In Depth:  North Korea

Luke Randall

A Christian woman from North Korea has successfully escaped from her country five years after her first attempted defection, having spent time in prison and re-education camps.

So Young, whose name has been changed for security reasons, was returned to North Korea, after escaping the first time, by the Chinese authorities. China does not view North Korean defectors as refugees who require protection, but as illegal immigrants to be returned.

Milla Ling-Davies

Twenty-four years ago, Kim Seongeun witnessed dozens of dead bodies floating down the Tumen River, which separates North Korea from China. Ever since, he has been committed to helping people escape Kim Jong-un’s totalitarian regime.

Pastor Kim, as he is known, organises these dangerous escapes from his base in Seoul, through a charity and church named Caleb Mission. They have rescued 1,012 people since it began in 2000, taking defectors on an ‘underground railroad’ through Southeast Asia to safety. The very first to be rescued was a woman named Park Esther, a lieutenant in the North Korean Army – who later became Kim’s wife.

Iain Taylor

Several dozen North Korean believers have been discovered by the authorities – and immediately executed.

They were gathered for a meeting when security guards broke in and arrested them all. More than 100 members of their families were then sent to political camps, which is a common fear tactic in North Korea, whereby the government extends punishments to the relatives of supposed culprits too. It is believed that information about the time and place of the meeting was deliberately leaked to the authorities.

Iain Taylor

Christianity in North Korea is growing rapidly, a Parliamentary expert who fled the brutal regime has told en in an exclusive interview.

Timothy Cho is the Inquiry Clerk to the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea and an expert on the underground church there. Now 33, he escaped from North Korea aged 17.

Iain Taylor

Yeonmi Park is one of the few brave people to have managed to escape the Communist concentration camp that is North Korea.

The 27-year-old told her story in the book In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom, which recounted the hellish conditions most people live in. Often they have to eat grasshoppers just to survive – hunger is constant, and starvation is a way of life. There is no heating during the winter, and all the basic necessities of life that Westerners take for granted are totally absent.