He said his family left North Korea in 1998
to escape a famine that killed hundreds of
thousands of people, including his first love
and school desk mate in the northeastern city
of Onsong.
Jang said he had a big crush on the 11-year-
old girl with fair skin and big eyes, who lived
with her grandmother. He recalled how the
two would hold hands when he walked her to
her house.
After the girl didn’t come to school for two to
three weeks, their teacher asked Jang to go and
check on her. When he arrived at her home, he
found the girl, then all skin and bones, lying
dead with her eyes and mouth open, while her
grandmother had disappeared.
Terrified, Jang immediately bolted out of the
house and reported the girl’s death to neighbors
before crying all day.
A few months later, he fled North Korea with his
parents and younger brother.
Before his family walked across the frozen
Tumen River, his father told him to turn back and
look at the country they wouldn’t likely return to.
“While looking at my hometown for about five
minutes, I thought about that girl,” Jang said.
“I thought that her only fault was being born in
the wrong country,” he continued. “If she had
come to South Korea, she wouldn’t have starved
to death ... and could have become a YouTuber
like me.”
Jang’s YouTube channel
Kang’s YouTube channel