North Korea refugees speak on defecting and new lives in South Korea

Two North Korean defectors urged UNC students Tuesday night to shift their attention from the nation’s political woes to recognize one thing people tend to overlook ­— the human experience.

Jeongho Kim and Cheoljun Yang, two North Korean defectors, discussed their experiences and their new lives in South Korea — through a translator — to a crowd of more than 75 students at an event hosted by UNC’s chapter of Liberty in North Korea.

“In the news, North Korea is seen as such a bad country, but I would like to plead to you that the people of North Korea are not bad,” Kim said.

“It’s only the North Korean political system that’s bad.”

Both defectors said they felt no qualms about speaking out against the anti-American sentiments of the North Korean regime.

Kim told a story about his school’s sports field day, where kicking a poster of an American was an event.

“Sorry!” he said with a laugh. “I really thought that the United States was a bad country, and that’s how I lived.”

The two defectors spoke of the atrocities of everyday life in North Korea — with hunger the most prominent of all.

Kim said he saw people dying of starvation during the harsh economic times.

“I remember seeing these dead bodies just wrapped around in plastic and buried in the ground,” he said.

Yang said he experienced this extreme hunger firsthand.

“I cannot even begin to tell you what I saw because when I was hungry, it was as if I could not see anything around me,” he said.

The defectors said separation from their families was also very difficult. Yang was forced to leave his father, sick with tuberculosis, at home when he fled North Korea.

“What is precious to me is my own life, which was threatened many times, but also my family that I will never be part from again,” he said.

Kelly Heo, president of Duke University’s chapter of Amnesty International, knew the two defectors from volunteering at a North Korean refugee school in South Korea and set up the event on Tuesday to knock down stereotypes.

“We think that they’re these irrational, brainwashed people,” she said.

Yang and Kim — who are now working to become an airplane technician and elementary school teacher, respectively — both said they remain hopeful for the reunification of Korea one day.

“I learned in school that great people in the world and in history did not have a normal life,” Yang said.

“I did not have a normal life — so I believe I am on the right track.”

Contact the desk editor at university@dailytarheel.com.