Precis

They’re the refugees from North Korea’s hermit kingdom who overcome huge odds to escape to a new life in South Korea.

Most of them are women and the journey they undertake is a perilous one.

Many are influenced to leave after viewing smuggled South Korean TV dramas which showcase a life of freedom and opportunity.

But the reality is often very different.

Instead of finding happiness they are overcome with loneliness and isolation.

On arrival, often after harrowing experiences at the hands of human traffickers, they are placed in a training school and taught how to live in the modern world, South Korean style.

Once on the outside, their accent, clothing and behaviour often make them stand out, and they struggle to assimilate, some often barely surviving.

Those who do escape are known as defectors and they rarely speak out publicly.

This week on Foreign Correspondent reporter Naomi Selvaratnam meets some of the North Korean women who are trying to make new lives for themselves in South Korea and asks them: Has their escape been worth it?

Episode teaser

Music

00:10

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: This is Korea's de-militarised zone. For more than 70 years the DMZ has divided the nation between North and South. A war in suspended animation.

00:16

It's become a tourist curiosity, it's become to a theme park and gift shops. But over the border in the North, people have been desperate to escape for decades.

00:30

SOOJIN: We couldn't eat any grain, only grass. We barely survived each day.

00:47

SUN JU: I thought the whole world was like North Korea. Things like dreams or a future were unimaginable in our situation.

00:59

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Every year North Koreans risk their lives to escape, some fleeing political persecution, others in search of a better life. But the reality is often very different.

01:11

GEUM-OK JI, Defector: My ignorance was so upsetting that I wanted to go back. We didn't know what a computer looked like.

01:26

DR JOANNA HOSANIAK: You have to fit in, it's a tribal society. They are always, in a way, outsiders.

01:33

FEMALE VOLUNTEER: You are so weak because you haven't been eating. If you never leave home like this, you'll keep wanting to kill yourself.

01:41

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Those who escape are known as defectors. They rarely speak out publicly, still fearful of the regime.

01:53

Super:
Naomi Selvaratnam

I'm here to meet the North Korean defectors who've made the perilous journey to get here. What has life in this country given them. And has it been worth it?

02:04

Title: THE DEFECTORS

Music

02:11

Channel A TV exterior

02:22

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Inside Seoul's Channel A TV, a group of women dubbed by producers as "defector beauties" is getting ready.

02:29

Hee Jin in hair and make-up preparation

They're guests on the country's popular variety show, called "Now On My Way To Meet You".

HEE JIN: It's done.

02:36

TV studio and set for defectors program

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: The defectors are from North Korea and the show is filmed on a set modelled on Panmunjom – a village in the DMZ. For many South Koreans, the defector guests questioned by the show's panellists are their only insight into the people who risk their lives seeking freedom in the South.

02:465

GOON LEY: Today's show is about Millennials and Gen Z of North Korea. How the thoughts of young defectors, and younger generations in North Korea, are changing. That's the subject of today's show.

03:08

DEFECTOR GUEST: Nice to meet you.

03:26

GOON LEY: This generation is what Kim Jong-un fears most and ours is probably the most monitored show by the North Korean authorities.

03:28

"The main MC."

HOST: Australia, hello.

03:41

Taping of TV show

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: The guests provide an entertaining takedown of North Korean culture and politics, often poking fun at the regime.

03:49

GOON LEY: It's great. Kim Jong-un watches our show to keep an eye on it, but we continue to speak out telling countless people in North Korea that they are living in a fake society, a giant Truman Show.

03:59

Hee Jin on TV show

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Hee Jin Ryu is a regular defector guest.

04:24

HOST: "Hey, you should show them your synchronised swimming skills."

04:28

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: She started secretly watching smuggled South Korean TV shows, and became obsessed with the life she could have if she escaped.

04:34

HEE JIN: In Korean dramas, you can see people saying 'I love you' so freely. In North Korea you could only say that you love Chairman Kim Jong-un and his father.

