Lethal terrain, human trafficking risks, and alleged orders to shoot
defectors on sight — leaving North Korea is a deadly wager that doesn't always pay off.
Of the North Koreans who defect to the south, few attempt to escape through the
demilitarized zone — also known as the DMZ — between the two nations. Though
it spans the Korean Peninsula, it's only about 2.4 miles wide,
making for a far shorter journey than what faces anyone who attempts to flee through China.
However, heavily armed guards are positioned on either side of the border. Fences are covered
in barbed wire, with some sections on the North Korean side even being electrified.
The DMZ is also believed to contain over one million landmines left from the Korean War,
making every step an incredible risk, and making the region one of the most dangerous in the world.
"This is all mined as well, right?"
"Yes. There is approximately — I'm assuming — a thousand mines within this area alone."
Speaking to ABC News, former soldier Kim Kang Yoo recalled that his September 2016 flight across the
DMZ took hours of navigating a valley, nearly plummeting off a cliff, digging his way beneath
North Korean fences, and finally climbing over South Korean barriers topped with barbed wire.
At one point, he claimed that he was so tired and hopeless he considered eating rat poison.
In 2018, defector Scott Kim told Business Insider that he and his mother were returned to North
Korea by China after the pair had been living as undocumented workers for about a year. Kim was
transported to a detention center, where he was crammed into a cell with 20 other detainees and a
single toilet. They suffered regular beatings and were forced to routinely crawl instead of walk.
Kim managed to convince guards that he was a teenager, which granted him passage to a
medical facility. If they had known he was older, Kim may have been sent to a
labor camp — which is exactly where he was sent after a second escape attempt.
When he was caught a third time, Kim was sent to a facility for political prisoners. These prison
camps are believed to be especially brutal, with interminable sentences that subject detainees
to torture, starvation, sexual assault, and forced labor. But it may not even end there.
Speaking to ABC News, defector and former North Korean border guard An Chan-il said that he
witnessed a fellow soldier shot to death after an escape attempt. Chan-il obtained
the man's badge and carried it with him on his own successful escape through the DMZ,
saying that he hoped something of the man would still make it to the south.
Many defectors rely on middlemen — commonly known as brokers — who accept payment to
ferry people from North Korea's northern border into China. Many defectors often travel further
south to countries like Vietnam and Cambodia, where they can take a flight to South Korea. As
another defector told Al Jazeera in 2018, working with brokers doesn't come cheap.
"We didn't have money so we had to walk, just walk. No cars, no guide."
Border guards must be bribed, transportation must be arranged — all made easier with deep pockets.
The defector reported that her crossing in 2009 — which included darting across an iced-over river
while being shot at — cost about $2,800. Nearly 10 years later, she estimated that
people crossing the border would need to pony up more than triple that amount. Those whose sights
were set on South Korea needed to bump that figure even higher, to an estimated $14,000.
Since then, COVID lockdowns and increased border security have made the crossing
even more dangerous and expensive. Since brokers reportedly face extended prison
sentences if caught, their percentages have continually risen. Hong Gang-chul — a former
border guard turned defector — told Voice of America that brokers once
took a 30% commission of the money sent to family members left in North Korea. Now,
it's closer to 50% or even 70% in some cases. As for the cost of leaving,
Hong claimed in 2021 that the overall price for an escape to South Korea cost about $21,000.
With no legal travel documents and oftentimes very little money, female defectors are in
an especially vulnerable position. Speaking to the BBC, a woman called Mira claimed that even
though her family was well-off, she didn't have all the up-front money needed to pay a broker.
She agreed to work off her debt, assuming she would find employment in a restaurant. Instead,
she was taken to an apartment and pressured to perform sexual acts for a webcam.
Along with eight other women, Mira was locked away in the apartment, and rarely allowed out
for short, closely-supervised trips. She and another woman — known as Jiyun — eventually
ran away with the combined help of a sympathetic webcam client and Chun Ki-won,
a South Korean pastor internationally famous and infamous for aiding North Korean defectors.
North Korea is widely considered to be one of the worst nations in the world for human
trafficking. Trafficked women may be forced into sexual acts with authority figures,
forced to work in brothels, or even be sold into marriages. And if they seek
to leave the DPRK, they could face much of the same treatment in China.
While some defectors have left North Korea with little fanfare or physical effort,
others have had to contend with difficult and dangerous environments. For some,
it's all about the weather. Temperatures in North Korea can hit a mean of -10 degrees Fahrenheit in
January. While this means that rivers often freeze over and allow for crossings on foot,
if defectors have poor cold-weather gear or are suffering from malnutrition,
the intense cold makes many parts of the passage more difficult.
"The river was half-frozen. I was panicking."
But it's not necessarily better to just stay put, as many often struggle with harsh conditions
while still in North Korea, where poor rural communities still suffer these frigid winters.
