
It has been mentioned that every part is model new to those that don’t know historical past. Earlier this yr, I used to be interviewed dwell on Arirang TV about latest “inventive” escapes by North Korean refugees. The inspiration for the interview was a pair of newspaper articles within the Wall Road Journal and Washington Publish highlighting modern-day defection tales and portraying them as unprecedented responses to the Kim regime’s tightening grip.
One level I made through the interview is that this narrative misses a important level: for many years, defectors have defied overwhelming odds to flee to freedom, and their tales need to be remembered even when reporters imagine they’ve discovered one thing new.
The Washington Publish highlighted a household that bravely escaped in a rickety boat in 2023. However in 1984, a number of North Korean fishermen sailed throughout the Sea of Japan to Japan, ultimately receiving asylum in South Korea. In 1998, a household braved tough currents and North Korean patrols in a fishing boat to succeed in South Korea. In 2019, 4 defectors used a small boat to cross the East Sea.
Even underneath heavy surveillance, defectors have taken to the skies to flee North Korea. In 1953, Lt. No Kum-sok flew a Soviet MiG-15 jet to Gimpo Air Base in South Korea, a narrative later chronicled by Blaine Harden in „The Nice Chief and the Fighter Pilot.“ A long time later, in 1994, Lt. Cho Chang-ho crossed the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in a helicopter together with his household. In 1996, one other North Korean pilot flew a MiG-19 fighter jet to South Korea.
Probably the most perilous route stays the DMZ, a lethal, fortified strip dividing North and South Korea. I’ve personally met three North Koreans who escaped immediately throughout the DMZ, together with one who shot one other North Korean soldier on patrol with him earlier than fleeing throughout the border.
In 1967, Lee Soo-keun, vp of the North Korean Central Information Company, leaped right into a U.N. Command car at Panmunjom underneath hearth from North Korean troops. (He was later executed as an accused spy).
In 1977, a younger North Korean soldier stole his sergeant’s lunch and fled throughout the DMZ to keep away from retaliation. That very same yr, a North Korean farmer defected throughout the DMZ to South Korea, describing widespread hunger and harsh residing circumstances in North Korea. In 2017, soldier Oh Chong Track sprinted throughout the DMZ underneath heavy gunfire from his comrades. In 2018, a North Korean soldier swam throughout a river within the DMZ to succeed in South Korea.
Embassies have usually served as short-term sanctuaries for North Korean defectors. In March 2002, about two dozen North Koreans rushed into the Spanish Embassy in Beijing. In Could 2002, quite a few North Koreans sought asylum by getting into varied international diplomatic missions in Beijing, together with U.S., Canadian and Japanese consulates. The frequency of such escapes led China to fortify embassies in opposition to defectors. Later that very same yr, 36 North Koreans, together with two infants, navigated via China and different third nations earlier than arriving in Seoul.
Studying about these escapes evokes the ingenuity and dedication seen in different historic struggles for freedom, reminiscent of enslaved Black folks in America escaping to freedom, East Germans scaling the Berlin Wall and Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. Enslaved Black folks usually relied on disguises and false id papers to go as free Black folks and even as White people. Others hid in bins, barrels or containers to be shipped to free states, like Henry „Field“ Brown, who escaped by mailing himself in a picket crate from Virginia to Philadelphia.
The whole lot is model new to those that don’t know historical past. Historical past exhibits that ingenuity and braveness have all the time outlined escapes from one of many world’s most repressive regimes.
I additionally take problem with the categorization of escapes as “inventive.” From what I’ve heard from North Korean refugees, they did what was crucial and inside their functionality to flee to freedom, not that there was something “inventive” about their escapes. Many North Korean refugees, reminiscent of my co-author, Han Track-mi, escaped throughout the border to China whereas being shot at by North Korean guards.
Whereas the daring escapes encourage us, in addition they function a reminder of the continuing human rights disaster in North Korea. Every profitable defection sheds mild on the lives of these left behind and challenges us to do extra to help those that threat every part for freedom. Plus, let’s keep in mind that after these daring escapes, there’s the fact that North Korean refugees escaping to freedom are adjusting to the problem of residing in freedom.
As we hear these tales, let’s keep in mind that behind each statistic is a human life. The braveness and resilience “or creativity” of North Korean defectors deserve our admiration. For these of you who wish to assist share such tales, my electronic mail is in my bio.
Casey Lartigue Jr. (CJL@alumni.harvard.edu) is the co-founder of Freedom Audio system Worldwide with Lee Eun-koo; and co-author with Han Track-mi of her memoir „Greenlight to Freedom: A North Korean Daughter’s Seek for Her Mom and Herself.”