Escaping North Korea, and Discovering a New World

 

 

Escaping North Korea, and Discovering a New World

 

November 14, 2014

 

By Jeffrey Rindskopf

 

 

 

Memolition

 

 

 

He spent 10 torturous years in a North Korean prison camp, but this week he was answering questions on Reddit.

 

 

 

Kang Chol-hwan, who escaped the notoriously oppressive nation in 1992, works today as a human rights activist and journalist. He’s employed as South Korea’s Executive Director of the North Korea Strategy Center, advocating for free press in North Korea.

 

 

 

On Thursday, he participated in a Q&A on Reddit’s “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) section, in which he detailed his daring escape and described adjusting to life in capitalist nations.

 

We’ve highlighted a few of the most fascinating quotes from the Q&A.

 

On the worst things he saw inside the nation:

 

My worst memory is when I was in the political prison camp. Normally, there are public executions which everybody watches. one time, there were two soldiers that tried to run away, and they were repatriated. This time, the authorities hung them and forced prisoners to throw rocks at the bodies, tearing away the flesh. Afterwards, the bodies were left there for 24 hours, and crows started eating away at them. I still remember that moment very vividly.

 

On arriving in China after escaping:

 

When I crossed the river, I reached the house of a Korean ethnic Chinese who thought I was a tourist. When he found out I wasn’t, he wanted to report us. But then I met another person who spoke Korean and bought my ticket to go to Shenyang, where I met another friend who helped me go to Beijing, and then I went to Dalian. There I met a Chosun friend who helped me get a boat ticket to Seoul. So there were three people that helped me get to China.

 

When I was crossing over from North Korea, I went into China with a certain amount of money, so it kept me going. While I was in Dalian, the person looking after me was a person who smuggled snakes into South Korea because it is a delicacy there. There were so many snakes, and they needed to be looked after. I took care of the snakes in return for accommodation and food. It made me wonder why people thought snakes were a delicacy when in the political prison camps, we ate snakes because we didn’t have anything else to eat. It was a hard concept for me to understand.

 

 

 

Kang Chol-hwan, who escaped the notoriously oppressive nation in 1992, works today as a human rights activist and journalist. He’s employed as South Korea’s Executive Director of the North Korea Strategy Center, advocating for free press in North Korea.

 

 

 

On Thursday, he participated in a Q&A on Reddit’s “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) section, in which he detailed his daring escape and described adjusting to life in capitalist nations.

 

We’ve highlighted a few of the most fascinating quotes from the Q&A.

 

On the worst things he saw inside the nation:

 

My worst memory is when I was in the political prison camp. Normally, there are public executions which everybody watches. one time, there were two soldiers that tried to run away, and they were repatriated. This time, the authorities hung them and forced prisoners to throw rocks at the bodies, tearing away the flesh. Afterwards, the bodies were left there for 24 hours, and crows started eating away at them. I still remember that moment very vividly.

 

On arriving in China after escaping:

 

When I crossed the river, I reached the house of a Korean ethnic Chinese who thought I was a tourist. When he found out I wasn’t, he wanted to report us. But then I met another person who spoke Korean and bought my ticket to go to Shenyang, where I met another friend who helped me go to Beijing, and then I went to Dalian. There I met a Chosun friend who helped me get a boat ticket to Seoul. So there were three people that helped me get to China.

 

When I was crossing over from North Korea, I went into China with a certain amount of money, so it kept me going. While I was in Dalian, the person looking after me was a person who smuggled snakes into South Korea because it is a delicacy there. There were so many snakes, and they needed to be looked after. I took care of the snakes in return for accommodation and food. It made me wonder why people thought snakes were a delicacy when in the political prison camps, we ate snakes because we didn’t have anything else to eat. It was a hard concept for me to understand.

 

 

On the biggest surprises after escaping:

 

When I crossed the river, I came to a village, and when they served me dinner, I was shocked to see that there was so much food! And in South Korea, when I was buying a toothbrush, there were ten types of toothbrushes. Which one did I have to choose? I just couldn’t believe that there were so many varieties of the same product that served the same function.

 

On adjusting to life in South Korea:

 

Adjusting to South Korean life was not difficult. While there were things I needed to learn again, a capitalist society works on the desires of a human being – being able to move freely, meeting whoever I wanted. I could live in this society following my desires. So I didn’t have that much stress adapting to South Korea. My family lived in Japan before North Korea, due to this influence of modern culture in Japan, I had the opportunity to listen to classical music often. But when I came to South Korea, a friend introduced me to the Beatles, and I bought their CD immediately.

 

On if North Koreans understand their desperate situation:

 

The average North Korean knows that the situation in North Korea is not good. Compared to the time of Japanese colonialism and the Korean War, things are worse now. one example I can think of is that during the colonial period under the Japanese, the North Koreans ate the bark of pine trees, but now there isn’t even that to eat. During the Japanese colonial period, people were able to travel and trade freely. Now it is almost impossible. The method of torture has also become more severe since the Japanese colonial period, and people continue to compare the current situation to those times.

 

On the biggest misconception Westerners have on North Korean citizens:

 

One of the biggest misconceptions I think people have of North Korea is that they are simple and naive. But I feel that North Koreans as a group of people have gone through a lot of hardship, and their ability to survive in difficult situations are a lot higher that what people think. People think that unification will be a basketcase for North Koreans, but they will definitely be able to manage. People also think North Koreans will have a hard time adjusting to the market economy, but the black market is also growing under the regime’s nose, and people are used to working in this environment. North Koreans are not naive.

 

On North Korea’s future:

 

I already feel that the North Korean system cannot sustain itself. To push for the breakdown of the regime, the roles of the Chinese and South Korean government are critical, but no action is taking place. Internal problems continue to take place. In my grandfather’s generation, the country was stable, but then there were economic problems. In this crisis, South Korea gave aid and support. However, because here is no more support from South Korea, North Korea has had no choice but to change. I envision a time when North Korea will go through change following the Chinese model. Within ten years, North Korea and South Korea will be able to have an open relationship between the two nations.