Defector Wants to Return to North Korea - CNN

11/24/2015 Defector wants to return to North Korea CNN.com

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/23/asia/northsouthkoreadefectorfamily/ 1/5

Defector wants to return to North Korea

Updated 1813 GMT (0113 HKT) September 24, 2015

by Will Ripley, CNN

Story highlights

Dressmaker defector in South Korea wants togo home

She says it was a mistake for her to leave NorthKorea

She says she left North Korea only to getmedical treatment

Pyongyang, North Korea (CNN)—Of the tens ofthousands of North Koreans who have fled to South Koreasince the Great Famine of the late 1990's, only a rare fewhave ever asked to return.

Kim Ryon Hui is one of them. The Pyongyang dressmaker-- turned North Korean defector -- says she is trapped inSouth Korea and desperate to return to her family.

Before defecting in 2011, Kim lived a relatively upscale lifeby North Korean standards. Her husband is a doctor andthe family recently received a new, larger apartment fromthe government.

Kim in South Korea and her family in North Korea spoke toCNN about her case.

North Korean defector says she's "trapped" in South Korea 02:56



Kim went to China four years ago to visit relatives and seek medical care for liver disease.

She had been hospitalized for six months in North Korea and had heard China may have more advancedtreatment. She assumed it would be free of charge, as it is in North Korea, where the state covers mostexpenses including housing, healthcare, and higher education.

But once in China, Kim soon found she couldn't affordthe staggering medical bills. "It became a huge burdenfor me to go through treatment in that situation. Icouldn't ask my cousin for money," she told CNN.

Kim says she began working at a restaurant in Shenyangbut the low wages were not nearly enough to pay for herexpensive treatment. She says the Chinese doctorswanted cash up front.

"A broker told me that Chinese people go to SouthKorea and earn a lot of money. The broker's neighboralso did it for two months," she told CNN.

"I was thinking of recovering completely before returningto my aging parents. I wanted to return home in healthystate. So I said I will go to South Korea for two monthsand earn the money and get myself treated."

ADVERTISING

Kim's family in North Korea hope shecan get back home.



Smuggled into South Korea

She now calls that decision a horrible mistake.

Kim was taken with a group of other defectors to SouthKorea, but even before she got there, she says she washaving second thoughts.

Kim says she didn't realize that once she signed papersrenouncing her North Korean citizenship she could nevergo home.

"I told them that I didn't know this so I wanted toescape. But the broker took away my passport from meand refused to give it back," she says.

"Other defectors who were with me said if I go out andget caught they too will be handed over to China'sPublic Security and their life will be in jeopardy. BecauseI didn't have a passport, I had to follow them and Iended up in South Korea."

Kim says that, at the time, she didn't even know what a North Korean defector was.

As soon as she arrived in South Korea, Kim began demanding to go home to the North.

For South Korea, it's not that easy. It has a protocol to bring defectors in, but it is illegal for them to return.

Where young defectors go to school in South Korea

No way home

And in order to be released from a South Korean processing center, Kim says she had to sign documentrenouncing communism and agreeing to follow the laws of the South. By doing so, she became a SouthKorean citizen.

Kim says she's tried to find a smuggler, made repeated calls to the North Korean consulate in Shenyang, -- andthen took a desperate measure she now calls "foolish."

She says she pretended to be a North Korean spy in order to be deported. But South Korea doesn't deportspies, they imprison them.

So after turning herself into the police, Kim was sentenced to two years for passport fraud and espionage. Hersentence was suspended in April and she is now out on parole and under close watch. Her status as aconvicted criminal makes travel out of South Korea legally impossible.

She told CNN: "There is nothing else for me to say but I am sorry. I didn't even imagine that I would create sucha huge problem.

"The wrong choice that I made, my choice of wanting to earn money for my treatment, led to the worst situationin my life. I am regretting with my heart and I am so sorry that I've brought such suffering to my aging parentsand husband and my daughter."

Related Video: N. Korean woman's familysays she was kidnapped abroad 02:38

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/24/asia/north-korea-defector-school/index.html



Kim says she is now stuck in South Korea with no moreoptions, working as a machine operator at a recyclingplant.

"I am living in Daegu and I am going through a regulartreatment in a hospital there," she says.

Although her health has improved, Kim says the mentalanguish is unbearable. Her arms bear the scars ofmultiple suicide attempts.

Orphaned by famine: The 'child mother' caring for NorthKorea's parentless

Messages across the border

In Pyongyang, we met Kim's husband and 21-year-old daughter, who hasn't seen her mom since she was 17.

"Why? Why can't she come back," asks her sobbing daughter Ri Gyon Gum. "Why do we have to go throughsuch suffering?

"Why do they drag her like this, despite how she says she wants to go back, [why] not let her go? She has herfamily, husband and daughter in her country, a daughter who misses her mother, a husband who misses hiswife. Do they not have heart and blood?"

Asked if they'd like to send Kim a message, her husband, Ri Gum Ryong, speaks to the camera, at timesbursting into tears.

"To my wife in South Korea, don't forget here you have parents, a husband and daughter, and a socialistnation. Keep on fighting until the end," he says.

"My wife is fighting until the end right now, my whole family, my whole North Korean nation. We will all gettogether so that she can come back. Never stop the fighting."

In South Korea, Kim's hand covers her mouth when she sees their video message, as she sobs violently andwatches the clip playing on the computer screen.

It's the first time she's seen her family in four years.

"How can this be? What am I going to do," she asks.

Kim records a tearful apology to her family, telling themdoctors are treating her, saying she's never forgottenthem or her country, and promising to do everything shecan to come home.

"I will return. At some point I will return. Please wait forme until I return," Kim says.

South Korea's Unification Ministry says the law does notallow them to bring Kim's family back together.

Like so many others on the divided Korean Peninsula,they are suffering the anguish of separation caused by

55 photos: Kim Jong Un and NorthKorea's military

We'd like to hearfrom youWe are interested in your feedbackand would appreciate it if you wouldanswer a few questions about yourexperience today.

×

Give Feedback

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/21/asia/north-korea-orphan-mother/index.html



decades of hostility between North and South, one ofthousands of families torn apart.

We meet once again with Kim's husband and daughterin Pyongyang, to show them her message, which they promise to pass on to her aging parents. They remainunsure when, or if, they'll ever be reunited.

As the video begins, Kim's daughter's hand covers her mouth in the exact same manner as her mother. Theybear a striking resemblance. Mother on screen, daughter watching, both sobbing violently.

There are no words. Only heartbreak.

North Korean defector: Kim Jong Un's days are numbered

17 photos: The photos N. Korea banned

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/07/asia/kyung-lah-north-korean-defector-predictions/index.html

Documents

Defector Wants to Return to North Korea - CNN