World

North Korea defector tells of escape and reveals what life is really like in secretive state

Published

3 years ago

April 7, 2023

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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.

“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.

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.

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

Hong Kong mourns those lost to fire as investigators search for remains

Published

3 hours ago

November 29, 2025

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Hong Kong mourns those lost to fire as investigators search for remains

Grief was not lonely today in Hong Kong. Three days after the worst fire in the history of modern Hong Kong, it feels as though it has barely sunk in.

The weekend at least lent them time to pay tribute, and gave them some space to reflect.

People came in droves to lay flowers, so many a queuing system was needed.

Official books of condolences were also set up in multiple parts of the city.

It was the first day large teams of investigators were able to enter the site. Dozens of them in hazmat suits were bused in, their work the grimmest of tasks.

Every so often you could see a flashlight peep through the window of an upper blackened window, a reminder that the fire services are still undertaking dangerous work.

But the reach of the authorities is ramping up here.

Yesterday a grass roots aid distribution centre was the vibrant heart of the response.

They received notice at 4am that they needed to pack up and move on. By 10.30am, the mountains of donations were gone, residents watched on, bewildered.

The task apparently will be handed over to professional NGOs.

“I think the government’s biggest concern is due to some past incidents,” one organiser tells us. “They may liken this to previous events. The essence looks similar.”

She’s careful with her words, but she’s clearly hinting at major pro-democracy protests that were crushed by authorities in 2019.

Any sort of mass gathering is now seen as a risk, the system is still very nervous.

And they might well be because people here are angry.

What, they ask, did the government know? What did it choose to ignore?

Indeed, Sky News has learnt that residents raised their fears over fire safety connected to extensive renovations on Wang Fuk Court as early as September 2024.

They flagged the suspected flammability of green nets being used to cover the building.

An email response from the Labour Department was sent a few months later to Jason Poon, a civil engineer-turned-activist, who was working with residents. It insists that “the mesh’s flame retardant properties meet safety standards”.

But many clearly didn’t believe it. Posts spanning many months on a residents’ Facebook group continued to voice their fears.

When a much smaller fire broke out in the city last month, one resident posted: “All the materials outside are flammable, I feel really worried.”

“I feel that same way” another replied. “The government has no sense of concern.”

For Poon, who dedicates much of his time to fighting lax safety standards in Hong Kong’s construction industry, the whole experience has been devastating.

“They knew all the maintenance was using corner-cutting materials, but they didn’t do anything,” he says.

“This is a man-made disaster.”

We put these allegations to Hong Kong’s Labour Department but they have not yet responded to our request for comment.

Grief may still be the prominent force here, but anger is not that far behind.

World

Indonesia: More than 300 people dead and others missing after floods and landslides

Published

10 hours ago

November 29, 2025

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Indonesia: More than 300 people dead and others missing after floods and landslides

More than 300 people have died and dozens are missing following floods and landslides in Indonesia, which has also been hit by an earthquake.

Monsoon rains over the past week caused rivers to burst their banks in North Sumatra province.

The deluge tore through mountainside villages, swept away people and submerged thousands of houses and buildings, the National Disaster Management Agency said.

As rescue workers continued their efforts on Saturday, the head of the country’s disaster mitigation agency said the number of dead had risen to at least 303 people. Authorities fear the figure will increase.

Other Southeast Asian countries including Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka have also been affected by torrential rain in the last week, with authorities working to rescue stranded citizens, restore power and communications and coordinate recovery efforts.

On Friday, the Thai government said 145 people had been killed by flooding across eight southern provinces, while two deaths have also been confirmed in Malaysia. Sri Lanka, in South Asia, has also seen 46 deaths following a cyclone, authorities said.

The extreme weather was driven by tropical cyclone Senyar, which formed in the Strait of Malacca, Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency said.

Rescuers in Indonesia have been struggling to reach some areas cut off by damaged roads, and where communications lines have come down.

Relief aircraft have been delivering aid and supplies to the hard-hit district of Central Tapanuli in North Sumatra and other provinces in the region.

The agency said West Sumatra’s Agam district had also been affected.

Pictures of the rescue efforts show workers trudging through waist-deep mud and areas filled with tree trunks and debris, searching for any victims potentially trapped.

In Aceh province, flooded roads meant authorities struggled to get tractors and other heavy equipment to hilly hamlets which were hit by mud and rocks in the deluge.

Hundreds of police officers, soldiers and residents dug through the debris with their bare hands and spades as heavy rain hindered their efforts.

Meanwhile, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit Sumatra island near Aceh province on Thursday, the country’s geophysics agency said.

Torrential rain triggered flash flooding and landslides in Sumatra earlier in the week. Videos posted on social media showed water streaming down from rooftops as panicked residents scrambled to safety.

Heavy seasonal rain from about October to March often causes flooding and landslides in Indonesia – an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands including Sumatra – where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near fertile floodplains.

Last week, almost 1,000 people from three villages on Java were forced to flee to shelters after the eruption of Mount Semeru, the island’s highest volcano.

World

Pope Leo visits Istanbul’s Blue Mosque during first overseas visit

Published

12 hours ago

November 29, 2025

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Pope Leo visits Istanbul's Blue Mosque during first overseas visit

The Pope has visited Istanbul’s Blue Mosque during a day spent meeting both Muslim and Christian leaders.

Pope Leo joined the imam at the 17th-century Ottoman-era mosque, officially called the Sultan Ahmed Mosque.

The trip marked part of the third day of his first overseas visit as head of the Catholic Church. He will travel to Lebanon on Sunday.

After the mosque visit, Leo held a private meeting with Turkey‘s Christian leaders at the Syriac Orthodox Church of Mor Ephrem.

While the Vatican had said Leo would observe a “brief minute of silent prayer” at the Blue Mosque, the imam said the pope declined.

Speaking to reporters after the visit, Asgin Tunca said he had told the Pope: “It’s not my house, not your house, (it’s the) house of Allah.”

The imam added that he told the Pope: “‘If you want, you can worship here,’ I said. But he said, ‘that’s OK.’

“He wanted to see the mosque, wanted to feel (the) atmosphere of the mosque, I think. And was very pleased.”

Later, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said: “The Pope experienced his visit to the mosque in silence, in a spirit of contemplation and listening, with deep respect for the place and the faith of those who gather there in prayer.”

He is the latest pontiff to visit the holy site, with his recent predecessors Pope Francis and Pope Benedict also making visits in a gesture of respect to Turkey’s Muslim population.

Observing etiquette, Leo removed his shoes and walked through the carpeted mosque in his white socks.

However, he did not visit the Hagia Sophia, one of the most important historic cathedrals in Christianity and located just across from the Blue Mosque.

In July 2020, Turkey converted Hagia Sophia from a museum back into a mosque, which was criticised by the Vatican.

The Pope is set to end Saturday with a Catholic Mass in Istanbul’s Volkswagen Arena for the country’s Catholic community.

A religious minority, there are around 33,000 Catholics in Turkey, which has a population of more than 85 million people, most of whom are Sunni Muslim.