North Korea defector tells of escape and reveals what life is really like in secretive state
For David, the streets of Seoul are a much longed for safe haven.
To the casual observer, there is nothing out of the ordinary about him.
He is a slight man, softly spoken, dressed in baggy jeans and wide glasses that are fashionable in South Korea.
But his story and what he has been through to get here are utterly remarkable.
He is a North Korean defector, one of the very few to have escaped the DPRK (Democratic Republic of Korea) within the last few years.
“My mother bribed the soldier beforehand,” he tells me as he gestures on a map to where he crossed the border north into China.
“The river was frozen solid. I remember walking maybe 15 minutes to 20 minutes across the ice.
“I remember shivering after crossing the river and climbing over the fence that the Chinese guards had set up.”
For the safety of his relatives that remain in North Korea, we can’t tell you exactly when or exactly how he left. Any specific identifying detail could result in harsh punishments for his loved ones.
But his stories from inside are astonishing and offer a rare glimpse into what life has been like there since the pandemic struck.
Father disappeared without a trace
His childhood, it seems, was a relatively normal one in DPRK terms – helping from a young age to tend the fields and attending school when he could.
But everything changed shortly after his father suddenly disappeared without a trace.
“It wasn’t until about a year later when he got in touch with us that I realised he had fled to the south,” he explains.
“He contacted my mother via telephone. What we didn’t realise was that the North Korean state political security department had been tapping our landline. As a result, our mother was sent away to the labour camp.”
Initially, he was allowed to visit his mother every three months in detention, and he describes what he saw there as shocking.
“The amount of food provided in these detention centres is pitifully little,” he says.
“Prisoners receive around 20 to 30 kernels of corn each meal, which is obviously not enough for a person to survive on, so I packed a lunch when I went to visit her.
The pandemic has made North Korea all but impenetrable
“My mother’s body had shrunk to half her original size in the three months she had been in detention. My eyes filled with tears the moment I saw her; she was so dishevelled and gaunt that I didn’t recognise her initially.
“They also beat the women in prison. Mother’s eyes were swollen to bits and there were bruises everywhere. I wept when I saw her wounds.”
Mother tortured
David was just a child at this time but he was left to fend for himself and his siblings. He says he left school and tried to make ends meet, working in the fields and logging in the winter, but also stole food to survive.
He took what little he could to his mother.
“My mother said that if the inmates’ families didn’t visit them in prison, they would starve to death from malnutrition,” he explains.
“She said tens of people died every day from malnutrition. She even said that people would die in the middle of meals.
“To dispose of the corpses, she said they folded them at the waist and put them in sacks.
“Afterwards, the corpses were buried near the fences of the prison. Also, because the graves weren’t very deep, the stench of the corpses would come up from the ground in the spring when it became warmer.”
His mother described to him the torture she faced, being made to sit for up to 17 hours and beaten if they moved as much as a finger.
A military parade in Pyongyang in February
She also described how inmates whose families did not have the means to bring extra food or bribe the guards would have a life expectancy of just three to four years.
David’s stories matter because recent testimony from inside North Korea is very rare indeed.
The pandemic has made this already secretive state all but impenetrable.
Policy to shoot anyone trying to cross border
In the 2010s, around 1,000 people a year successfully defected from North Korea – the vast majority crossing the northern border with China before seeking asylum in a third country.
But a combination of the strict closed-border policy implemented by both China and the DPRK, plus a new policy to shoot anyone trying to cross, means that in 2022 that number had plummeted to just 67.
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It means that not much is known about how the country fared amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is mounting evidence that it further strangled an already dysfunctional economy, bringing fresh waves of shortage and suffering.
“The borders were sealed off out of fear that the pandemic would come from outside North Korea. No one was allowed to go near the border,” says David.
“All the trade routes were effectively closed down. We depended heavily on smuggled goods from China in order to survive.
“I’ve heard from my relative that more people are starving, and prices are rising. They say it has become even more difficult to live.”
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Indeed, many think it’s likely people have died due to a lack of food in recent years.
“I’d say [it’s a] chronic economic crisis, not acute. It’s just an ongoing, bad situation economically,” says Chad O’Carroll, the founder of NK News.
What is the situation in North Korea now?
He and his team try to analyse what is going on in North Korea. Since the pandemic, their sources have become fewer and more nervous, but there is a lot of evidence all is not well.
“I definitely think some people would be in serious health problems due to the food shortages,” Mr O’Carroll says. He explains that there is evidence that the crisis is even biting the elites who live in the major cities.
“In Pyongyang and other major urban areas there has not been such significant shortages, but the diversification and nutritional value of the available food has significantly decreased,” he says.
“So if you have a chronic health problem, if you’re old, that could probably really push health conditions in a negative way.
“There’s been very large scale mobilisations of people from all walks of life to get into the farms to get their hands dirty and help.
“We’ve got some sources that say middle, even senior elites in some cases, are having to do their part and helping the nation tackle this food shortage situation.”
It is relatively unlikely that this latest crisis will cause major instability to the ruling Kim regime.