04:43

Even though we're all Koreans and speak the same language, the way you could express love between man and woman, for your family, or for your country, was so different.

04:54

Freedom of expression and being honest about your feelings made me yearn for South Korea.

05:07

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Hee Jin was one of the tens of thousands of North Koreans sent to work overseas to raise money for the regime. Working abroad gave her the opportunity to get away.

05:15

Naomi watches program taping

Do you ever worry about the safety risks for your family, given that your parents are still living there, that there may be consequences for them from you speaking out on the program?

05:29

Hee Jin interview

HEE JIN: It wasn't an easy decision to make, but after I started, I saw many people who worked up courage to appear on the show, and this gave me the courage to continue.

05:39

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Are you in contact at all with your family in North Korea?

05:56

HEE JIN: No, it's not possible for me. Because, yeah, my family stay in the city, Pyongyang, so this is not easy and not possible for me, yeah.

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: That must be really tough not being able to speak to them.

HEE JIN: Yeah, so sad.

06:02

Naomi on train

Music

06:20

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: For many defectors the reality of life in South Korea is a shock.

06:28

Naomi walks with Hosaniak

Dr Joanna Hosaniak has been documenting the human rights of North Koreans for more than 20 years. Her not-for-profit organisation has become increasingly focused on their plight in the South.

06:38

Hosaniak interview on bridge

DR JOANNA HOSANIAK: First and foremost, they look at the soap operas and they see how South Koreans are living their lives, what car they drives, how, what their apartments look like. This is the kind of, you know, expectations that these people have that they will be better educated here and that they will have better jobs and that they will live better lives.

06:55

City intersection, pedestrian crossing

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: There are nearly thirty-four thousand defectors living in South Korea. Most of them are women, and they're viewed with suspicion.

07:17

DR JOANNA HOSANIAK: In reality, majority of South Koreans don't want to know North Koreans, or they are afraid of them even. They do not view North Korea as kind of the same country anymore.

07:27

Naomi to meet Sun Ju

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: I'm meeting with a defector who's been here in Seoul since 2019. She's asked us to use a pseudonym because she's afraid of being targeted by the North Korean regime.

07:44

Sun Ju was drawn by the glamorous South Korean lifestyles she saw on smuggled TV shows.

07:58

Sun Ju makes tea

SUN JU: Everyone got hooked on those dramas and everyone wanted to experience foreign countries. It's not an exaggeration to say they took our world by storm.

08:06

In those dramas, even poor people could travel overseas, dragging their luggage at the airport to get on planes. I absolutely loved that. We were living our life thinking we can never leave North Korea until we die yet these people were free to travel overseas.

0:21

That's when I started doubting. What's this? People in foreign countries can travel so freely. Everything is so strict and rigid in North Korea.

08:42

Sun Ju at home looking out window

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Sun Ju and her husband made the dangerous decision to flee with their young son.

SUN JU: I was crossing the river with my child on my back.

08:56

We waded through the unfrozen part of the river, where the water came up to chest height. But there were border guards around the river, and on the Chinese side too.

09:10

Sun Ju 100%

Kim Jong-un came to power and in 2018-19, the guards were ordered to shoot anything that moves whether it's animals or human. So we were in danger of being sprayed by bullets.

09:24

Sun Ju home interior

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: They made it safely across the river, but the journey was far from over.

09:41

Sun Ju by window drinking tea

They travelled for weeks through Southeast Asia, the most common route used by defectors.

09:47

Sun Ju 100%

SUN JU: I thought South Korea was right next door and we would get there as soon as we crossed the river, but we kept going and going for thousands of kilometres. It was so confusing and I think I was half out of my mind. There's no way you could think straight after going through all that.

09:57

Sun Ju to supermarket

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Soon after arriving, Sun Ju realised the glamourous South Korean life she'd seen on screen was nothing like reality.

