Recently North Korea has once again begun international provocation of the world by issuing threats to the international community and placing its military operations at high alert. What is often overlooked in the conflict is the human cost North Korean’s themselves have to face under the ruling regime, and the harrowing and heroic stories of those who have been able to escape the country. The following paper explores some of the stories of refugees who have managed to flee North Korea in such of a better life, and importantly focuses on the human cost and sacrifices these individuals have had to make to escape. As well as this, the following essay focuses on the hardships that civilians in North Korea face on a day to day basis and the reasons behind the problems and mentality of this state.
One particularly harrowing story is that of Song Ee Han who along with her family made a daring 100 mile trek to escape North Korea by heading towards the Chinese border. The background and motivation for the family to undertake this journey is primarly based on the lack of food and slow starvation of her family. Indeed, originally the family Han’s family had been through a lengthily period of food shortages in the country, which had prompted Han and her Husband to make covert trips into China to bring back food for their desperate family. After around the third trip the authorities became aware of these activities and promptly arrested both Han and her husband. While Han was beaten, tortured and had her skull broken by soldiers her Husband was less fortunate. Indeed, on the day of their arrest was the last time Han ever saw her husband, and learnt later he had died on a prison train after a sustained period of torture and without being given food or water.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Escape: A Family’s Journey out of North Korea".
As well as this Han was pregnant while she was tortured by the authorities and although the unborn child survived the brutal attack on Han from the security forces, her child died soon after birth due to starvation. With the family slowing starving and Han’s husband killed, the eldest daughter went out to try and find some food. She never returned. Later in the same year Han’s mother died. With her family slowing but surely dyeing, Han made the decision to try and escape North Korea with her three remaining children. Trekking through the night to avoid detection, the family slowly made their way towards the Chinese border. As weakness and fatigue engulfed the family, Han was faced with a terrible decision to make as they rested at a friend’s close to the border. At this point the family was so weak they couldn’t manage to carry on with the Han’s youngest son. In order that some of her family would survive, Han made the decision to leave her youngest with close friends and attempt to make the crossing to China with only her two remaining daughters. While the gamble to flee North Korea paid off (Han and her daughters are now settled in the United States) the high cost and multiple family deaths and losses the journey took will remain a heavy burden Han will have to bear throughout her lifetime.
Despite the glorified rhetoric that North Korea frequently advocates to the world, there have been many problems with food shortages and starvation over the years. One of the principle reasons behind this is the North Korean policy of ‘self-sufficiency’, and although in the past the country has received food aid from other countries, overall the policy towards agriculture remains based on the idea that North Korea has to be able to provide for itself. Food rationing from the state is a common facet of life in North Korea and leads to many deaths and attempts to flee the failing country.