The propaganda machine has been in overdrive blaming the global pandemic and showing pictures of wide-scale deaths and hospitals in crisis elsewhere.
Indeed, the North Korean people are also no strangers to hardship.
Most agree the increased secrecy has been of real value to the DPRK’s security services and will thus likely remain.
But for a nuclear-armed power so increasingly assertive internationally, the reality of life inside is still largely shrouded in mystery.
World
The moment Vladimir Putin has craved – a red carpet from Donald Trump for a man with blood on his hands
All eyes were on Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin as they met for the first time in more than six years, the Russian president visiting the US for high-stakes talks that could reshape the war in Ukraine.
The two leaders greeted each other with a handshake after stepping off their planes at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Anchorage, Alaska – and a smiling Trump even applauded Putin as he approached him on a red carpet that had been laid out.
It is exactly the moment Putin has craved, writes Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett. The Russian leader has been welcomed on to US soil as an equal for a meeting of great powers.
Trump-Putin summit – latest updates
The red carpet, the handshake, the flypast – only North Korea would give an indicted war criminal a greeting like this.
It marks the end of his isolation from the West in the most spectacular fashion.
Pic: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Instead of sanctions, Trump has rewarded the Russian president with the equivalent of a state visit.
The pariah looks more like a partner.
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‘Will you commit to not killing civilians?’
US correspondent James Matthews, reporting from the ground in Alaska, describes the meeting on the tarmac as “extraordinary”.
There was the red carpet and more for a man with blood on his hands, he writes. Putin – aggressor, pariah and wanted for war crimes.
Quite the CV for a man who was applauded on to the airbase by his host, the US president.
It couldn’t have looked more cordial – a superpower moment with a smile and a shake between the men who hold peace in their hands.
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The snowy remote base where Trump is hosting Putin
If that wasn’t enough, there followed a military flypast to dress the spectacle.
A smiling Putin seemed duly impressed, but what it says about the power dynamic in the relationship will trouble onlookers in Ukraine – and one moment they may have found particularly galling.
Posing for photographs with Trump before waiting media, Putin was asked: “Will you stop killing civilians?”
To which he smiled, and gave it a deaf ear
Ukraine says there will be no let-up in its punishing long-range drone attacks on Russia until Moscow agrees to peace.
The warning comes ahead of Vladimir Putin meeting Donald Trump in Alaska.
Ukraine war latest: Trump prepares for summit with Putin
It was made in a rare interview with one of the key commanders of Ukraine’s drone forces.
We met in an undisclosed location in woods outside Kyiv. Brigadier General Yuriy Shchygol is a wanted man.
There is a quiet, understated but steely resolve about this man hunted by Russia. His eyes are piercing and he speaks with precision and determination.
Brigadier General Yuriy Shchygol has been in charge of several devastating drone strikes against Russia
His drone units have done billions of dollars of damage to Russia’s economy and their range and potency is increasing exponentially.
“Operations”, he said euphemistically, “will develop if Russia refuses a just peace and stays on Ukrainian territory”.
“Initially, we had a few drones a month, capable of striking targets 100 to 250 kilometres away. Today, we have drones capable of flying 3,000 to 4,000 kilometres, and that’s not the limit, it’s constrained only by fuel supply, which can be increased”.
A Ukrainian drone struck this building in Kursk, Russia, on Friday. Pic: Kursk regional government/AP
Cars were also damaged in the strike. Pic: Kursk regional government/AP
His teams had just carried off one of their most complicated and most devastating strikes yet. A massive fire was raging in an oil refinery in Volgograd, or Stalingrad as it was once called.
“If the refinery is completely destroyed, it will be one of the largest operations conducted,” Brigadier General Shchygol said. “There have been other major targets too, in Saratov and Akhtubinsk. Those refineries are now either non-operational or functioning at only 5% of capacity.”
Oil is potentially Vladimir Putin’s Achilles heel. So much of his economy and war effort is dependent on it. Donald Trump could cripple Russia tomorrow if he sanctioned it but so has appeared reluctant to do so, a source of constant frustration for the Ukrainians.
Military activity on both sides has increased as diplomacy has picked up pace.
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Moscow correspondent: What’s Putin’s strategy?
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In another long-range attack, Ukraine says it hit the port of Olya in Russia’s Astrakhan region, striking a ship loaded with drone parts and ammunition sent from Iran.
But on the ground, Russian forces have made a surprise advance of more than 15km into Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine says the intrusion can be contained, but it adds to fears about its ability to hold back the Russians along the 1000-mile frontline.
Russian soldiers prepare to launch a Lancet drone in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. Pic: Russian Defence Ministry Press Service/AP
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Russia launches almost nightly drone attacks on Ukraine’s cities, killing civilians and striking residential targets.
General Yuriy says Ukraine picks targets that hurt Russia’s war effort, and it is constantly honing its capability.
“Each operation”, he says, “uses multiple types of drones simultaneously, some fly higher, others lower. That is our technical edge.”
How satisfying, I asked, was it to watch so much enemy infrastructure go up in smoke? He answered with detached professionalism.