The two defectors, Mira and Jiyun, told the BBC that — after escaping their years-long
exploitation and captivity in China — their journey to South Korea involved
tremendous physical effort. At one point, they undertook a five-hour mountain climb,
which left them exhausted and bloodied by the time they reached a South Korean
embassy. Other defectors may find that they have to hike long ways on foot,
or endure extended motion sickness when journeying by car or bus.
While some defectors have been able to make it across the border undetected,
increased patrols in recent years have made the feat more difficult. It's
not just that people fleeing the DPRK may be caught, abused by authorities,
and turned over to prison camps for back-breaking labor. They may simply be shot.
This possibility came to broader international attention after the
South Korean online newspaper Daily NK posted a photo of a poster allegedly claiming anyone
caught intruding into North Korean territory through its northern border would be shot on
sight. This raised the concern of watchdogs — including the United Nations — even
though North Korean officials have never clarified whether these are genuine orders.
Multiple defectors have claimed they've been fired upon by guards at both borders. In November 2017,
video footage of the defection of Oh Chong Song shows him running across the DMZ while
under fire. Song survived — though he was hit five times — and told NBC News
that he didn't blame the soldiers. He claimed that if he was still a
guard and facing the same pressure, he would have taken up a gun, too.
With increasingly tight border controls and draconian security
measures throughout North Korea, many defectors
have accepted that they may never see or communicate with their families again.
According to Radio Free Asia, the families of defectors have faced
harsher punishments in recent years. In July 2022, an RFA source claimed,
"They selected families who had two or more family members defect
to South Korea. Thirty households were simultaneously relocated.”
With defectors labeled as traitors to the regime, their families' punishments can
reportedly include prison time if they take money from their escaped family members,
or even if they simply say nice things about them in public. A source told Daily NK that
after one family was caught receiving money from a defector in the south,
they were turned in by a broker. Security officials arrested them and declared them
all spies, claiming the money they received from South Korea was payment for intel. Some
families may even be forced into prison camps just because they're related to a defector.
"She says the officers tied her brother's hands to the back of a truck,
and dragged him along a dirt road as an example to others."
According to the Ministry of Unification — a department of the South Korean government
promoting the reunification of both Koreas — the number of defectors from the DPRK has
been plummeting. The highest recorded number of defectors came in 2009 when
2,914 North Koreans sought refuge in the south. By comparison, a reported
229 came into South Korea in 2020, with only 63 in 2021.
One increasingly prominent reason for this severe drop in defectors is surveillance,
as most North Koreans are either a member of or directly observed by neighborhood groups
known as inminbans. Inminban leaders control and observe their neighbors through regular meetings,
reporting their local goings-on to the government. The Ministry of State Security — North Korea's
secret police — reportedly pays individuals within each community to keep tabs on
everyone else. Practically anything is subject to observation and suspicion,
from travel and financial activity, to what someone reads or watches in their home.
As the DPRK moves further into the 21st century, technology has taken on a larger
role in controlling the population and discouraging defection. A source told
Radio Free Asia that anyone with a smartphone is required to install the Kwangmyong app to
access the country's intranet or to get quarterly communications licenses. But
the app also allows officials to track users' locations and activity. While some have simply
refused to install the app, or decide to use Chinese phones smuggled across the border,
this technological advance makes it all the more difficult for someone trying to flee the country.
While leaders in the DPRK already make it hard for people to flee or defect,
anyone who finds themselves over the border in China isn't out of danger just yet. In past years,
Chinese authorities have turned a bit of a blind eye to North Koreans moving across
the border, but more recent reports indicate that those days are over.
In 2021, China began returning North Koreans held during COVID-19 border lockdowns,
with Human Rights Watch reporting that a minimum of 1,170 North Korean defectors
were detained as of July 2021. North Korean Defector Lee Seongmin told New York Magazine
in 2017 that China had been pressuring embassies in Beijing to turn away North Koreans for years,
fearing rising tensions with the DPRK. This is likely another reason the number
of defectors who make it to South Korea has plummeted in recent years.
"The city of Baishan has even ordered that defectors be arrested,
and is offering rewards to locals who report them."
While Human Rights Watch and other groups argue that these defectors are refugees fleeing from an
oppressive regime, China doesn't seem to agree. Defectors are deemed "economic migrants" that
are to be rounded up and deported back to North Korea. However, since escapees reportedly face
torturous prison camp sentences when returned home, China may be knowingly violating the
United Nations Convention against torture and other international refugee agreements.
With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, North Korea quickly moved
to close its borders. While their leaders claimed that the lockdown was necessary to
contain the spread of the virus — keeping it from stressing its poorly-maintained
healthcare system — others have argued that the measures went too far. This move arguably
provided a convenient excuse to crack down on domestic travel within the country,
as well as illegal crossings into China and South Korea.
While defecting North Koreans have historically had to consider frozen
rivers and gun-toting guards along the borders to the DPRK, the border with
China is increasingly packed with sturdier fencing, watchtowers, and increased patrols.