North Pyongan to Virginia, broken to boss

North Korean defectors flee a brutally oppressive regime to oftentimes encounter myriad new difficulties in the resettlement process despite, and sometimes because of, their newfound freedom. These hardships notwithstanding, many, like Park Ho Beom (alias), have become successful entrepreneurs–bosses in their own right, a title still the preserve of the privileged ranks in North Korea. 

Daily NK recently sat down with Mr. Park in the United States, where he has lived for some years after defecting from North Pyongan Province in 2008. Now, he hopes to gain valuable business and management experience through his entrepreneurial endeavors and ultimately apply them in an open, free North Korea.

“I live in the U.S. now but I never forget where I’m from. I always think that the happier we are, the more we should remember those back in North Korea. I want to use the money I save to invest after unification, and start a big company connected to the international market,” he explained at the laundromat he currently runs with his wife in the state of Virginia, where he has lived for six years.

[Following is the complete interview with Mr. Park] 

What made you defect? 

I started baking and selling bread during the ‘Arduous March’ (widespread famine of the mid-1990s).  I set up a coal furnace and baked egg buns throughout the night to make a living at the markets. I gradually grasped a knack for business and made some decent money. In the 2000s I was eager to start a bigger business with the seed money I’d saved up so I started a dog meat restaurant.  

I assumed running a restaurant would be much more stable and safe compared to other lines of work, but in hindsight, I was very naive. While I was running the restaurant, cadres unabashedly demanded bribes from me. I couldn’t satisfy them all, to which they would respond with menacing threats because I was operating without the proper license.
 
A restaurant should be in a decent building with some staff, but the joint I was running at the time was just a kitchen in a warehouse site. A considerable bribe was needed if you didn’t have a service license issued by the affiliated Provincial People’s Committee. Things went from worse to worst when I was scammed out of all the money I had been saving–my entire nest egg gone, overnight. At that point, I realized I couldn’t continue to live in a society like North Korea, so I swam across [a narrow portion of] the Amrok [Yalu] River. 

Was there a special reason why you came to the United States of America? 

After I defected, I landed a job as a dog meat butcher in Tumen, China. I was paid a measly monthly salary of 200 RMB due to the fact that I was stateless [China classifies North Koreans as illegal economic migrants] and therefore unable to lodge any type of official complaint about the mistreatment. I decided I couldn’t go on like that, so I made it to Thailand via Laos by soliciting a broker. 

I wanted to go to South Korea, but the United States intrigued me more, especially given that we’re told our entire life [in North Korea] about those “American imperialist bastards.” So, in a word, curiosity. That’s why I went. 

The United States granted me refugee status, but the airfare wasn’t subsidized like the South Korean system. America processes defectors as immigrants. Once I resettled into the U.S., I repaid the airfare in installments over the course of three years. 
 
What is your most memorable moment during your resettlement in the US? 

At first, I learned how to be patient and considerate. Whether you’re driving in the car or crossing the street on foot, people yield for others–and they do it with smiles on their faces. In North Korea, people eye each other warily. American culture was astonishing by comparison.  

At first, due to the language barrier, I was completely focused on my cleaning job. After some time I resolved to study English. My employer agreed, without prevarication, to readjust my work hours for my studies. Again, in North Korea, this would be inconceivable. But in American society, an individual’s right to pursue the path that makes him/her happy is guaranteed. I lived much of my life without knowledge or awareness of human rights, but I naturally came to grasp the concept simply by virtue of living in the U.S. 

In fact, my most transformative moment occurred while I was working at a sushi restaurant. I was fully compensated for any overtime worked after my eight hours–right down to the second. This made me realize that a capitalist economic framework is transparent, and naturally conjured up comparisons to North Korea’s socialist economy [and my experience working within it]. At times, I wouldn’t be paid at all for my work at all.

I noticed there is a flag of the Korean Peninsula hanging outside your laundromat. 

Settling down in the US really made me contemplate the question: “Who am I ?”, and I began to feel strongly about not losing my identity. I asked a friend in South Korea to send me a flag with a map of the Korean Peninsula. The flag of the silhouette of the peninsula [without the demarcation at the 38th parallel] is a symbol of unification. When times got particularly tough during my transition to American life, that flag gave me strength.  

That flag represents my hometown, too. Defectors don’t leave because we hate our homeland; we leave because of the system. I firmly believe I have to return once the Kim Jong Un regime falls and the two Koreas become one again. The very first thing I did when I set up shop last year was to hang that flag and fly it high and proud. 

I wanted to proudly declare that I’m a South Korean citizen. As the business began to thrive, more patrons, and therefore more of the community, graced our doorstep and took an interest in the flag and its meaning. We and, by extension, Koreans, maintain a good reputation in the community thanks to my wife’s affordable and skilled seamstressing. 

I’m most thankful for my wife. She supports me unconditionally. In the future, I hope to expand the business and then branch into real estate. That way, when North Korea opens up, I can leverage these experiences to invest in my hometown and build a business there capable of competing in the global arena.