NORTH KOREA

Mass defection of North Korean refugees to the
Spanish embassy in Beijing (3)

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 and from there they went to South Korea.

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 Kim Hyang, Lee Bong-chol and Kim Kwang-dok 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.

18 March 2002

I am an orphan. My parents died from lack of medical care

International human rights volunteers working for Human Rights Without Frontiers interviewed a 16-year old North Korean girl at her hiding place in China on January 21, 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 was born in October 1985. My name is Kim Hyang and I am from the North Korean city of Hamhung. I do not want my relatives to be punished because of my defection from North Korea; this is why I am using an alias. My parents were factory workers. One summer day, when I was 13 years old, I returned home from school in the afternoon and found my mother weeping over the dead body of my father. In fact, he had been sick for the past three months but had received no medical care. I remember him saying to me in tears that he was ashamed for not being a good father and telling me not to live a life like his.

In October of the same year, I watched my mother get very sick when I left for school one morning. I did not feel well myself that day and had permission from my teacher to leave school early. I arrived home only to find my mother dead. I learned from neighbours that she had been sick for almost 40 days of paratyphoid and her life could have been saved if adequate medical treatment was provided. She obviously knew she was dying but kept it from me, perhaps for fear of shocking me. I have a brother who is three years younger. We stopped going to school and were entrusted to the home of my father's sister. She did not have enough food for her family and even though she tried to be nice to us, it was obvious that we were not welcome. After about a month, my brother and I decided to live on our own.

We had been begging in the streets and market for about a month or so when we heard somebody saying that potatoes and barley were in abundance in the city of Hyesan; so we sneaked onto a train for Hyesan. On the way, the train stopped on a very steep hill, already covered with snow. It was very cold even though it was only November (I don't know the name of the place) and we left the train to look for food. We had been begging on the streets for some time when we met a middle-aged stranger. He told us that we would find potatoes in a field in a village called Taehungdan. He told us about a strange foreigner, gave us a copy of hymn No. 182, 91, the Apostle's Creed and the Lord's Prayer. We did not take him seriously. He said he was on his way from China to his home to bring his mother and brother back to China. When departing, he gave me a name of Church in China (I do not want to reveal the name of that church to keep it safe from the Chinese police). He blessed us and told us to be strong and God be with you. We did not understand what he said at that time.

We walked for six days, begging along the way and spending nights on snow-covered hillsides in a makeshift hut with torn pieces of plastic sheets and straw bags we had found. When we arrived outside the village, we found fields that had already been harvested. We struggled to dig and to our surprise we did find some potatoes underneath. We had no idea how close we were to the border at that time.

We had been outside the village only a few days when we found a frozen river on New Years day of 1999. We enjoyed sliding on the ice for fun and soon we were on the other side of the river. At the first house we found, we knocked on the door for food. To our surprise, it was a Chinese man who answered. This is how we realized we were in China. I thought that we should better hurry and get back to North Korea for fear of punishment. However, he gave us food and he made a cross on his palm with his finger and gestured to us that we should go there. I did not understand what he was saying in Chinese but then he said something like church in Korean. It was then that we remembered the name of the church the stranger had told us about previously. We walked for 22 days, begging for food and sleeping sometimes in a barn and sometimes on the hillside before we found the church we were looking for. We were given clothes and food. A few days later, a Chinese couple said that they wanted to adopt me. For some reason, I was uncomfortable with this and my brother was against it; so I declined the offer. Then they sent us to another church in the big city of Yanji in February 1999. The church gave us a little money and food but could not give us any shelter. We drifted from one village to another in the countryside begging for food.

One day at the end of February or early March, a Korean Chinese woman asked me if I would like to work at a restaurant in another city. I jumped at the proposal. This meant that I was separated from my brother (with whom I quarrelled very often). I followed her to a Chinese restaurant in Changchun, another large city. I worked very hard but after a few days they said they did not need me because I could not speak Chinese. I returned to the village where my brother was and after a few days I found my brother and we were very happy to be reunited. In late April, a kind Korean Chinese person took us to a South Korean missionary in Yanji who protected us, taught us about the Bible and other school subjects. We became Christians. But the Chinese police found out about the study-group so since then, we have been moving from one location to another. During one such relocation, I was again separated from my brother.

I am now very anxious to go to South Korea where I will be free from the fear of the Chinese police taking us back to North Korea. I would like to continue my studies there (in South Korea) and to become like the many good Christians helping other people in distress. I also like music and dancing.