10:11

SUN JU: We're the same race, but cultural differences play a big part. There's a lot of discrimination due to our accent.

10:23

Sun Ju crosses road

I was discriminated against a number of times for being North Korean. When I was applying for a part-time job they said, "What's with your speech?" A lot of people know hardly anything about North Korea.

10:37

Sun Ju 100%

It's something we have to accept, but we can't help being filled with sorrow. We feel so lonely. It's so hard and sad.

10:51

Sun Ju walks with son

DR JOANNA HOSANIAK: They are always, in a way, outsiders. South Koreans expect them that, oh, you speak Korean language, you know Korean culture, so you are South Koreans.

11:00

Sun Ju and son in lift, into apartment

There is little understanding for that variety, a tolerance that you might be Korean, but you might have a totally different history.

11:16

Hosaniak interview on bridge. Super:
Joanna Hosaniak
CITIZENS' ALLIANCE FOR NORTH KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS

You have to fit in. It's a tribal society. You have to fit in. If you don't, you are an outsider. And I think many North Koreans are in a way in their country, and they are foreigners.

11:31

People cross road

Music

11:44

GVs city street

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: The South Korean government does have a program aimed at integrating defectors. They're screened on arrival to weed out spies, before being sent for three months to a compulsory re-education camp.

11:49

BYEONG-CHOL LIM, Hana Foundation president: We start with medical check-ups and dental treatment. Then we try to calm them and give them peace of mind.

12:05

Byeong-chol Lim interview

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Byeong-chol Lim is the director of the Hana Foundation, the government funded organisation responsible for the long term care of defectors.

12:19

BYEONG-CHOL LIM, Hana Foundation president: For the second stage, we have various courses available to improve their understanding of South Korean society. Politics, economics, society and culture, as well as all the basics for daily life, using financial services and public transport. In addition, we correct the way they speak and their accent.

12:32

City view from window

DR JOANNA HOSANIAK: During that time they are completely secluded from the society.

12:56

Hosaniak interview on bridge.

They are bombarded with all of this education of like how to open your bank account, you know, how to drive a car, how to control your money, where to apply for job, et cetera, what kinds of kimchi and cheese and other type of produce you have.

13:02

City streets GVs

Many of them told us that the moment they are out they've realised that they forgot everything, that they've been educated and they really don't know how to manage their life.

13:20

Drone shots. High rise apartment buildings

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: When the defectors are released, they're given a resettlement payment and a subsidised apartment.

13:36

DR JOANNA HOSANIAK: These subsidies are not enormous, and when they finish and you don't have a family, you don't have a system of support to fall back, it's very difficult for them to find better jobs, because the fact that they were born in North Korea affects them for life almost. And so I think they are

13:42

Hosaniak 100%

in a way kind of pushed to poverty all the time.

14:03

Byeong-chol Lim interview

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: One criticism that has been shared with us is that the resettlement package is not sufficient to support the needs of defectors in the long term.

14:07

Do you think the program is really offering them the ability to adjust to life here?

14:17

BYEONG-CHOL LIM, Hana Foundation president: Yes, you're right. They've lived for years under a regime that is economically behind and less competitive than South Korea, and it's incredibly difficult for them to come here and obtain qualifications and reach the level demanded by this intensely competitive society.

14:21

High rise apartment buildings

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Across this modern city of almost 26 million people, many North Korean defectors live in isolation on the fringes of society.

14:46

Geum-ok interview in car

Geum-ok Ji knows what that's like.

15:03

GEUM-OK JI, Defector: Firstly, I realised that I couldn't settle in this country. Before we escaped North Korea, we had never seen a computer. We didn't know what a computer looked like. In this country, if you can't use a computer, you can't get a job. My ignorance was so upsetting that I wanted to go back.

15:07

I escaped alone leaving my son in North Korea. Afterwards he got sick and died there.

15:42

He was my only son. He was 32 years old. I let him die like that. I don't have anyone in this world now. No husband, no son.

