Author: Eun-Young Jeong / Source: WSJ
Mr. Park and his father were escaping from North Korea—a dangerous journey of thousands of miles that, for many who flee, involves sneaking across China to countries where North Koreans are typically granted asylum and sent to Seoul.
Getting caught in China usually means forced repatriation to North Korea, which sees defection as treason, punishable by death.
Desperate to avoid capture, Mr. Park sprinted across a Chinese expressway, dodging speeding trucks. Police decided not to risk the chase. Mr. Park was free for the moment—but still lost in China, with his father left behind, fate unknown.
North Korean defectors often travel as Park Hyun-woo did, through several countries over thousands of miles to reach South Korea, a country separated from the North by a heavily fortified border. Map routes are approximate.
North Korea’s recent diplomatic steps, including leader Kim Jong Un’s historic summit meetings with President Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, have had little effect on the lives of ordinary residents. Some still risk everything to flee.
The search for a better life and a desire to reunite with family who have already settled in South Korea drive many departures, activists say. “Many are starting to see that there is no future there,” said Ji Seong-ho, who escaped North Korea in 2006 and is now director of Now Action and Unity for Human Rights, or NAUH, a Seoul-based nonprofit that helps people fleeing North Korea.
Yet escaping has become increasingly difficult under Mr. Kim. Since inheriting the dictatorship from his father in 2011, Mr. Kim has built new border fences and shuffled guards so they are less likely to take bribes to let people through, say activists who assist defectors. China has added more checkpoints and surveillance cameras near the border and clamped down on networks that aid fleeing North Koreans.
As of the end of November, 1,042 North Koreans had made it to South Korea this year, according to provisional data from South Korea’s Ministry of Unification, from an annual peak of nearly 3,000 in 2009.
North Koreans may pay brokers as much as $18,000 to cross into China—a fortune in the impoverished country, and roughly five times more than a few years ago, said Mr. Ji.
Reaching Safety
Fewer North Koreans have made it to South Korea since Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011 and tightened border security.
*Provisional, through November
Source: South Korea Ministry of Unification
The risks were well known to Mr. Park, 26 years old, and his father, both former railway employees. This account is based on interviews with Mr. Park and relatives.
For North Koreans, Mr. Park and his father lived a relatively comfortable life, in North Hamgyong province near the Chinese border. Mr. Park’s two sisters had escaped to South Korea years earlier and sent money home through a clandestine network. The two men could enjoy what by local standards are luxuries, including all the meat they wanted.
But collecting the money—which is illegal in North Korea—was dangerous, and Mr. Park worried their spending would attract attention. The stigma of having defectors in the family limited Mr. Park’s career prospects. Local authorities would routinely hassle him and his father.
Mr. Park also missed his sisters, who had helped raise him after their mother died in his childhood.
So he and his father decided to flee.
Before departing, they huddled in their attic to preserve memories. They used a North Korean smartphone to take pictures of printed photographs, including snapshots of Mr. Park’s late mother, and stored them on a digital memory card. It was all Mr. Park took with him, other than his IDs.
Everything else in the house remained untouched. They couldn’t let anyone know they were leaving.
Feb. 7, 2017
Mr. Park and his father set off separately at night, meeting in the darkness near the half-frozen Tumen River. Each ate a boiled egg and put a small handful of rat poison wrapped in plastic in his mouth—a contingency in case they got caught. Together they crawled across frozen rice paddies and into the icy waters, hoping not to be seen. One of Mr. Park’s sisters would be waiting on the Chinese side.
When they emerged on the other side, Mr. Park’s father began shivering uncontrollably; the harsh winter had frozen his clothes, which crunched as he walked. Still, he laughed when he saw his daughter. It was their first meeting in years.
They crawled under a fence to a waiting van, which brought them to a nearby safe house. There they burned their clothes and buried the lapel pins bearing the faces of North…
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