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.
There is a thickness to the air outside Wang Fuk Court in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district.
The smoke catches in your throat and the emotion catches you off guard.
Seven of the eight tower blocks that make up this complex have been all but blackened. And through the shells that used to be windows you can only imagine the horror and the panic that must have played out inside, the screams that went unanswered.
More than 30 hours after the blaze began here there was still a sense that it is far from under control. At various points during the day the flames sprung up from different windows, as if the fire has found fresh tinder.
Pockets of fire are still raging
Thousands of people lived at the complex
Debris falls from the buildings periodically, ash still floats in the air.
There is no doubt the community here is reeling. Along the surrounding streets hundreds came out to look on in horror, mostly in a stunned sort of silence.
Occasionally the air was pierced with the terrible cries of relatives, who had received the news they were dreading.
But much of the grief was quiet and held close, an arm around the shoulders or a quiet embrace.
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Deadly blaze destroys Hong Kong tower blocks
The community is coming together in their grief, hugging and supporting each other
Among the survivors is the Lam family, three generations of which had been living in the building for 40 years. They have lost their home and haven’t heard from their neighbours.
“The alarm was all off because of the renovation of the outside. So there is no alarm to let all the people know. Many old people, elderly people, they were all having an afternoon sleep. So nobody knew,” Ms Lam, whose father survived the fire, said.
“Once they know the fire has already burned down everything and they cannot escape, they were all trapped in the house. This is a disaster actually.”
Three generations of the Lam family lived in Wang Fuk Court for 40 years
Another survivor said: “I feel sadness and hopeless and don’t know what [I’m] going to do. I don’t know. Cannot describe. So sad.”
Hong Kong is one of the world’s most densely populated cities, fire in places like this has a significantly more deadly potential.
And it also means many are displaced. Over 4,500 lived in this complex alone and are in need of emergency shelter.
A woman says she feels sad and hopeless after losing her home in the blaze
The government has offered temporary accommodation to many, but the community is filling the gaps.
Armies of volunteers handed out food, water, blankets and clothes, including to those who had opted to sleep on the floor of a nearby shopping area.
One man, who wanted to sleep on the floor close to his home, said he doesn’t feel supported by the government.
One man opted to sleep on the floor close to his burned-down home
The man said he doesn’t feel supported by the government
There is a thin line between grief and anger, and there’s a feeling it’s narrowing here.
Many fingers have pointed towards the construction company running extensive renovations in the complex.
A netted mesh, bamboo scaffolding and polystyrene that may have been used as part of the works have all been cited as potentially speeding the spread.
Three construction bosses have already been arrested.
But there is a sense that distrust of the authorities more broadly runs deep.
“It is very serious and people are starting to feel furious about the construction company and the construction materials,” one woman said.
“There are so many layers of anger among the people. People feel that every party should take responsibility.”
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A woman said many were angry about the construction company
Everyone we spoke to wanted to wear a mask to avoid being targeted, with volunteers actively encouraging the masks, and many hinted that the system shoulders its share of responsibility for what happened.
This fire is already the worst disaster in the modern history of Hong Kong; many of the victims are elderly and many will struggle to rebuild.
There will many days of pain to come, but many days of questions too.
At least 65 people have been killed, and police have made several arrests, after a huge fire engulfed a high-rise residential complex in Hong Kong.
Authorities said nearly 300 people are also missing following the blaze at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po – a suburban district with around 300,000 residents, near the border with mainland China.
A further 70 people have been injured, including more than 40 who were described as critically ill in hospital on Wednesday night. Around 900 people are also in shelters as a result of the blaze.
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Deadly blaze destroys Hong Kong tower blocks
Police have alleged its cause could have been a “grossly negligent” construction firm using unsafe materials.
Three people – two directors and an engineering consultant – have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.
“We have reason to believe that the company’s responsible parties were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties,” said police superintendent Eileen Chung. Police have not named the company.
The complex, built in the 1980s, had been under renovation for a year.
Smoke rising from the Wang Fuk Court residential complex. Pic: AP Photo/Chan Long Hei
The fire broke out on Wednesday afternoon. Pic: Reuters
Dozens of people remain in hospital, some are critically injured. Pic: AP Photo/Chan Long Hei
One firefighter was among those killed tackling the blaze, which broke out at 2.51pm local time on Wednesday.
Fire crews said they had doused the flames in all seven of the affected blocks by Thursday morning, and were searching each floor for survivors.
Records show the Wang Fuk Court site consists of eight blocks, with almost 2,000 flats housing around 4,800 residents, including many elderly people.
