Stories of North Korean
Refugees
* Note from translator
This interview with Chul and Soyeon, a 10-
and 8-year-old brother and sister who escaped
extreme hardship and starvation in North Korea,
provides a heartbreaking human portrayal of the
deteriorating conditions being experienced by
millions of people in the totalitarian state. In
particular, widespread suffering has been cruelly
inflicted on the young and it appears now that the
development of a whole generation is threatened.
Many people are trying to help, but the country's
communist masters seem to be living in denial
about the seriousness of the social catastrophe in
their midst. Beginning with Chul and Soyeon's
story, we will be presenting a series of
translated interviews with those who have escaped
North Korea in the hope that an awareness of the
problem by an international audience will
contribute to a growing outcry that can help to
end this monstrous inhumanity.
This interview with two North Korean
children was first published in Korean in the
September, 1999 issue of The Monthly Chosun
The numbers tell the story: As many as
three million North Koreans have died of
starvation according to distressing reports by a
Johns Hopkins University research team.
During the past three years(1996-99),
an estimated 1.5 to 3.0 million North Koreans have
died of starvation. It is Korea's greatest tragedy
of the 20th century and it has taken a tremendous
toll on the North's youth and the elderly. The
gripping testimony of brother and sister, Im Chul
and Im Soyeon, is a North Korean version of Anne
Frank's diary. Meanwhile, South Korea's leadership
is treating the terrible tragedy as if our fellow
Koreans were something less than human. Saving our
compatriots would be a compassionate act of mercy.
Are we bound to sink to the depths of a third-rate
nation, a third-rate people who fear saving our
kin, or will we as a first-rate nation and a
first-rate people decide to take responsibility
for their fate.
Cho Kap-Jae, Editor in
Chief, The Monthly Chosun
The famine in
North Korea has resulted in thousands of deaths,
including the parents of the boy and girl
interviewed here. The father was a university
graduate who had worked as a miner, while the
mother had performed in a dance troupe before she
was married and the family came to live in a
mining village. After the parents died, the
children wandered around as Gottjaebi (beggars in
search of food) before sneaking into China. We
hope their heartrending story will rouse
compassion for them and for thousands of other
North Korean children who share their grim fate.
This interview was conducted in July 1999
by Park Hon.
"After my mom died, I
wanted to die too. But I had a younger sister. I
vowed that even if I died I would make sure my
sister lived."
"We want to study. Please
help us get an education. We want to go to South
Korea and study."
"My mom didn't die. My
mom is laying down, playing on a mountain"
(Soyeon sings a song.)
- Umm. That
was very good. What is the boy's name. "My name is
Im Chul."
- How old are you? "I'm 10." -
What's the girl's name? "It's Im Soyeon." - How
old are you? "I'm 8." - Do you have a mom and dad?
"No I don't. They died." - Where did your father
go? "He went to get rice and hasn't come back yet.
No one knows where he is." - Since when? How many
years has it been?
"It's been 3 years."
- What about your mom? "My mom died of
starvation." - How many years has it been since
your mother died? "One year."
Soyeon: "No.
Mother, didn't die. Mother is laying down, playing
on the mountain." - Right, your mother isn't dead.
Soyeon, you're a smart girl. You're right, your
mother didn't die. Where did you live? "In the
mining village in **, *** South Hamkyong
province."
- Is ** a mining area?
"Yes."
- Chul, can you tell me
about where you lived. Tell me about what it was
like. "I'll start from when my dad disappeared. It
was difficult for my dad and we didn't have any
rice. He thought we'd starve so he left secretly
on his own to go and get some rice. And then he
never came back. When we asked our mom where he
went she said he'd gone to get some rice. That's
why only my mom lived with me and my sister. With
my dad gone I had to do the work. It was OK for
awhile. Mom collected the branches and coal for
the fire, so I didn't have to do that much. I
thought that since I had my mom, I could live
without my dad. But then one day mom said that her
side hurt. I asked her to go to the hospital. She
went and came back and said she had a bad
illness."
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2001- 3-12 |
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