A fourteen year old boy named Chul was caught by Chinese guards two weeks after he fled from North Korea. He was kept in jail for six days before being sent back to Hoiryong in the North. North Korean guards beat him with a leather belt and asked him why he had gone to China? How long he had spent there? And had he met any South Koreans. After questioning Chul was sent to a defectors camp where the beatings continued. He managed to escape from the camp after two days. Chul said that people were beaten daily and the only food given was thin gruel meant for cattle. Two months after his escape he crossed into China again.
Seventy year old Yong-shik who escaped from North Korea in June last year has escaped and been caught ten times since then. One of the times was in October last year, when ethnic Korean supporting Pyongyang reported him to police. He too was sent to Hoiryong and beaten. While he was being transferred to the camp with sixty or seventy other people he and the boy he was tied to managed to escape. They survived on corn until October 27, when they crossed back into China.
Two days later he was arrested by Chinese police and deported once more. This time he was tortured by North Korean border guards, but once more escaped, this time through a bathroom window. On November 3, he went back to China. He said that everytime he was caught he immediately started to plan his escape.
Adults sent back to North Korea face worse treatment than children. They are made to do forced labor for several years whereas children face up to two months in the camps. Lee Seung-il, 29 who escaped from Chongjin to China said that it was easier for children to escape, and that forced labor damages health. Those who have had the experience of being sent back to North Korea escape into the mountains of China to escape the police.
Five year old Young-soo in a mountain village in Yenji, cried when he heard the word police. Kim-yul, 29, who escaped from the North in August last year, wandered around four to five cities, but ended up in a mountain village. He says that whenever he hears a dog bark it wakes him up.
In spite of this hardship, people continue to leave North Korea. The fastest route between Hoiryong and Yenji is a three hour drive, but due to the snow which began to fall in November and increased border patrols, refugees have to use mountain tracks and so it takes two days.
Lee Sang-chul, 35, who this reporter met in a church in Yenji said, "I had to come here to feed my family and myself. I'm not afraid of arrest. Sometimes people are sent to forced labor camps for six months, but this is better than going hungry; at least they feed you." An ethnic Korean named Choi said that among the refugees, around 10% to 15% really want to defect, while others return to North Korea if they get money and food. Since 1996, Yenji has become the first way station for North Korean defectors.
(Concluded)
(December 15, 1999)
