How one North Korean defector sends ‘factual news’ from the South

Seoul, South Korea – Around 31,000 North Koreans luxuriate in defected to South Korea attributable to the end of the Korean Battle in 1953.

Practically seventy one % of those defectors are female, most of their 20s and 30s.

Supreme about a take the most unsafe route by diagram of the Korean Demilitarized Zone that a North Korean soldier took unhurried final twelve months.

Most of North Koreans defect by process of the long and pricey trip that takes them into China after crossing the Yalu River.

The trip takes them to China’s southern border into Vietnam and Laos before they arrive in Thailand, from where they’re recurrently flown into South Korea.

Some even decide to head to the US, according to Liberty in North Korea, an NGO primarily primarily based in the US and South Korea.

However their arrival into South Korea does now now not signal an end to their worries and considerations.

Section 1 – ‘Korean authorities doesn’t take care of defectors as other folks’

Section 2 – ‘I desire I’m capable of return to North Korea for a day’

Section three – North Korean defector describes lifestyles at dwelling by diagram of cartoons

Section 4 – North Korean defector: ‘If you occur to would possibly presumably luxuriate in gotten money, you would perhaps presumably perchance scheme something else’

Section 5 – North Korean artist: ‘I’d by no means return dwelling’

In fragment six of the assortment, Al Jazeera speaks to 58-twelve months-feeble Lee Min-bok who is head of the North Korea Balloon Crew and sends balloons across the border from the South.

« I draw from a role where there used to be no radio or web. Seventeen years previously, I saw a South Korean flyer and that is the reason as soon as I definite to defect and scheme this from across the border.

« I left North Korea in 1990 and it took me five years to arrive in the South. I left my sisters and mother in the assist of. I haven’t heard from them since then. I attempted so a lot of events, but no success. 

« I chanced on out that the South Korean authorities used to be sending balloons into the North and my involvement used to be restricted to giving solutions and opinions.

« After the inter-Korean summit in 2000, they stopped sending those flyers. In 2003, I developed my balloons and grew to alter into the first civilian to scheme so. 

« During the balloons, I ship over what I call factual news to demystify the lie that the Korean Battle used to be instigated by South Korea and the usa and the lie that South Korea must be liberated from imperialists.

« I scheme now now not luxuriate in a community as such. There are one or two consultants who hover the balloons and the relief are sponsors. In uncover to hover the balloons, you will want a licence to transport fuel, a assortment for the balloons and a automobile that passes safety regulations.

« The genuine location where the balloons are despatched is depending on the wind. Most are despatched from the DMZ location all the diagram by diagram of the summer. The final time we despatched the balloon used to be in November 2017. The wind is now not undoubtedly that ideal in the winter, so we are honest planning our next spherical for now.

« We are ready to trace the balloons because the technology permits us to connect GPS and estimate the wind direction and quantity. I heard from a defected soldier that the furthest a balloon reached used to be Ryanggang province which is in the northeast of North Korea.

« On story of my work, I have been field to terror from the North Korea authorities. I was attacked with poisoned needles, so the South Korean authorities employed six bodyguards to be with me at all events and a CCTV in each build I bound.

« Now, I undoubtedly luxuriate in a family here in South Korea – a accomplice and three kids – and so they assist me ship the balloons out. »

As told to Faras Ghani and Hae Ju Kang

A balloon containing leaflets denouncing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un advance the demilitarized zone surroundings aside the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea [Kim Hong-ji/Reuters]