees to the
Spanish embassy in Beijing (2)

On 14 March 2002, 25 North Korean defectors entered the Spanish Embassy in Beijing in search of asylum "in the largest known mass defection from the Stalinist state since the Korean War". A day later, the asylum seekers left Beijing bound for Manila.

The risks undertaken by defectors throw a spotlight on the plight of thousands of North Koreans who perish in China with little hope of survival. They live in hiding and in constant fear of deportation back to North Korea. In 2001, China is estimated to have repatriated 3,000 to 4,000 North Korean defectors to their home country.

Through its correspondents in Beijing, Human Rights Without Frontiers has obtained the testimonies of the asylum seekers. This issue of the Press Service brings to your attention the testimonies of Choi Byong-son, Lee Son-ae and Lee Song who are on the list of defectors we distributed in our Press Service of 14 March.

Some of the defectors have decided to disclose their identity. Others use an alias and have changed the names of places, dates and other information as necessary to protect their relatives in North Korea.

15 March 2002

I was a Workers Party member and holder of a top-pride picture taken with Kim Il Sung

The family was interviewed at their hiding place in China on Monday 25 February 2002 by international human rights volunteers working for Human Rights Without Frontiers

I have decided to disclose my full identity if it helps inform the world of the oppressive and criminal nature of the North Korean government. My name is Choi Byong-son and I am 52 years old (born June 6, 1951). I am from Yongkang-ni, Chongson-ku, Onsong district. After finishing my middle school education in 1968, I was in the military service for five years. On December 7, 1973, we were collectively discharged from the military service to be miners at Pungin coal mine in the Onsong district. I remained a miner until March 7, 1997 when I defected to China.

When I was in the military service, I actually became a party member. In 1982 during our work in the Pyongyang area on a special mission, some 300 workers and I took a picture with Kim Il-sung, the North Korean leader at that time. This was considered something of great pride in North Korean society.

I was married on August 30, 1976. My wife was an inventory clerk at the same mine. She became a worker at a collective farm after our marriage. I was privileged in North Korea with my party membership and the top-pride picture that was taken with the state leader. The full details of my family are as follows:

Kim, 49 years old, October 25, 1994, wife

Choi Chol-yong, 25 years old, February 22, 1978, first son

Choi Ok-shil, 21 years old, April 12, 1982, daughter

Choi Chol-man, 17 years old, Jan. 30, 1986

We were tired of the oppression and shortage of food in North Korea and we all defected to China on March 7, 1997 for freedom. My first son was a farmer and the other two children were students when we left North Korea. In fact, in February 1997, I moved back and forth over the border three different times for information about the outside world and for food. On the fourth attempt in the same month, I was caught and detained for 12 days by the State Security Agency (SSA). At that time, there were some 100 prisoners, mainly defectors, who had been deported from China. We were treated like beasts amid all kinds of severe punishment, such as beatings and kicking. There was a young prisoner there who was found with 5 bullets. He was forced to stick his hands between the bars for the guard to beat. His hands were so badly beaten with a leather belt that they swelled to the size of a large loaf of bread.

I was released after a stern warning that if I defect again as a party member and holder of a top-pride picture, my betrayal of the fatherland would be dealt very severely, much more than other prisoners. Therefore, I would be very strictly persecuted and most likely executed if I am caught again. However, I am prepared to risk my life for freedom in South Korea.

We were very lucky that we were never arrested while in China, except my first son who was arrested on December 30, 2000. He says he was very badly treated and given all kinds of punishment and, on one occasion, he was very badly beaten with a big key chain. He still has a scar on his head from that beating. Once during his 12-day detention, he heard a woman screaming from being beaten for more than two hours. He could not see how and why she was beaten. He defected to China for the second time on January 24, the day after he was released.

We want to live a decent life in freedom in South Korea. My first son wants to become a Christian missionary. My daughter wants to be trained to be a pianist. My last son wants to be a soccer player in South Korea.

People are not free in North Korea

International human rights volunteers working for Human Rights Without Frontiers interviewed this 16-year old North Korean girl at her hiding place in China on Monday, 21 January 2002. She uses an alias and changes the name of the city she is from, dates and other information as necessary to protect her relatives in North Korea. However, the story is true and correct to the best of her knowledge.

I am a North Korean girl, 16 years old (March, 1985). My name is Lee Son-ae. I am from the North Korean city of Hweryong, a border town. My father is a miner and my mother has been missing since 1997 when she deserted us. I stopped school when I was at my first year of middle school in 1996. After I left school, I collected edible plants from the mountains and sold them at the market.

I defected to China in April 1999 because I was hungry and interested in the outside world and because people are not free in North Korea. My brother is 14 years old and was at his 4th year of primary school. At dawn, we both jumped into the cold river that was up to our waist high. We did not know how to swim. Soon, we were under the water and we held our hands together fast. Soon, I lost my brothers hand but soon found his hand again. We were drowning when we reached the other side. We were so tired that we could not walk any more and I fainted at a rice field. When I woke up, I found myself indoors. I was startled because I thought I was brought back to North Korea but soon I found that I was at a farmers house. My brother was next to me and explained to me that we are in China and an old farmer, a Korean-Chinese man, helped us to his house. He gave us clothes and food and told us to go to the Chinese police station nearby for help.

