Some personal horror stories of North Korean defectors who have spent years in China living a socially isolated life in appalling conditions have been making the rounds, drawing sympathy from fellow defectors.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a Daily NK source in China said Monday that North Korean defectors have been “shocked” by the stories of other defectors “who are facing all kinds of difficulties and living in houses so horrible that you wouldn’t believe such houses exist in China.”
According to the source, a defector in her 30s who left North Korea in 2015 was able to contact her fellow defectors last month for the first time in eight years through a mobile messaging app.
The woman, who lives in a hardscrabble farming area that is poor even for a Chinese farming community, was so busy raising the child she had with her Chinese partner and earning a living in the fields that she lost contact with other defectors and lived a lonely life for years.
Recently, she reconnected with other defectors and shared her life during that time: “For the first three years after I was sold to the peasant village, they didn’t buy me a phone or let me out of the house because they were afraid I would run away. In the fourth year, I just managed to buy a phone, but I had no one to contact. I’ve lived so far thinking that this was my destiny. I lived a tired life, raising my child and doing the housework alone, without my husband lifting a finger to help. I wanted to die and thought of running away so many times, but I had nowhere to go and knew no one.”
“Everyone was speechless when they heard how she lived in a warehouse-like house and ate rice mixed with corn to survive,” the source said. “Other defectors were shocked that she didn’t even know she could go to South Korea.”
Another defector who has lived in China for six years contacted her fellow defectors last November. A corn farmer in a rural village, she was struggling because of poor harvests:
“I left North Korea because it was hard, but I had no idea I’d be sold to such a bad household. I put up with it because [my husband] said if I had a child, he would send money to my parents in my hometown, but when I had the child, he just said there was no money. It was hard. I’m bitter that I can’t even dream of going to South Korea, and I’ve been living like a fool, not knowing anything about the outside world.
“I’m dying to go to South Korea, but it’s so dangerous that I have no choice but to put up with things a little longer and wait. But I think it’s lucky that I can talk to other hometown folks now and unburden myself.”
The source told Daily NK that “there must be many defectors who are living difficult lives, stuck in a farming village and even forgetting the Korean language. Defectors in China face a sad reality – if they don’t contact other defectors, no one even knows if they are dead or alive. So they say they hope there’s a way to escape this reality soon.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Daily NK works with a network of sources living in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous for security reasons. For more information about Daily NK’s network of reporting partners and information-gathering activities, please visit our FAQ page here.
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