“It does not bring me pleasure, war can never be a source of enjoyment. Each of us has tasks we could fulfil in peacetime. But this is war; it doesn’t bring satisfaction. However, it benefits the state and harms our enemy.”
Whatever happens in Alaska, General Yuriy and his teams will continue pioneering drone warfare, hitting Vladimir Putin’s economy where it hurts most.
World
India ‘will not tolerate’ nuclear blackmail, says prime minister Narendra Modi in warning to Pakistan on Independence Day
India’s Prime Minister has warned Pakistan it will not succumb to, or tolerate, nuclear blackmail.
In Narendra Modi’s 12th consecutive speech from the ramparts of Delhi’s iconic Red Fort, he addressed the nation celebrating its 79th Independence Day from colonial Britain.
He laid emphasis on ‘Atmanirbhar’, or self-reliance, in defending India by increasing and developing a more powerful weapons system for security.
Mr Modi said: “India has decided, we will not tolerate nuclear blackmail. We have established a new normal. Now we will not distinguish between terrorists and those who nurture and support terrorists. Both are enemies of humanity”
The historic Red Fort in Delhi has traditionally been the venue for the prime minister’s Independence Day address. Pic: Reuters
Pic: AP
Narendra Modi (top centre) waves after his speech in Delhi. Pic: Reuters
This comes on the back of the conflict in May after the killing of 26 people by terrorists in Pahalgam, Kashmir. In retaliation, India launched attacks on terrorist infrastructure across the border.
Pakistan retaliated, which quickly escalated into both countries launching a series of missiles, armed drones and heavy gunfire on each other.
After four days of fighting, a ceasefire was agreed to between the two nuclear-armed neighbours that have fought wars and many skirmishes over decades.
US President Donald Trump intervened saying: “I know the leaders of Pakistan and India. I know [them] very well. And they’re in the midst of a trade deal, and yet they’re talking about nuclear weapons… this is crazy.
“I’m not doing a trade deal with you if you’re going to have war, and that’s a war that spreads to other countries, you’ll get nuclear dust. When they start using nuclear weapons, that stuff blows all over the place and really bad things happen.”
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India and Pakistan agree on ceasefire
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif immediately thanked the American president for the ceasefire and bringing about peace and stability in the region, also recommending him for the Nobel Peace Prize as a genuine peacemaker and his commitment to conflict resolution.
Mr Modi’s government is yet to acknowledge President Trump’s intervention and maintains that the Pakistani military initiated the ceasefire process and India agreed to halt military action.
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‘Pakistan has the upper hand’
In parliament, India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said: “There was no leader… nobody in the world that asked India to stop its operations. This is something the prime minister also said. There was no linkage of trade in any of these conversations and there was no talk between the prime minister and President Trump.”
Mr Modi’s speech is an audit of the year gone by and his future plans of strengthening the economy and of self-reliance in the face of very high tariffs imposed by President Trump for buying discounted Russian oil.
He spoke of bringing in structural reforms, welfare schemes for farmers, women’s empowerment, employment, technology, clean energy and the green industry, but also raised concerns about rising obesity levels.
Schoolchildren dressed with tree leaves perform during Independence Day celebrations in Kolkata. Pic: AP
Assam Police Commandos in a motorbike formation at a parade in Guwahati. Pic: AP
India has the fourth largest economy in the world and is expected to be the third largest before Mr Modi’s current term ends in 2029.
Although when it comes to GDP per capita income, which serves as an indicator of individual prosperity, India is ranked 144 out of 196 countries.
The big economy illusion of GDP size has little to do with the well-being and fortune of its people, something the government refuses to acknowledge.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
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In its 2024 report, Paris-based World Inequality Lab said the inequality in India now is worse than under British rule. The research stated that 1% of the wealthiest Indians hold 40% of its wealth and enjoy a quarter of the nation’s income.
Comparing the ‘British Raj’ to the ‘Billionaire Raj’, the study said there are now 271 billionaires in the country and 94 new ones were added the previous year. The rise of top-end inequality in India has been particularly pronounced in terms of wealth concentration in the Modi years between 2014-15 and 2022-23.
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Explained: The UK-India trade deal
With over 1.46 billion people, India is the most populous country, making up 17.8% of the global population.
More than half the country is under 30, and it has one of the lowest old-age dependency ratios, enabling productivity, higher savings and investment.
A key challenge for the government is to match employment with its growing young population. It’s even more critical as artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in production and services, eating into jobs.
Indian Army’s Bihar Regiment marching in Kolkata during Independence Day celebrations. Pic: AP
Bagpipers from Jammu Kashmir Police performing in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir. Pic: AP
Last week, President Trump levied an additional 25% tariff on India for buying Russian oil, taking the total tariff level to over 50% and hitting Indian manufacturing and trade.
“I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together,” the president said.
Since the Ukraine war, India has been buying discounted Russian crude and its imports have risen from 3% in 2021 to about 35% to 40% in 2024.
Defending its stance, India says it does so for its energy security and to protect millions of its citizens from rising costs.
It’s a national day of celebration with patriotic fervour all around, but also a grim reminder of the tragedy of partition – the trauma of which still haunts its people.
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