Free Republic

North Korean defector describes hellish life inside rogue regime Growing up in North Korea, Yeonmi Park did not know of the concepts of love or friendship. Everyone was a “comrade” and feelings of adoration were reserved for the rogue regime’s supreme leader alone. Her parents never told her they loved her. It was part of everyday life to see people dying of starvation on the streets and with no electricity, Park’s life was ensconced in total darkness and freezing cold. Park is just one of several hundred North Korean defectors who have escaped to the United States after she and...

Many North Koreans are amazed by life in South Korea, and that was no different for Ji Seong-ho, the remarkable young defector who made a special appearance at the State of the Union address Tuesday night.Ji endured starvation, suffered severe injuries, lost loved ones, and experienced firsthand the Kim regime’s brutality before he left North Korea. His journey to freedom was marked by pain, tears, and incredible hardship. When he finally reached South Korea, “it was beyond my expectations,” he revealed in an interview with The Daily Caller.“I felt like I had traveled 30 years into the future,” he said commenting...

At a live TV briefing, the command released dramatic video showing the unidentified soldier speeding down a tree-lined road past shocked North Korean soldiers, who begin to run after him. He crashes the jeep near the line that divides North and South in the so-called “truce village” of Panmunjom, where North and South Korean soldiers face each other at their closest distance just feet away.Soldiers from the North sprint to the area, firing their weapons at the defector; one hurries across the dividing line before running back to the northern side. South Korean soldiers then crawl up to the defector,...

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean troops fired on a fellow soldier who was defecting to South Korea on Monday across the heavily armed border dividing the countries, South Korean officials said, amid heightened tensions over the North’s nuclear weapons program. The soldier was shot but succeeded in reaching the South, its military said in a statement. The North Korean soldier defected through Panmunjom, a village that straddles the border between the two Koreas. Alerted by gunshots, South Korean guards found the North Korean soldier about 55 yards south of the border line that bisects Panmunjom. He was taken to...