{"id":56527,"date":"2023-11-01T16:00:53","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T07:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=56527"},"modified":"2026-04-05T15:21:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:21:54","slug":"north-korean-defector-talks-experience-holding-center-forced-returnees-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-defector-talks-experience-holding-center-forced-returnees-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"N. Korean defector talks about experience in holding center for forced returnees (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lee Young-joo, a defector, was forcibly repatriated twice and detained in Ministry of State Security-run holding centers in Onsong and Sinuiju before finally making her way to South Korea. Lee sat down with Daily NK on Oct. 20 to share the painful memories of her own repatriation experiences in light of recent news that a large number of defectors detained in China have been forcibly repatriated to North Korea.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One incident in particular stood out in her recollection. During Lee&#8217;s time in detention at a Ministry of State Security (MSS) holding center in Sinuiju, she remembers the prison guards being intent on finding &#8220;so much as a single bill&#8221; that inmates had kept hidden. Officers not only forced prisoners to remove their underwear, but even searched female detainees&#8217; <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">disposable pads. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThat\u2019s when I thought to myself,\u201d Lee recalls, \u201cw<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ho knew my homeland was this wretched of a pl<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ace?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">From repatriation to a MSS holding center, forced labor camp, and re-education camp, Lee has experienced North Korea\u2019s hellish detention system firsthand and got a clear look at the &#8220;naked face&#8221;<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0of the regime. In 2018, Lee recounted the story of her two forced repatriations and three escapes in her book, \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Naked Face<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of North Korea that Even Kim Jong Un Needs to Know.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201d A documentary based on her experiences entitled \u201cYou Don\u2019t Know\u201d also premiered last year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">After many twists and turns, Lee escaped North Korea and arrived in South Korea in 2011. In South Korea, Lee studied social welfare and earned licenses to work as a social worker and a nurse\u2019s aide. She now works as a nurse\u2019s aide and <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">continues to speak out about the realities of human rights in North Korea.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When asked about her advocacy, Lee explained, \u201cI think it\u2019s my calling in life as a survivor to let people know about the horrifying things happening inside North Korea.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The following is Part 2 of Daily NK&#8217;s interview with Lee. Read Part 1 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-defector-talks-about-experience-holding-center-forced-returnees\/\">here<\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>Daily NK (DNK): We\u2019ve heard that repatriated defectors are sent to political prison camps if the [Ministry of State Security] finds out that they were trying to reach South Korea. You also attempted to escape to South Korea, so how did you avoid getting sent to a political prison camp?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI am extremely grateful that when I was in Onsong, the Chinese police didn\u2019t hand over my documents. And, again, in Sinuiju, [the MSS] was unable to confirm that I had been trying to go to South Korea, so I was able to avoid being sent to a political prison camp. Once the MSS finishes their investigation at the holding center, you\u2019re then sent off to detention facilities under the jurisdiction of your home region. The absolutely mind-blowing thing about getting escorted back to a prison in your hometown is that the prisoner has to pay for their own bus fare or gas costs. The MSS agents go to your house in your hometown and tell your family, \u2018I need to fetch your daughter from a labor camp in Sinuiju, so give me some money to cover transportation and meal costs.\u2019 Then, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">once they get the money, they go and get you. Even though <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don\u2019t want to go to prison, the government has no money, so individuals end up paying for everything.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>DNK: When you were sent back to North Korea<\/b><b>, were there any young children [in the holding centers] there with you?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThere was a child who looked to be about three years old who had been caught alongside their mom. If a child is repatriated, they are separated from their mother and either sent to live with relatives or at an orphanage. When I was <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">imprisoned <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">in Sinuiju, there was a woman who was in the last month of her pregnancy. One day, the guards came and took her away and gave her an i<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">njection to induce an abor<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">t<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ion.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0That night, she started moaning in pain and delivered the baby right there on the cold cement floor. They put the dead baby\u2019s body in a plastic bag and <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">threw it away somewhere<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. I saw things with my own two eyes that you would think couldn\u2019t possibly happen in real life. T<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">hose memories are so hard to even think about that they make me shak<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">e.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>DNK: The first time you were sent back to North Korea and were detained at an MSS holding center in Onsong was 17 years ago, back in 2006. Do you think that the holding facilities, sanitation, or human rights protections for detainees might have improved at all in that time?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cLooking at North Korea\u2019s current economic and human rights situation, I don\u2019t see anything that\u2019s improved in the last 17 years. On the contrary, after COVID-19, people\u2019s lives have only gotten harder and the government\u2019s controls have gotten stricter. North Korea is not the kind of place where, if the government just had some more money, they would spend it to improve detention facilities. Defectors are seen as people who betrayed and fled their country, so they are treated worse than animals. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[The guards there] see you as animals, so why should they worry about human rights?<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> [Rather than improving,] I think it\u2019s more likely that things are worse than they were 17 years ago.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>DNK: You came to South Korea even after being repatriated twice. That might make you a symbol of hope for those who have been forcefully repatriated and have fallen into despair.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cMy heart truly aches for them. I feel their pain all the more for having experienced it myself. But, all the same, I hope they won\u2019t give up. If they have children in China, I urge them to think of their children as a reason to keep living. If they have faith, they should use that faith to hold on and endure. Then, once they\u2019ve made it out, I hope they\u2019ll raise their voices to the world.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>Translated by Rose Adams. Edited by Robert Lauler.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20231024-5\/\"><i>Read in Korean<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lee Young-joo, a defector, was forcibly repatriated twice and detained in Ministry of State Security-run holding centers in Onsong and Sinuiju before finally making her way to South Korea. Lee sat down with Daily NK on Oct. 20 to share the painful memories of her own repatriation experiences in light of recent news that a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":43070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[644],"tags":[222,759,844,1656],"class_list":["post-56527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-analysis-and-opinion","tag-border","tag-china","tag-defections","tag-dprk"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>N. 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Lee sat down with Daily NK on Oct. 20 to share the painful memories of her own repatriation experiences in light of recent news that a [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korean-defector-talks-experience-holding-center-forced-returnees-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-01T07:00:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-05T06:21:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/12\/prison_prison_cell_jail_crime_prisoner_criminal_cage_bar-1088841.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Seulkee Jang\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Seulkee Jang\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korean-defector-talks-experience-holding-center-forced-returnees-part-2\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/north-korean-defector-talks-experience-holding-center-forced-returnees-part-2\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Seulkee Jang\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/194958ce83d17408851c1d378fa83857\"},\"headline\":\"N. 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