One day in early autumn of 1997 in North Korea, I travelled to the city of Hyesan with my mother for some business. On our way home, the train did not leave on time and while waiting at the railway station, I was briefly separated from my mother when I was arrested by North Korean officers and taken to the city institute for the homeless and beggars. At the office, they said that I had to be from China because I was better dressed than ordinary North Korean girls. When I said no, he said, "Youd better not say otherwise or this is what is going to happen to you," and showed me a man of about forty in his office on his knees, both hands cuffed behind his back. I saw the officer whipping the man very hard many times. Blood was running from his naked back. I was so shocked that I still remember the incident vividly. My mother claimed me the following morning and I was released.

For me, it means death to be sent back to North Korea

An international human rights volunteer working for Human Rights Without Frontiers interviewed the following witness at his hiding place in China on Sunday, January 22 and Monday, February 26, 2002. He uses an alias to protect his relatives in North Korea. However, the story is true and correct to the best of his knowledge.

I am a 26-year old North Korean man. My name is Lee, Bong-chol. I finished my high school education in my hometown of Sambong, North Hamkyong province in 1989 and became a livestock farmer for about 8 years. My father was a factory manager. I am not married. I defected to China for freedom and my rights on August 12, 1997. After more than two years in China, our whole family, my father, mother, sister and myself, were arrested on March 24, 2001 and forcibly sent back to North Korea. We were sent to the State Security Agency (SSA) in the Saetbyol district and were released after ten days under special amnesty from Pyongyang. Normally, defection by a whole family is treated as treason and such people are considered political prisoners. We were very lucky. But we were without a home, food and had nothing needed to survive in North Korea. It was like tossing us into an empty field to die. So we immediately defected to China.

On April 26, 2001 my mother, sister and myself were again arrested. When we arrived at the SSA, we were forced to stand up and down until my mother fainted. Afterwards, we were forced to kneel for two hours. The interrogators first question, like the first time, was whether we had seen a cross in China. We knew that if we admitted to even seeing a cross, it meant a heavy political penalty. They forced us to admit it and ask for leniency. We kept denying it and were released after several days. Some time later, we defected to China again. For me, it means death to be sent back to North Korea again. We will be charged with treason this time, on account of defection by a whole family with a record of previous defections. That is why I am prepared to risk death to go to South Korea for security and freedom.

I was a North Korean Policeman

International human rights volunteers working for Human Rights Without Frontiers interviewed a former North Korean policeman in his hiding place in China on Saturday, February 23, 2002. He uses an alias to keep his identity from the North Korean authorities.

My name is Kim Kwang-dok. I am 44 years old (born in May 1958). I am from the Myongchon district in the North Hamkyong province. My father was a party secretary in charge of a local factory. My father died in 1989. My last education was a 2-year course at the Electric Automation College in Chongjin, from which I graduated in 1974.

The Chongjin city police recruited me to be a lecturer at the Police Propaganda Unit in June 1976. I was a lecturer for 3 years, a guard at a local police detention camp for 2 years and a regular police officer for 7 years.

I fell in love with a girl whose mothers father was a political prisoner and we were married in 1987. The senior police officers tried to stop my marriage but I defied the pressure. On one occasion, three policemen took me to the boiler room to threaten me. It soon developed into a fierce argument and they began to beat me for not giving up my love. One of my eardrums was torn and today I have a hearing problem. However, in spite of all the pressure and physical assault, it still did not stop my marriage. I declared that I would rather quit my police job than to give up my love. They discharged me from the police service after three years. I then became a crane operator at a local mine until my defection to China on June 30, 1997 against the North Korean political system. My wife is now 41 years old. We have two children, a boy (18) and a girl (16). I am very proud of them.

On April 17, 2001 we were all arrested by the Chinese police. Because I was a police officer, I knew that I would either be executed or my life would end in one of the concentration camps. On the way to the border for deportation to North Korea, I managed to break away from the Chinese police when we stopped for a restroom break. After a preliminary investigation at the State Security Agency in Onsong-kun, my children were sent to the relief institute. They escaped from the institute after one day and returned to China. My wife was detained at various detention camps for about three months. She experienced horrible treatments at each of the detention camps. She told me that at one labor camp, a woman in her 8th month of pregnancy was forced to have an abortion. She saw two other pregnant women miscarry due to violent treatment at the provincial police detention camp in North Korea. You can hear the story in detail directly from her. She joined me in China again on October 8, 2001.

During my service for the North Korean police, I was often engaged in escorting prisoners to prisons in their hometowns. When handing the prisoners over to the wardens, I realized that the wardens were people I had known from the police academy and was therefore given access to inside prison. On one of these occasions in the late 70s, when at the prison in Hamhung in the winter, I saw a small room for cremation by electricity. I was told that they killed prisoners by draining blood with a syringe and then the dead body was cremated with an electric device. The drained blood is used for other patients. I also learned on another occasion that being hit on the head with a hatchet kills prisoners whose crimes cannot be disclosed.