Forging new lives — 3 Kims
N. Korean defectors living in S. Korea carry symbolism, drama every day
SEOUL >> The bustling soul of a fractured Peninsula went about its routine Friday night as if nothing big was happening 80 miles away, where thousands gathered to celebrate the Opening Ceremony of the 23rd Winter Olympics.
But inside a brightly lit downtown office building in this capital city, three North Korean defectors put out some beer and savory snacks as if preparing for an impromptu Super Bowl party.
Kim Hak-min, Kim Seong-chul and his girlfriend Kim Jinmi met to watch the proceedings happening in the heart of the Korean Alps where a brisk night reached its crescendo when athletes from
North and South Korea entered Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium marching behind a “unification flag.”
“It’s going to be the step for being united,” said Kim Hak-min, chief executive and founder of Sogang Jobs, a startup that repairs iPhones and other devices.
If it were only that simple. The trio of Kims, all unrelated but tethered to hardscrabble experiences while living under a totalitarian regime, underscored the disagreement about the Olympic moment’s significance.
Like the Koreans marching together, the defector community is suffused in polemics because everything they do is seen through the lens of symbolism.
Last month, President Donald Trump invited defector Ji Seong-ho to the State of the Union address to call attention to human rights abuses in North Korea. On Friday night, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sat with other dignitaries at the Olympic Stadium for a well-played photo opp.
Christine Ahn, a senior fellow at the progressive Oakland Institute think tank, said Friday many defectors are pawns in the drawn-out drama between Washington and Pyongyang. Their stories have been used to perpetuate the image of a persecuted populace.
While the three Kims have forged new lives in Seoul, they can’t escape the tensions that have increased recently over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
But they weren’t concerned with saber rattling when escaping a society that suffocated them.
Their journeys to the south offer a glimpse into one of the world’s most misunderstood and isolated countries. Many defectors won’t speak publicly for fear of putting family members left behind at risk. Kim Jinmi, 22, didn’t want her photo taken because she still has family in the north.
Literary figure
Kim Seong-chul seems like a character out of Adam Johnson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “The Orphan Master’s Son.”
Like the book’s protagonist, Kim lived in an orphanage when his father
died and his mother escaped to China. He didn’t have enough to eat during a time of famine. Kim recalled working the streets where he sometimes ate rats.
“With salt, it had a good taste,” said Kim, 32.
He wasn’t able to attend school while performing manual labor at local farms every day.
Kim made up for lost time, though, completing elementary and high school in 1½ years after landing in South Korea in 2008.
His journey south began at age 17 when trying to escape to China.
He was caught at the border, but five years later crossed into China while walking 17 consecutive hours.
Kim Jinmi, his girlfriend, said her escape route was even longer.
“I walked 24 hours over the mountains,” she said.
Chinese officials returned Kim Seong-chul to North Korea three times. He became disillusioned in prison when “they were treating defectors like animals,” he said.
The third time he was arrested was the scariest because the young man figured he would never get out. But a Chinese farmer
who appreciated the indispensable Kim paid police to free him.
A broker eventually got Kim to South Korea, where the defector had to park cars, deliver chicken and work in a bookstore simultaneously to pay off the broker.
Now he hopes to launch a business in international trade.
Watching banned TV
Kim Hak-min’s crime was rejiggering the wires to watch Chinese television from his border town where his parents were sent to work in a coal mine. Kim has lived on his own since age 16 when his father died and his mom escaped to China.
He was 25 the third time he was caught watching banned programming and sentenced to a prison camp. Kim was resigned to a meager existence until neighbors paid authorities to release him.
Like Kim Seong-chul, the man was saved by people who appreciated his work ethic. In Kim’s case, he was known around town for repairing electronic and mechanical devices since age 13.
“I could fix watches, TVs, computers and cameras,” he
said. “It was my job during high school.”
His mother was repatriated from China to North Korea six times. He watched in distress as she was shamed and tortured.
A man of small stature, Kim held fast to big dreams upon arriving in the south in 2011. But in the land of Samsung, he was inspired to become an entrepreneur after reading a biography of Apple creator Steve Jobs. Kim has since visited Apple’s headquarters and Stanford as a pilgrimage of sorts.
At first, Kim Jinmi’s reason to leave North Korea was less complicated than her friends. Her mother had abandoned her when she was 12 and Kim didn’t want to lose her a second time three years later when the woman wanted to go to China again.
Her mom decided to escape the latter time after authorities forced her to watch the execution of a rich neighbor.
“We decided we can’t live there anymore,” Kim said.
Her mother carried a lethal dose of opium for the journey to China in case she was captured again. Kim’s mom had planned to swallow it rather than return to North Korea.
Tales of courage
South Koreans have been fascinated by such tales from the emigre community for decades.
A popular dating show called “North Korean Woman, South Korean Man” helps them break down stereotypes that have been perpetrated on both sides of the DMZ.
Friends of Sogang Jobs’ employee Ayong Byun want to know what it’s like to work for a North Korean.
“Same as us,” she tells them. “He’s Mr. Kim.”
But Kim Hak-min has experienced the cultural chasm between the countries for the past six years as an immigrant. He recalled feeling like an outsider at first.
“South Koreans must have open minds,” Kim said. “Too many South Koreans were underestimating those from the north.”
Now over the coming two-plus weeks, almost everyone is playing nice as Korea plays host to the Olympics for the second time.
Whether it’s a short-lived gesture or the beginning of real reunification talks no one can predict.
For the defectors, it’s just one more step in a lifelong journey.