Posted on 08/04/2007 7:47:28 PM PDT by blam
I escaped North Korea after famine, violence
By Sergey Soukhorukov in Dandong, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 1:04am BST 05/08/2007
Like most of her fellow "massage girls" at her brothel in the Chinese city of Dandong, Ban Yong Mee has a smile that is purely for business. On the days it becomes difficult to maintain, she need only remember why she fled here from neighbouring North Korea.
"Most of us had absolutely nothing to eat," she said, recalling the famines in the communist state that killed an estimated 300,000 people between 1995 and 1998. "We went to the hills to look for edible grass, wild animals and birds. I remember we even ate insects and caterpillars."
Miss Ban, 27, is one of an estimated 300,000 desperate North Koreans who have sought refuge in China in the past 10 years, sneaking into Dandong across the Yalu River that marks the border.
The shallow, narrow waterway takes less than a minute to traverse by boat, and in many spots can even be waded over, yet the contrasting scenes on either side of its banks show just why so many risk arrest and imprisonment to cross it.
On the North Korean side, there is little more than a few moribund factories, some decaying blocks of flats, and gangs of beggars, who loiter in the hope of being tossed gifts from passing boat parties of Chinese tourists.
On the Chinese side, there are high-rise hotels, well-stocked shops and internet cafés - stark proof of Beijing's wisdom in abandoning the hardline communism that still rules unchallenged in its neighbour.
For Chinese tourists who flock to Dandong in summer, a trip down the Yalu is a reminder that, whatever their gripes about the modern day "people's republic", life could be much, much worse.
People like Miss Ban, however, have extra reason to feel a shudder when they glance across the river. Should she be caught by the Chinese authorities and deported, she would face jail, labour camp and possibly even execution, all for the crime of abandoning the "paradise on earth" created by Kim Jong-il, North Korea's tyrant leader.
She vows, however, that this will never happen. "The only way I'm going back to Korea is in a coffin," she said, a look of defiance flashing across her face. "F*** you, comrade Kim Jong-il."
Miss Ban has lived in Dandong ever since a dark night nine years ago, when she left home and crossed the Yalu at a knee-deep spot, dodging patrols on both banks. That was the easy part. With no friends or contacts in China, she ended up hiding in an abandoned building for several days until she was found by a local family, who took pity on her and gave her shelter.
For a while, all seemed well: she earned her keep, and a little pocket money, by working on the family farm, obtained a false identity and even began a romance with the farmers' son.
Then, four years ago, she was caught by the Chinese police, searching farm to farm in a crackdown on illegal immigrants. "They checked my documents, and they were fake," said Miss Ban.
"They said they would arrest me and give me back to the North Korean authorities. We all know what that means."
The policemen forced her to have sex with each of them in turn, and then demanded she hand them most of her savings in return for keeping quiet.
The only alternative then was to go on the run again. "I knew they would not leave me alone," she said. "These people are like leeches. They would suck you dry, and when you are of no further use to them, give you away."
That was when a North Korean friend offered her a job at the massage parlour, where she is "protected" because the owner bribes the police.
She is unusual in having gone there of her own accord: many of her colleagues, she says, have been "sold" to the parlour in order to pay their debts to cross-border people-trafficking gangs. The slightest word of complaint, and the police will be tipped off about their illegal status.
Miss Ban's bitter cursing of North Korea's leader is scarcely surprising. And she blames not just Kim Jong-il but also his father Kim Il-sung, the founder of the communist state, who passed power down the family line when he died in 1994. His despotic rule, as much as that of his son, is central to the sad family story that led to her fleeing her homeland.
Born in the town of Sinuiju, the city across the river from Dandong, Miss Ban studied hard at school to achieve her childhood dream of becoming a doctor. But despite getting excellent grades, a medical college refused her application on the grounds that she was from an ideologically "unreliable" family.
The problem was her grandfather, who had been a moderately prosperous businessman before the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. His fabrics factory employed only a few dozen people, yet in the eyes of North Korea's communist leadership he was an exploiter, capitalist and counter-revolutionary threat.
His factory was confiscated, he was executed as a "public enemy", and ever since, his descendants have been treated with suspicion - Miss Ban's parents were forced to work on a cooperative farm.
Rejected from medical school, Miss Ban attempted to join the Korean People's Army and was rejected for the same reason. "They said, 'We don't need a person who may betray us any moment and whom we can't trust'," she said with a sad smile. "They think that I want revenge for my grandfather."
Instead, she had no choice but to join her parents, toiling in the co-operative's rice fields.
One day, her father found some wild ginseng, a valuable plant highly prized in China for use in traditional medicine. He started flitting back and forth across the Yalu, trading the ginseng for such marvels as canned meat, -condensed milk and even chocolate. He also brought back money and, crucially, news of outside life to his isolated and impoverished family.
"I remember how we would sit by the table and turn off the lights," said Miss Ban. "Father would start talking in whispers about the 'miracles' he saw in China."
On his sixth cross-border trading trip, however, her father was arrested. Her mother was also taken away from home, and several months later Miss Ban learned that they had both died in a "rehabilitation camp", south-east of Sinuiju. With her younger sister sent to a foster home by the authorities, Miss Ban decided to follow in her father's footsteps.
"I felt that my life was completely ruined," she said wiping away a tear. "I had nobody left around, no means for living, and even no will to live."
Similar tales of woe can be told by nearly all the North Koreans living in China. Yet with the Chinese authorities anxious to present a pristine picture of their country in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, many refugees fear a new round of police crackdowns and deportations.
Some are instead heading to South Korea, others for Thailand, Mongolia, Laos or Vietnam, where many already live in unofficial refugee camps. Miss Ban, however, has no such intention. Assuming her fake identity holds out, she plans one day to enrol at a Chinese university and get the medical degree she has always wanted.
"I know that what I'm doing is wrong, but for me it's the only way to stay afloat," she said.
"I'm looking forward to when I don't have to hide and lie, and when I can do what I want, not what others tell me."
a favorite of the clintons, albrights, and carters.
part of the democrat plantation. /s
Health care is free in North Korea, I believe.
>>Born in the town of Sinuiju, the city across the river from Dandong, Miss Ban studied hard at school to achieve her childhood dream of becoming a doctor. But despite getting excellent grades, a medical college refused her application on the grounds that she was from an ideologically “unreliable” family.<<
In a happier thread this would call for a Remo Williams ping.. :(
Its bad enough to understand in principle the communist system is but its painful to read such a story about the personal suffering and hopelessness it causes.
Free health care? Well, by liberal standards, it qualifies as Nirvana. Of course, the health “care” probably consists of a placebo, followed shortly thereafter by increasingly severe beatings until the patient “recovers” or dies.
Paging Dr. Marten!
Hey, Barack Hussein, let’s talk!—from Little Fatboy.
Let’s enable the suffering somemore, shall we?
She’s down but not out. Go girl!!!
Like we needed further proof that N. Korea and Chinese officials are a load of jackals.
She’s down but not out. Go girl!!!<<<
Well said, good choice of words.
As I read it, I was thinking of how brave she is.
And saying a prayer of thanks, that I was not born to be her, or to live under those conditions.
Ping to the real world where millions suffer.
She is brave, and the Lord is looking out for her. I said a prayer for Him to lift her up beyond these burdens, and give her a chance for a decent life.
Looking at some of these womens lives, I too am thankful that I don’t live like that.
Yes, God has given us many blessings.
With time and prayer, maybe it will spread and be shared by the world.
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