I went to the Chinese police station as directed where we were very scared with many men in uniform. In the afternoon, an officer arrived and gave us food. He told me we would be safe in North Korea if we return to North Korea without detection. In the evening, two Chinese policemen took us to the riverside and told us to return to North Korea. We were very much dismayed at this because we did not want to go back to North Korea. Then, we asked them to leave us there so that we could cross the river at night. The two Chinese policemen discussed with each other briefly and left us. We got out of the village bypassing the village police station and slept the first night at a kind Chinese farmers house. We walked for 6 days when a kind Korean-Chinese taxi driver took us to a Korean-Chinese town of Lungjin where we met a Korean-Chinese woman who gave us 18 Yuan ($2) for bus fare to the city of Yanji. That night, we slept at a villagers barn. At dawn, we walked to a small alley with many old Korean-Chinese women. One of them took us to a South Korean Christian who helped us to study the Bible and provided us with shelter.

In January 2001, I was arrested by the Chinese police. I was detained in a Chinese prison for 15 days. There were about 50 North Korean defectors in the prison. On arrival in North Korea, we were all stripped to the skin, men and women alike. A woman officer examined our bodies and clothes to find out hidden money. Then, we were sent to the State Security Agency (SSA) in Onsong district. I was detained there for three days for interrogation. I was not beaten at all. But I heard the sound of beating of a young man with a square bar and his screaming. Then, I was sent to the Onsong district labor camp. There were some forty defectors. It was very painful because the work was very hard for the little food they gave us even though prisoners were not beaten, perhaps, in celebration of the leaders birthday. Men dug coal and women carried it to a location in the camp. I sprained my ankle badly and I could not walk. They made me weave rice straw rope.

After 5 days, I was sent to the police station near my home address to be claimed by my father. I did not want to see my father angry and violent. I prayed that my father would not come to pick me up. Strange enough, he did not show up. On the 3rd day, I noticed all the policemen were out for the Leaders birthday party at lunchtime. I moved to the back yard door that normally remained locked. Strangely, it was unlocked. Quietly, I opened it and walked away. I headed to the border and spent one night on the way. When I arrived at the frozen border river at night, I was very scared. I prayed and prayed. Then, I crossed the frozen river and reached Chinese territory. I found a kind Korean-Chinese woman who brought me inside her house for the night and gave me enough money for bus to my destination in Yanji. I have not decided what I will do in South Korea. But I want to be free from the fear of arrest in China and being sent back to North Korea. I want to bring my brother with me if I can find him.

Freedom or death!

International human rights volunteers working for Human Rights Without Frontiers interviewed the family at their hiding place in China on Sunday, 20 January 2002 and on Tuesday 26 February 2002. The story is completely true, though aliases were used. They do not want to put their relatives in North Korea in jeopardy.

I am from the North Korean city of Hweryong. I am 43 years old (born December 1958) and my wife is 40 years old (December 1961). My name is "Lee Song". I have my 10-year-old (April 1992) daughter with me now. I was a factory worker and my wife an inventory clerk in North Korea. We were discontent with the North Korean leadership and oppression and my wife and I defected to China for the first time in July 1997. After about 20 days in China we were arrested in August 1997 and sent back to North Korea.

We were interrogated for 15 days at the State Security Agency (SSA) in the Onsong district, after which we were sent to Hweryong citys SSA. The next day we were sent to the city police and were detained there for three days before being released. Beatings and yelling were standard practice and we were treated like beasts at all detention camps in North Korea. At the city police, however, we saw a North Korean defector by the name of Choi Hak-song, a young man of about 28, who was hung on the window bars by his hands, which were handcuffed behind his back, his arms twisted with a hoe. He cried for help and the interrogator gagged him with his socks. Other prisoners thought that he might have possibly admitted under torture that he had met South Korean Christians. He never returned to the cell. All other prisoners believed that he was executed secretly or given a life sentence at one of the concentration camps. A woman from the Onsong district was hung by her hair on a window bar for two or three hours. When she was brought down, she tried to fix up her hair and found a handful of hair had been pulled out at the roots. A fellow prisoner in one of the North Korean detention camps told me that there are three large mounds inside the Chonggori prison that are believed to be the ashes of cremated prisoners.

On October 1, 1997, about a month after we were released, I defected to China for the second time for the same reason. My wife followed me to China about ten days later.

On June 1, 1998, my wife and her sister were arrested in China and sent back to North Korea. They spent 10 days at the Hweryong city police station, after a brief stopover at the SSA in the same city. They were not beaten this time, but they heard the screaming of a middle-aged woman being mercilessly beaten in the next cell. Her face was swollen from a medical operation shortly before, perhaps a miscarriage. They do not know what caused her to be beaten so badly.

The Chinese police arrested me on June 22, 1999. I was so desperate that I swallowed four metal chopsticks and two spoons in an effort to kill myself. They operated on my stomach and removed the chopsticks and spoons. I still have the scar from the operation. I was sent to North Korea on July 8 even though I had not fully recovered from the operation. After a brief stopover at the SSA in Hweryong, I was sent to the city police. During the 16 days there, I was so badly treated that I was only skin and bones and would have died. They released me to die at home and to bring me back to the police again if I survived. On the evening of the day of my release, I learned that my wife and her sister who were released earlier were to be arrested again to serve a 3-year prison term. The charge was for corrupt ideology and their earlier defection to China. We wasted no time and ran away. We arrived in China on August 1, 1999. We have since then been determined to go to South Korea for life and freedom and are ready to commit suicide in the event of arrest by the Chinese police again. We are now carrying poison for that purpose. Please help us in our life-and-death situation.