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PHOTOGRAPHED BY GETTY IMAGES; AAP; COURTESY OFJU-YEON CHOI.JU-YEON CHOI INTERVIEW AND TRANSLATION BY SUJIN JEONGHistory” every year. It teaches us how
the great Kim family founded this coun-
try. It’s propaganda, perpetuating the
idea that living in North Korea is bless-
ed and privileged. But I couldn’t
understand how we had people who
were extremely poor. There is a huge gap
between the civilised city area and
countryside, where there’s no electricity
or water access. This got me questioning
the regime, how they were controlling
what we think about society.
I decided to escape
North Korea five years
before I left. I have a
friend who had tried to
leave before and was sent
to jail for six months.
Once she was released, we
planned it carefully and
got lucky with brokers.
I escaped the country with my sister and
my mother. My father didn’t want to
leave the country as he feared for the
safety of his extended family, including
my grandfather. I’m still angry he didn’t
come with us.
No-one shares information about
fleeing North Korea. You must keep it to
yourself or people you trust. You can
easily go to jail or be sent to do hard
labour in the mines. It was previously
six months but due to the increased
number of defectors, this has changed
to two years with a maximum of six
years. My then-boyfriend who wasI
started watching South Korean
drama series when I was 11 years
old. My uncle would get the video
tapes from China. Watching TV
became my initial motivation to
flee North Korea. I was amazed by how
everyone in South Korea travelled with-
out any issue. In North Korea, travel is
not something you can do commonly.
There was one movie where a guy
sells insurance door-to-door. I did not
understand this guy’s job. He was sell-
ing something invisible. I thought he
had a made-up job. In North Korea,
there is no insurance business. No down
payments or credit cards. I just couldn’t
get my head around that whole story.
Every student in North Korea must
study a subject called “Revolution andChoi defected
during the reign of
present-day ruler
Kim Jong-un
(pictured in 2017).Choi, 25, escaped from North
Korea in 2015 and now regularly
appears on South Korean TV shows
about North Korean defectors.
She hopes to study international
relations and one day become
the Minister for Reunification.JU-YEON CHOI
“My father didn’t
want to leave
as he feared for
the safety of his
extended family”In June this year, US university student
Otto Warmbier was airlifted out of
North Korea in a coma, having spent
17 months in prison there.
The 22-year-old was arrested in
January 2016 for attempting to steal
a poster from a Pyongyang hotel room
during an agency-organised trip to the
country. Mysteriously, part of his brain
tissue was missing, which North Korean
officials said was caused by botulism.(Medical tests performed in the US
were inconclusive.) He died six days
after landing home in Cincinnati.
“I feel sorry for Otto Warmbier
and his family. It’s tragic,” says Choi.
“Because he was sentenced to 15 years’
hard labour, I think he would have been
sent to a mining area. I cannot imagine
the horror he would have faced after
living comfortably in America. It
must have shaken him to the core.”Choi says that foreign prisoners
were often paraded on state TV in
North Korea when they were captured
but nothing would be broadcast about
their release. “This type of news is
kept in the dark,” she says. Four other
foreigners are still held captive in North
Korea. Their fate remains unknown.leaving the country with me got caught
and sent back to North Korea.
In North Korea, what you can wear
is controlled by the government. I hated
that. No vivid-coloured clothes. If you’re
a university student, you can only have
hair two inches below your ear. If you tie
your hair, it shouldn’t be longer than
eight inches. I have a boyfriend who’s
into fashion like me. He’s also a defec-
tor. He and I dress nicely and most of
our friends in South Korea say we don’t
look North Korean. We asked them
“What is a North Korean supposed
to look like?” Not many of them can
answer right away.
I remember my first day walking
down the street in South Korea and
looking at my surround-
ings – it was like I’d seen
in TV shows. It felt like a
dream for a good six
months. It did phase out
quickly as I realised life in
South Korea is hard too- I paid tax for the first
time this year.
The North Korean regime is bad
and controlling however I’ve seen that
corruption exists everywhere, including
South Korea. But I voted this year in
the presidential election – that was an
experience. I’ve never done that before
as there are no presidential elections
in North Korea. I’ve also participated in
peaceful protests here several times and
realised I made the right choice.
WHAT HAPPENED TO OTTO WARMBIER?
WORLD REPORT