Many North Koreans have had the dream of escaping the closed country. This is how some defectors accomplished the impossible and give us a lesson in courage.

By Malachi Newman – 6th grade.

North Korea has historically been a very remote, secluded, communist dictatorship, but when the Covid 19 pandemic hit the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kim Jong-un– the current leader of the nation created by his grandfather – decided to close off the country, separating it entirely even more from the outside world. This decision of his only made it harder for potential defectors. In fact, as the years pass by, the number of North Korean defectors has gone down majorly.

After the Korean War (1950-1953), an estimated 30,000 North Koreans defected to the south, according to The Guardian. For reference, in only a little more than a decade, there have been over 5 million registered Syrian refugees who have fled the civil war in the mid-2010’s. 

To flee from North Korea, defectors usually, but not exclusively, use two main routes. One option is to escape directly through the “Demilitarized Zone” –or DMZ, which is the border between North and South Korea, heavily monitored by both armies, in the middle of which there is a 4 km wide “no man’s land”. A second option is to get permission from the North Korean government to study abroad in China. As China is an ally of the DPR Korea, defectors must then smuggle themselves across the border to other non-North Korean ally nations such as Mongolia, Thailand, and other southeast asian countries.

Kim Geum-hyok (via China)

Kim Geum-hyok was lucky enough to be accepted by the government to study abroad in China. Kim took advantage of this opportunity: he decided to flee China. After the dangerous trip from China to South Korea, Kim started to dream of a united Korean Peninsula, a very unlikely political prospect at the moment. 

Unknown name (via raft)

On October 30th, 2011, a male defector of unknown name decided to defect. His strategy was to use a raft to sail to a neighboring South Korean island. He was fortunate enough that a South Korean naval patrol ship picked him up and brought him back with them to South Korea. 

Mr. Kim and his family (via boat)

Mr. Kim was a resident of a small North Korean village, the name of which he has not disclosed. At a young age, his father exposed him to the injustice of the DPRK through South Korean media, igniting in him a drive to eventually escape the dictatorship. During the COVID pandemic he finally found his opportunity. Mr. Kim was able to sell the vegetables from his farm on the black market at any price he wanted in a context of near-famine in the country. “We became “grasshopper sellers, able to sell at any price we wanted”, he said in a news report from the BBC. Once he had procured enough money to leave, he faced the next challenge of persuading his family (his pregnant wife and his brother). After much deliberation, he was able to convince them both to flee. After a long and hard voyage they finally reached South Korea.