To My Mother Who Taught Us Justice

Dear Mother, whom I love:

In April 1960, I met my brothers again in the motherland I had yearned for. In May, I entered a high school in South Hamkyung and after graduating in April 1963, I entered the sculpture department at the Pyongyang Arts Institute in May.

In April 1965, the second eldest graduated from high school with the best grade. He definitely had the capability to go onto college, but because the circumstances in our home were not very good, he ended up going to the Hamheung Science Factory with our third brother, who graduated from middle school.

Our uncle and aunt were in Hamheung, so I thought they would treat the brothers warmly. But reality was much different. I blamed myself for not being able to help my brothers at the time. My situation was a difficult one, as I was simultaneously struggling to fight an illness and to study.

In May 1966, the second eldest and I visited the fourth brother in Hwanghae province. But our minds and bodies were extremely exhausted from the worsening reality of our motherland.

In July 1967, I dropped out from college due to my illness. In February 1968, I began to make the sculpture project, “The Spring at a Base—A Commando Unit and a Boy.” At that time, I tried to bring my brothers to Pyongyang, but it was impossible. I went to Hamheung and requested this, but it was not approved.

In January 1969, we finally got to live together at Duksung-gun in South Hamkyung. Spurred by the happiness of the chance to live together, we pulled our strengths and made a living. From February 1969, I actively began creative projects and made the next project “Baekdusan.”

But on July 9, 1969, we were arrested overnight under the charge of political crime against the second oldest and myself.

It was believed that my brother and I were supporting anti-government organizations in the labor college and in the art world, respectively. Furthermore, I received the ludicrous sentence that I was a secret agent on spy activities.

In September 1973, I was secretly hospitalized at a tuberculosis hospital. After fighting the struggle against the disease, I was sent to a prison camp and was just released in January 1978.

My past, as you can see, was not a peaceful road. However, the brethren in the motherland, genuinely accepted me as I struggled with life of loneliness in a foreign land, without my parents. The half of my life was happy, one I spent being loved in several places in North Korea.

However, I cannot restrain my sorrow when I think about the second eldest, who left this world. He was a virtuous and honest type. He always said that our mother had no equal in the world.

He said his last words, “Brother and youngest brother, thank you,” and breathed his last breath. I think I do not have the right as a brother if I cannot take vengeance for my sacrificed younger brother.

In this place, I saw with my own eyes the deaths of many fellow countrymen, parents, brothers, sisters, and young people from hunger.

When my own life was most in peril, I survived due to the devotion of the workers and patients at the tuberculosis hospital. These patients who experienced ups and downs from illness or fights were not any different from the guards I saw at the prison camp – all are just “human beings.” But they were good and unfortunate people.

Our motherland, which has been divided into North and South, has not realized reunification, although we have waited so long. The tragedy of the 38th line can be found nowhere else in the world. When will our land be equipped for reunification? There must also be a lot of good and poor people in need in South Korea.

In many villages and cities, at barbed wires and gallows, all of us are looking at the Big Dipper, embracing the dream of the reunification of our motherland.

In this dark era which has inspected, controlled, threatened, extorted, imprisoned, murdered, falsified against and deceived, fabricated and distorted our law-abiding brethren and, through all kinds of schemes and methods, have prevented reunification and achieved a counter-will to divide the permanency of our motherland, the heart and mind of our countrymen, which has unshakably promised solidarity and love, shine for the future of our land, shouting, “The beautiful land of Korea.”

The people of our motherland, the heroes of this country, will hold our wish in their hearts and shine throughout the North and South. On the day of victory, they will all shout, “Cheers to the Reunification of the Motherland” on the road of this great crusade that will destroy the despotic government.

Dear mother, whom I love, one of the returnees here left last September, saying he was permitted to go on a study tour of Pyongyang, but he was captured in reality. In the past, I was in the prison camp with a countless number of returnees. There was a person who even knew you really well.