15:54

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Sounds incredibly lonely here.

16:15

GEUM-OK JI, Defector: Yes. I wanted to get over that loneliness.

16:17

Geum-ok working with other volunteers

That made me a good volunteer. I was so lonely I couldn't handle it. So I started looking for people who needed my help.

16:26

Geum-ok and volunteers visit Young-sil Lee

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Geum-ok leads a group of volunteers who check on the welfare of defectors. Who are you visiting today?

16:41

GEUM-OK JI, Defector: Someone who has been sick for a long time. She was persecuted heavily in the North, which has led to severe depression.

16:50

FEMALE VOLUNTEER: You are so weak because you haven't been eating.

17:17

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Young-sil Lee has been living in South Korea now for three years. This is the only human contact she has each week.

17:22

GEUM-OK JI, Defector: You need to join some kind of organisation, so you can be with others. But you never leave home, that's why you don't get better. You have to offload everything from your mind. Just let go. You should enjoy this wonderful world to a ripe old age.

YOUNG-SIL LEE: Thank you.

17:33

FEMALE VOLUNTEER: If you never leave home like this, you'll keep wanting to kill yourself.

17:52

MALE VOLUNTEER: You should come out more. Come and be with us. As long as you are physically capable.

17:57

YOUNG-SIL LEE: They are trying so hard. They come and clean the house. They look after me. Thank you.

18:05

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Young-sil fled North Korea after being imprisoned and tortured by the military. She'd been caught trying to speak to her son, who'd fled to China months earlier. She's now living with severe liver cirrhosis.

18:16

Young-sil interview

You haven't been seeing the doctor because you can't afford to?

YOUNG-SIL LEE: Yes. Going to hospital is too costly. Each visit is a burden. My living conditions are better, but emotionally it's hard to bear.

18:33

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Do you ever regret coming to South Korea?

YOUNG-SIL LEE: I don't regret it, but there are people that I miss so much. I'll never be able to see them.

18:52

Volunteers clean apartment

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: It's time for the volunteers to get to work.

19:08

Naomi to camera in apartment

This team are the only people that visit her during the week and the rest of the time she doesn't have the energy to go outside.

19:19

Volunteers clean apartment

She's struggling financially. Her entire world, essentially, are these occasional visits from the team. They give her food, they give her some company, sometimes they do some health checks and they help with some chores around the house.

19:25

Naomi to camera

But they are really all that she's got.

19:38

Volunteers give out provisions, leave

The visit lasts less than 30 minutes, then they're off to the next one. There are still many more people to check on.

19:45

Bridge GV, city skyline

Music

19:55

Naomi in car to visit Soojin

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: The biggest wave of North Korean defectors escaped in the '90s. A devastating famine engulfed the North and is estimated to have killed millions. Thousands of people fled over the border into China. I'm traveling to meet one of them, a few hours outside of Seoul.

20:01

Soojin walks to restaurant

Her name is Soojin Ju. She lives in the backroom of the restaurant where she works. At the height of the famine, she and her family had to scavenge to survive.

20:26

SOOJIN: We sometimes ground corn husks to eat, or pine bark. You peel pine bark thinly and mix it with some corn husks. We ate a lot of those. We couldn't eat any grain, only grass, which we collected in the mountains. We barely survived each day.

20:41

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: When a trafficker offered to take Soojin across the border and into China, she didn't hesitate.

SOOJIN: When you defect, you need to brace yourself for death.

21:16

Soojin interview in room

When you leave, you take rat poison with you so that you can kill yourself if you get captured.

21:29

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Soojin swam across the Tumen river, which divides North Korea and China, but she wasn't free. Like many of the women fleeing the regime, she was sold into a forced marriage.

21:41

SOOJIN: Crying my heart out didn't get me anywhere back then. I was not allowed to go about as I pleased.

21:56

Someone would watch me even when I went grocery shopping. At night, there was a lock outside my door.

