Escape from North Korea (47 page)

1
South Korean Ministry of Unification,
http://www.unikorea.go.kr/CmsWeb/viewPage.req?idx=PG0000000365
.

2
Jih-Un Kim and Dong-Jin Jang, “Aliens Among Brothers? The Status and Perception of North Korean Refugees in South Korea,”
Asian Perspective
31, no. 2, 2007, 5–13.

3
Kay Seok, “New Film Shows Struggles of North Koreans in South
,”
Associated Press, April 17, 2011.

4
Interview with Patrick Cheh, a producer of the movie
Crossing
, June 2008.

5
Ashley Rowland and Hwang Hae-rym, “Facing Apathy and the Gulags: Ex-North Korean Inmates Struggle to Raise Concern in South,”
Stars and Stripes
, February 9, 2010.

6
South Korea abstained from voting for the United Nations human rights resolution in 2005 and 2007. It voted for it in 2006, after North Korea conducted a nuclear test.

7
Cho Myung-chul was the North Korean defector who was named to a high-level government post. In the parliamentary elections of April 2012, Mr. Cho became the first North Korean to be elected to the National Assembly.

8
This section is based largely on an interview with Youn Mirang, director general of Hanawon, February 2010.

9
Background interview with Ministry of Unification official, February 2010.

10
Interviews with Choi Jung and three other North Korean women who do not want to be named, February 2010.

1
“Political Humor From North Korea,”
Radio Free Asia
, September 10, 2008.

2
Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland, eds.,
The North Korean Refugee Crisis: Human Rights and International Response
, (Washington, D.C.: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2006), 25.

3
Cellphones actually were introduced to North Korea in November 2002 and gained as many as 20,000 subscribers. The regime banned their use in 2004 after the Ryongchon train explosion, as part of its effort to cover up the extent of the disaster. At the time, there were credible reports that word of the disaster was spreading fast, through the use of cellphones.

4
“
Internet Enemies: North Korea
,” Reporters Without Borders, March 11, 2011,
http://en.rsf.org/north-korea-11-03-2011
,39755 .html.

5
“Defectors Send $10 Million a Year to N. Korea,”
Chosun Ilbo
, February 7, 2011.

6
Several North Korean refugees told me that brokers usually take a cut of 30 percent.

7
Survey in November 2010 by the Organization for One Korea, as reported in “Over 60% of N. Korean Defectors Send Resettlement Aid to North,”
www.arirangtv.com
, February 23, 2011.

8
Song Sang-ho, “Remittance to N. Korea helps Enlighten About South Korea: Defector,”
Korea Herald
, February 13, 2011.

9
Background interview with an official of South Korea's Ministry of Unification, February 2010.

10
Interview with “Ms. Lee” (a pseudonym), February 2011.

11
Interview with Youn Mi-rang, director general of Hanawon, February 2010.

12
Interview with Lee Keum-soon, Korean Institute for National Unification, February 2010.

13
Interviews with “Sun-mi” and “Bo-mi” (pseudonyms) in February 2011.

14
Lee Kyung-nam, former director of Donghwa Research Institute, as quoted in “Separated Families Skeptical About Reunions,”
Korea Herald
, June 12, 2000.

15
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/09/09SEOUL1400.html
or on a mirror site at
http://cablesearch.org/cable/view.php?id=09SEOUL1400&hl=n
.

16
Byun Eun-mi, “Reunion With Separated Family in North Korea Still Beyond Reach for Many,”
Korea Herald
, April 17, 1998.

17
Interview with Kim Duk-hong, February 2011.

18
Don'o Kim, “Yearning to Go Home,”
Far Eastern Economic Review
, June 15, 2000.

1
“Journalism in the Service of a Totalitarian Dictatorship,” Reporters Without Borders, October 22, 2004.

2
Interview with Carl Gershman, president, National Endowment for Democracy, October 2010.

3
Interviews with Kim Seong-min, founder, Free North Korea Radio, in 2007, 2008, and 2010.

4
Peter Beck, “North Korea's Radio Waves of Resistance,”
Wall Street Journal,
April 16, 2010.

5
“International Broadcasting to North Korea: An Evaluation of Three South Korean Independent Radio Stations,” InterMedia, September 2008.

6
“International Broadcasting to North Korea,” InterMedia, March–August 2008. A 2012 Intermedia report finds access to media devices is now much higher.

7
Interview with Jiro Ishimaru, chief editor and publisher,
Rimjin-gang,
October 2011. See also
Rimjin-gang: Reports From Inside North Korea
(Osaka, Japan: Asia Press International, 2010).

8
Interview with Hyun In-ae, vice president of North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity, February 2011.

9
Venerable Pomnyun Sumin, chairman, Good Friends for the Peace, Human Rights and Refugee Issues and the Peace Foundation, in remarks at U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS, Washington, D.C., February 1, 2012.

10
“N. Korea Bars Return of Workers From Libya: Panetta,” Agence France Presse, October 27, 2011.

The title of this chapter is inspired by Joshua Stanton's excellent blog on North Korea, One Free Korea, at
www.freekorea.us
.

1
John 8:32.

2
Suzanne Scholte, as quoted in Mark W. David,
The Human Rights Crisis in North Korea: Challenges and Opportunities
(Stanford: Hoover Institution, 2005).

3
Paul Wolfowitz, “How to Help North Korea's Refugees,”
Wall Street Journal,
June 16, 2009.

4
Representative Ed Royce introduced the North Korean Refugee Adoption Act in 2010 and 2011. The bill never made it to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote.