A relative of a resident at the scene. Pic: Reuters
Families have been identifying the bodies of relatives while others have been visiting shelters in the area, searching for missing loved ones.
Hong Kong leader John Lee said on Thursday the government will set up a HK$300m (£29m) fund to help residents.
Charred bamboo and plastic mesh covers the complex, which was undergoing renovation works. Pic: Reuters
Firefighters searching between floors at one of the high-rise blocks. Pic: Reuters
The cause of the fire is being investigated, but it appears to have started in bamboo scaffolding and construction mesh sheets and then spread across seven of the complex’s eight buildings – likely aided by windy conditions.
Bamboo scaffolding is commonly used in Hong Kong, but is in the process of being phased out because of safety concerns.
Hong Kong’s Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims said there have been at least three fires involving bamboo scaffolding this year.
Temporary shelters have been set up for residents. Pic: AP
Supplies are brought to a school which is serving as a shelter. Pic: Kyodo/AP
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China’s state broadcaster CCTV said President Xi Jinping has urged an “all-out effort” to extinguish the fire and minimise casualties and losses.
Both the US and British Consulate Generals for Hong Kong have sent condolences to those affected, as has Taiwan’s president.
Parts of the huge complex were still smouldering on Thursday. Pic: AP
Firefighters work to extinguish the blaze. Pic: AP
The number of dead is the highest in a Hong Kong fire since 1948, when 176 people were killed in a warehouse blaze.
The fire has prompted comparisons to the Grenfell Tower blaze which killed 72 people in 2017, blamed on flammable cladding, as well as failings by the government and the construction industry.
“Our hearts go out to all those affected by the horrific fire in Hong Kong,” the Grenfell United survivors’ group said on
social media.
“To the families, friends and communities, we stand with you. You are not alone.”
World
Washington DC shooting: Trump condemns ‘monstrous’ attack near White House – and says suspect is Afghan national
Donald Trump has called for every Afghan national who entered the US under the Biden administration to be investigated following the shooting of two National Guard troops near the White House.
The president said the “monstrous, ambush-style attack” was carried out by an Afghan national who arrived in September 2021 during America’s chaotic withdrawal from Kabul.
“This attack underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation,” Mr Trump said in an address to the nation from Florida.
He vowed to “reexamine every single alien” who has entered the US from Afghanistan under the previous government, and said: “I am determined to ensure the animal who perpetrated this atrocity will pay the steepest possible price.”
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Trump condemns ‘animal’ shooting suspect
Suspect to face terror probe
America’s citizenship and immigration office said it had stopped processing all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely.
The suspect in custody is 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
Both guardsmen were shot in the head, according to NBC, citing senior officials briefed on the investigation.
Wednesday’s shooting – carried out with a handgun – will be investigated by the FBI as a possible act of terror.
The White House was placed into lockdown following the incident, while Mr Trump is away for Thanksgiving.
Pics: AP
Victims in ‘critical condition’
West Virginia’s governor initially said both victims were members of his state’s National Guard and had died from their injuries – but later posted to say there were “conflicting reports about the condition of our two Guard members”.
Patrick Morrisey had said: “These brave West Virginians lost their lives in the service of their country.”
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Hundreds of National Guard members have been patrolling the capital after Mr Trump issued an emergency order in August, which federalised the local police force and sent in the guard from eight states and the District of Columbia.
Mr Trump has announced an extra 500 troops will be deployed in the wake of Wednesday’s shooting.
FBI director Kash Patel said the troops were “brazenly attacked in a horrendous act of violence”.
At a news conference, he clarified they were in a “critical condition”.
Pic: AP
Former president Joe Biden, who was heavily criticised by Mr Trump in his address, said he and his wife Jill were “heartbroken” by the shooting.
“Violence of any kind is unacceptable, and we must all stand united against it,” said a statement.
How the attack unfolded
Jeff Carroll, chief of the metropolitan police department in the area, said the attack began at 2.15pm local time (7.15pm in the UK) while National Guard members were on “high visibility patrols in the area”.
He said: “A suspect came around the corner, raised his arm with a firearm and discharged it at the National Guard.
“The National Guard members were… able to – after some back and forth – able to subdue the individual and bring them into custody.”
Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser called the attack a “targeted shooting”.
Pics: AP
Social media footage showed first responders attempting CPR on one of the soldiers as they treated the other on a pavement covered in glass.
Nearby other officers could be seen restraining an individual on the ground.
Emergency personnel cordon off an area near where the National Guard soldiers were shot. Pics: AP
The scene was cordoned off by police tape, while agents from the US Secret Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives attended the scene, as National Guard troops stood sentry nearby.
The FBI was also on the scene, the agency’s director said.
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