22:09

Every day I thought 'Dying would be better than enduring this'.

22:21

Naomi and Soojin look at photos

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Just months into her ordeal, Soojin became pregnant. The arrival of her daughter, Chunmi, changed everything.

SOOJIN: With me, she only ever wanted her mother. Always 'Mummy, mummy'. She followed me round like a shadow.

22:30

Although I was in China, I had a daughter like her. She was my hope.

22:51

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: That hope gave Soojin the courage to escape her marriage. She thought it was safer to leave Chunmi in the care of her Chinese grandparents.

22:59

City streets. Night.

Soojin travelled for several months through China and Laos to South Korea.

23:11

SOOJIN: I wanted to bring Chunmi here so that she could study. That's all I thought about.

23:19

Chunmi

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: It took Soojin two years to bring her daughter to South Korea.

23:28

Chunmi and Naomi in lift

CHUNMI: Mum came to meet me at the airport. I was so happy to see her. We went somewhere by car. I can still remember so clearly how the car smelled. Looking through the window, I found everything amazing.

23:36

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Do you remember coming here when you were younger?

CHUNMI: Yeah. I just remember that green colour.

24:04

Chunmi shows Naomi shelter

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Chunmi's reunion with her mother was short-lived. Soojin had to work long hours in the restaurant, so Chunmi was placed here in this shelter for the children of North Korean defectors. She's been living here ever since.

24:13

How many people live here?

CHUNMI: Ten more people.

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Ten more.

24:32

And where do you sleep?

CHUNMI: I sleep down.

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Okay, can you show me?

24:38

Chunmi shows Naomi her room

CHUNMI: This is where I draw.

24:47

Chunmi shows drawings

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Soojin and Chunmi's separation has made their relationship difficult.

24:54

Soojin working in restaurant

SOOJIN: The only way I knew to be a good mother was to be a good provider by making money. I just left her in the care of her school. I didn't even know she was struggling.

25:07

Chunmi's drawing on wall

CHUNMI: I didn't have much self-esteem.

25:33

Chunmi interview in room

I felt strongly that I wasn't needed. I didn't count. That made me very depressed. And one day, I had a fight with Mum. I felt maybe no one wants me in this world. And so I tried to kill myself. This 'X' means exactly that. That's how I expressed it.

25:41

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Chunmi's suicide attempt left her with serious injuries. Her doctors said she would never walk again.

26:13

CHUNMI: I thought I'd killed myself, but I came back to life.

26:22

SOOJIN: I was full of remorse.

26:34

Soojin looking at photos of Chunmi

As a mother...how should I put it? I failed to show her enough affection.

26:42

Soojin interview

But I still feel sorry for my child. Whenever I think of that time, I only feel remorse. I was really sorry at the time.

26:58

Chunmi lying on floor

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: For Soojin and Chunmi, time has not healed all wounds. They remain distant.

CHUNMI: Even now, family is always a difficult thing for me.

27:11

Chunmi YouTube videos

27:26

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Chunmi is trying to find her own way. She's enrolled in her first year of university, has her own network of friends, and she's documenting her life on YouTube.

27:30

SOOJIN: Her dream is to be an artist. She is good at painting. I'm so proud of her because she is trying hard to achieve her dreams.

27:41

Chunmi walks with Naomi

I'm bursting with pride as a mother.

CHUNMI: Two classes.

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Two classes, what have you got on?

CHUNMI: Drawing... Drawing class and English class.

27:59

Chunmi rehearsing in orchestra

NAOMI SELVARATNAM, Reporter: Both Chunmi and her mother have paid a high price for their freedom.

28:13

CHUNMI: Mum, she fled North Korea for freedom.

28:23

Chunmi interview

What she had to endure, what she had to go through, I understand her feelings and her intentions around that.

28:27

Chunmi with mirror

I know why I am here.

28:39

Credits [see below]

28:51

Out point

29:20