5
Lee Chung-min, “Falling Out of Love With North Korea,”
Wall Street Journal Asia,
December 28, 2011.

6
Ibid.

7
The Washington-based Committee on Human Rights in North Korea has made this recommendation.

8
“Kim Jong Il ‘Has Nightmares of Being Stoned by His People,' ”
Chosun Ilbo
, March 28, 2011.

INDEX

abortion: forced; sex-selected

Albright, Madeleine

Amur River

Annan, Kofi

Arab Spring uprisings

Armistice Agreement to the Korean War

artists, defections by

Australia

“Autumn Leaves” (Clayderman)

balloon drops

Bang Mi-sun

Beck, Peter

Bend It Like Beckham
(film)

Bible-smuggling operations

border crossings: 2008 crackdown; 2012 crackdown; barrier fence construction; crossing points; man-traps at; prisoners of war, South Korean; radio reports on

border guards: assistance from; bribes to

bribes: arrest and repatriation; to border guards; brides illegal status; in China, uncertain nature of; detention center release; education admission;
hukou
; to
informants; lesser sentences for returnees; logger selection process; for travel permits

brides, North Korean: appeal of; brokers of; buyers of; children of.
See
children: Korean-Chinese escape option; marriage, legal status of; narratives of; policy recommendations; price for; recruiting; rescue of; returnees; supply chain; violence against; voluntary

British Empire

brokers: bride; cost of; money transfer; people smugglers; phone intermediaries; use of

Brownback, Sam

Brubeck, Dave

Bruegel the Elder

Buck, Phillip (John Yoon)

Bulgaria–North Korea relations

Burma

Burmese refugees

Bush, George W.

Cambodia

Canada

Capehart, Lindsay

Carter, Jimmy

caste system

catacomb churches

Catacombs meeting

Catholics, Asian converts

Ceausecu, Elena

Ceausecu, Nicolae

cellphones: danger of owning; opening North Korea; service limitations; subscriber statistics; use restrictions

Chang Mu-hwan

Chang Sung-gil

Chang Sung-ho

Cheh, Patrick Daihui

Cheonan
attack

children, Korean-Chinese: citizenship rights; costs of sheltering; education of; fostered; legal rights; newborns, murder of; orphanages for–95, 97, 99; racism against; repatriating; statistics; stories of; violence against

children, North Korean: death during escape; education of; foster homes for;
hukou
for, costs of; homeless (
kotjebi)
; as hostages; left behind by parents; malnourished; refugee, education of; rescuing; violence against

China: economy; embassy access in; ethnic minorities, official; gender imbalance in; racism in; refugee assistance policy; refugee policy recommendations; religious freedom; repatriation policy; rescuers, imprisonment of

China, refugees in: asylum denied; classification of; employment opportunities; imprisonment of; missionary returnees; pre-famine period; protests/consular invasions; radio broadcasts targeting; sheltering; statistics

China-Japan relations

China–North Korea relations: continuing, reasons for; repatriation policy; reunification planning, recommendation; security agents, policy on; trade

China
–
South Korea relations: diplomatic ties; normalization; POW issue; repatriation policy; trade

China–United States relations

Cho Chang-ho

Choi Duk-keun

Choi Jung

Chongshin University divinity school

Christian churches: China; North Korea

Christianity: freedom and; Korea, historically; North Korea, present-day; post–Cold War Europe

Christian organizations.
See specific organizations

Christians: in Asia, statistics; Chinese foster parents, safety of

Christians, North Korean: missionary returnees; persecution of; refugee conversions; statistics

Christian Solidarity Worldwide

Chun Doo-hwan

Chung Jun-yung

Chung Mong-joon

citizenship rights, Korean-Chinese children

civil rights

Clayderman, Richard

Clinton, Hillary

Cohen, Roberta

Cold War

Commission on International Religious Freedom, United States

Committee for Human Rights in North Korea

Compromise of 1850,

conductors: costs; dangers for; destination
country, choice of; escape stories of; failure, consequences of; networks; operational knowledge of individual; retribution against

Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees

corruption.
See also
bribes

Craige, Harry

Crossing Borders

Cutno, Angel Chung

Daily North Korea

Dandong, China

defector intellectuals

defectors: activism; artists; asylum denied; asylum for; demographics; early; government officials; motivations; repatriation of; retribution against; students

Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)

democracy, rise of: Arab Spring uprisings; church sponsorship; Germany; Romania

Deng Xiaoping

Denmark

detention centers

In the Dictator's Service
(
Im Dienst des Diktators
)

diplomats, murder of South Korean

Doctors Without Borders

Dongbei

Don'o Kim

dumpling diplomacy

DVDs/DVD players

education: of Korean-Chinese children; of North Korean children; of refugees, in South Korea; revisionist history in North Korea

electricity shortages

elite class, information technology targeting

English language skills

entrepreneur refugees: dance troupe; dumpling factory; family-reunification business; radio station ownership

Eom Myong-hui

escape: brokers roles; conductor stories; films about; narratives of; radio guidance for; routes; success statistics

escape costs: bribes; conductors; documents; funding; private transportation; Thailand entrance fines; in total

escapees.
See
defectors; refugees

escape failure, consequences of: for conductors; imprisonment, torture, death; for loggers; for women

Escaping North Korea
(Kim)

European-Americans, refugee activism

Facebook

families of refugees: divided by war; phone calls to/contact with/ news via; remittance money to; retribution against; reuniting

famine (1990s)

Farrow, Mia

fax machines

Fillmore, Millard

flash drives

Flipse, Scott

food distribution system

food shortages: 1990s famine; balloon drops to alleviate; deaths from; escape and; international aid diversions; video exposing