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While Danbi grew up in the era when Jongun’s father Kim Jong-il ruled, North Korea remains as secretive as ever.
World leaders are left guessing Jong-un’s next move as he issues nuclear threats and trades insults with US President Donald Trump.
Danbi says: “The world knows hardly anything of North Korea beyond propaganda films. We will only learn from real stories from people who lived there.
“Until my last breath I will carry on working to tell the inside story of North Korea, in the name of my lost brother.”
Danbi grew up in Hyesan village, in the Ryanggang Province. Her father managed a state museum and her family were given good rations during the 1990s famine which left more than two million dead.
She has happy childhood memories of playing on the mountains and eating wild strawberries. But that joy and those freedoms were short-lived.
School years were darkened by having to bribe teachers, endure forced labour in fields and suffer non-stop indoctrination demanded by the ruling Kim family.
When she was 13 her father fell into debt and Danbi vowed to help her parents and two older brothers.
Hyesan is a smuggling haven because of its close proximity to the Chinese border, which at parts is only 10 metres across a shallow river.
Danbi started selling mountain herbs then worked as a “mule” for more estab- lished smugglers. She says: “As well as making money for my family, smuggled DVDS woke me up to the rest of the world. “I stayed up all night immersed in South Korean films, blinds drawn because it’s illegal to watch anything other than state news. “I glimpsed freedom in the wider world, girls talking to boys, women with highlighted hair and blue jeans. “In North Korea girls were expected to be subservient. “Wearing anything other than conservative North Korean clothing meant we’d be stopped by the youth brigade and interrogated.‘ Why are you wearing the clothes of the imperial b ****** s? What is Kim Il-sung’s birthdate?’ “Answering incorrectly saw us hit on the head, thighs or buttocks and reported to parents, school or police. “The DVDS showed me women else-