Sweethearts lauded in summit run-up
HANOI: A handkerchief, illicit letters and secret visits — the first three decades of love between a Vietnamese man and his North Korean sweetheart were counted out in stolen moments and small tokens of devotion.
But now this love story is being lauded as an example of the two countries’ amity in the lead-up to this month’s much anticipated second summit between United States President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un here.
The communist state is thrilled to be hosting the high-profile event. But for the couple, their hopes for peace on the Korean peninsula also carry personal motivations.
“I wish... we can go back for visits more easily,” said Vietnamese Pham Van Canh, 69.
He first met his future wife, Ri Yong-hui, in 1971 at a Pyongyang fertiliser factory where she was working.
Pham was one of hundreds of Vietnamese sent to North Korea to study how their country could rebuild after the devastating war with the US.
“I asked others for her name, trying to meet her,” he said.
“At that time, both Vietnamese and North Koreans were not allowed to love each other.”
His first token of affection was a handkerchief.
Their courtship included secret visits to her hometown, which were cut short in 1973 when he had to return to Vietnam.
Pham gave Ri 20 envelopes with his mother’s work address at the State Bank of Vietnam already written out so she could send letters, skirting North Korea’s monitoring of correspondence.
Still the couple sent only two or three letters a year to avoid notice. Mostly, they kept to safe subjects like health and work, in case the envelopes were opened.
“We were in love and she had even told me to die together, to commit suicide. But I told her, ‘We are in love, why die? Wait for me and I will come back’.”
As the years ticked by, he kept an eye on the two countries’ relationship, as Vietnam outpaced North Korea in economic growth.
Meanwhile, he set up a friendship club between the countries and organised fundraising to donate rice to the Korean peninsula as its leadership isolated itself from the outside world.
He also appealed to Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry, who brought the couple up in bilateral talks to their North Korean counterparts as “a humanitarian matter”.
Then in 2002, Pham’s efforts paid off.
He was allowed to return to Pyongyang to hold a small wedding ceremony, and then take Ri back here on the condition she remained a North Korean citizen.
Today, 70-year-old Ri says she has a good life where she lives with Pham in a modest apartment. But the couple have managed to visit Pyongyang only three times.
“I always have my homeland on my mind,” she said.