Interviews with Kim Seong Min

In February 1996, I tried to escape from the port of Dalian [a major city and seaport in China’s Liaoning province] from China. As I was hiding, I was caught by the Chinese security police. At first I told them that I was seeking political asylum but they said that according to the North Korea-China treaty that they do not recognize asylum so I was sent to prison in China. I was heavily interrogated for forty days in Dalian. Then they sent me to a border town next to North Korea in a town called Taowen where I was held for eight more days as well as being interrogated.

I did not carry any identification with me so I did not reveal my real name or that I was a soldier. But the interrogators kept on beating me very hard for me to tell the truth. If they did not like what I had to say they beat me more. There are no words that can describe the pain. So in the end I told them my real name and that I was the writer from the 600/20 camp. They then sent me back to my military unit where I would face peer judgment, which is part of the military society. If it is the civilian society, it is called people’s judgment. I was sent by train back to the headquarters and there I broke the window and escaped. For nine days I would either walk or travel by ox carts back to the border area where I crossed the border and fifty days later I arrived in China.

For three years I stayed in China and those years I had a different experience, which was for the most part not an easy one. I was constantly being chased by the North Korean secret police and I also had to hide from the Chinese security police. We could not go to the South Korean embassy because the South Korean government was sensitive about what the Chinese government would say and hence did not accept us. We lived without and nationality and it was probably the worst form of existence. But in the end my uncle found me and flew to China where he made a counterfeit passport for me, which worked for me to arrive in South Korea. This was back in February of 1999.

Kim Seong Min was born in 1962. He grew up and received his education in Pyongyang, North Korea. Kim is the son of a poet and was trained as a writer. After serving ten years in the military, he worked in one of the regime’s propaganda offices. Troubled by the society in which he lived, Kim escaped to China in 1997. He eventually arrived in Seoul, South Korea in 1999, and ever since has fought for the liberation and democratization of his homeland.

In 2004, Kim established Free North Korea Radio (FNKR) to broadcast messages about freedom to those being oppressed and exploited by the regime in Pyongyang. These tireless efforts have been recognized by several international awards, including the “Prize for Press Freedom” from Reporters Without Borders and the “Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award” from the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. Recently, Kim was elected as a Representative of the Coalition to Promote the Democratization of North Korea, an alliance of North Korean defector organizations based in South Korea.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/freedomnk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/radiofreenk

Website: http://www.fnkradio.com 

North Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) is a country of 23 million people in northeast Asia, ruled by Communist dictator Kim Jong-Un. His deceased predecessors—father, Kim Jong-Il, and grandfather, Kim Il-Sung – respectively retain the titles of “Eternal President” and “The Great Leader.”

The Korean War began in 1950, when Kim Il-Sung, backed by the Soviet Union and China, attacked South Korea. The conflict ended in a cease-fire rather than a peace treaty, and the border between the two Koreas remains tense and heavily militarized.

Kim Il-Sung employed harsh tactics to consolidate his power and propagated an extreme personality cult that has been continued by his successors. A blend of communist doctrine, state terror, xenophobia and hyper-nationalism has given North Korea its unique ideology. Despite some recent openings, North Korea remains largely isolated from the rest of the world.

With the end of Soviet communism and withdrawal of economic support, North Korea’s economy collapsed in the 1990s. A massive famine, aggravated by the regime’s indifference, killed as many as 2 million people between 1994 and 1998. While conditions have improved, even today, North Korea faces problems of malnutrition and insufficient access to food.

Tensions between North and South Korea remain high. In 2010, North Korea sank a South Korean naval vessel, killing 46 sailors and attacked a South Korean island, killing four civilians. North Korea has developed and tested nuclear weapons in contravention of several international agreements. The country withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 in order to test ballistic missiles and eventually a nuclear device. Multilateral negotiations have so far failed to constrain North Korea’s arms buildup and nuclear program.

North Korea is among the world’s most repressive states, engaging in widespread and systematic human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions, torture, forced abortion, arbitrary detention, and denial of the rights of expression, association, assembly, and religion. The government pervasively regulates all aspects of the lives of its citizens, each of whom is categorized as “core,” “wavering,” or “hostile,” according to the history of his or her family’s relationship with the regime. Access to housing, employment, education, and other social and economic goods depend heavily on these security classifications. The government determines where each citizen will live, and travel within the country is strictly limited.

Emigration is prohibited. Refugees who have escaped to China have frequently been forcibly returned to North Korea where they are imprisoned, subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, and sometimes executed. The government operates a network of forced labor camps for an estimated 120,000 political prisoners. While persons convicted of ordinary crimes serve fixed sentences, those convicted of political crimes are confined indefinitely. Punishment is extended to three generations – the offender’s parents, siblings, and children are also incarcerated, as a way to pressure North Koreans to conform. Political offenders are often denied food, clothing, and medical care, and many die in prison.

Freedom House’s Freedom in the World report classifies North Korea as “not free” and as one of nine nations whose lack of political rights and civil liberties are considered the “worst of the worst.”