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2017.06.28
| Won | Pyongyang | Sinuiju | Hyesan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exchange Rate | 8,070 | 8,050 | 8,095 |
| Rice Price | 5,800 | 6,000 | 5,900 |
Over four and a half years in the infamous No. 15 Yodok political prison camp during the 1990s, Lee Young Guk, the author of the 2002 book “I Was Kim Jong Il’s Bodyguard,” used up all his strength just staying alive. Now, after thirteen years in South Korea, life is better, but still not easy; whereas in the camp Lee’s will to live may have stemmed from fear of death, in South Korea he requires strength from different sources.
In Yodok, Lee’s will to live was sharpened by seeing others die. “Someone next to me could die one day without warning, just while we were working,” he says. “And I would think, ‘Hey, I’m going to end up like that too,’ so I tried to eat as much as possible, a bit like a cow.” Afraid to end up like his fellow prisoners, Lee ate everything he could, from bits of corn to salted grass.
In May of 2000, Lee finally arrived in South Korea. There, his troubles stem from a perceived lack of support, as well as swindlers and plain bad luck. “I owned a company named Geumgang Technical Products Company (from 2002 to 2007),” he says. “After about two years my money situation was not good. At the time some guys asked me to stamp this certificate, so I stamped it. It turned out they were fooling me. They took all my stocks.
I should have checked that the money was only being loaned to them, but I didn’t, so they took it all. I had no one to help me during that process.”
Chastened, Lee turned to farming. In April of 2008 he started a duck farm in Cheorwon, northeast of Seoul. This time, however, it was nature that brought down his business, as heavy snow during the winter of 2012 destroying his barn. “The snow was very heavy, and it was the rainy kind of snow so it was heavier than normal snow,” he declares. “The roof collapsed, and crushed the ducks.”
At this point, after losing everything he had invested over half a decade, Lee almost gave up. But again, he found the strength to get back up, and this time it was out of concern for his sons. “I was very, very sad, and I didn’t do anything for a while besides drink and sleep. But because of my children, I decided to try starting over,” he explains.
About his young son, Lee says, “I think that sometimes I was standing at the edge of a cliff. If there was nothing pulling me back, I might have fallen off a few times already. But every time something pulled me back. My son is my pillar, the one thing that I can rely on. When I see my son, I think ‘My son is not yet a grown man. How could I leave the world if it would mean leaving my son behind?’”
Ever hopeful, Lee reckons he will start a frog farm next. Revealing the various advantages of a frog farm over a duck farm, he ends the interview on another optimistic note. “I think it will work out,” he laughs.
In Yodok, Lee’s will to live was sharpened by seeing others die. “Someone next to me could die one day without warning, just while we were working,” he says. “And I would think, ‘Hey, I’m going to end up like that too,’ so I tried to eat as much as possible, a bit like a cow.” Afraid to end up like his fellow prisoners, Lee ate everything he could, from bits of corn to salted grass.
In May of 2000, Lee finally arrived in South Korea. There, his troubles stem from a perceived lack of support, as well as swindlers and plain bad luck. “I owned a company named Geumgang Technical Products Company (from 2002 to 2007),” he says. “After about two years my money situation was not good. At the time some guys asked me to stamp this certificate, so I stamped it. It turned out they were fooling me. They took all my stocks.
I should have checked that the money was only being loaned to them, but I didn’t, so they took it all. I had no one to help me during that process.”
Chastened, Lee turned to farming. In April of 2008 he started a duck farm in Cheorwon, northeast of Seoul. This time, however, it was nature that brought down his business, as heavy snow during the winter of 2012 destroying his barn. “The snow was very heavy, and it was the rainy kind of snow so it was heavier than normal snow,” he declares. “The roof collapsed, and crushed the ducks.”
At this point, after losing everything he had invested over half a decade, Lee almost gave up. But again, he found the strength to get back up, and this time it was out of concern for his sons. “I was very, very sad, and I didn’t do anything for a while besides drink and sleep. But because of my children, I decided to try starting over,” he explains.
About his young son, Lee says, “I think that sometimes I was standing at the edge of a cliff. If there was nothing pulling me back, I might have fallen off a few times already. But every time something pulled me back. My son is my pillar, the one thing that I can rely on. When I see my son, I think ‘My son is not yet a grown man. How could I leave the world if it would mean leaving my son behind?’”
Ever hopeful, Lee reckons he will start a frog farm next. Revealing the various advantages of a frog farm over a duck farm, he ends the interview on another optimistic note. “I think it will work out,” he laughs.
