In the Presence of a Survivor

On Friday evening, for vespers I went to listen to the testimony of a North Korean lad now living in South Korea.

He began his story by saying that he is the youngest of four children. Since he is the only son his family was very protective of him. But filial protection is not enough to survive on in North Korea. When he was about 10 years old there was a serious famine in North Korea and the government also stopped giving food rations. (This was around 1994.) Because there was nothing to eat at home he left his house and started to scavenge on the streets for food. He ate tree bark and grass and walked for many kilometers to get some seed potato in far off towns.

At the age of eleven while lying in a straw hut in the middle of winter waiting to die from the cold or starvation a passerby told him to flee to China. “But the soldiers will kill me,” he protested. “You have a choice,” said the person “either stay here and die from the cold or starvation or try your luck fleeing to China.” So he made up his mind and fled to China the next morning.

He was taken in by a Chinese-Korean family. Eventually he was caught by the police and sent back to Korea where he was beaten and tortured and eventually released. Was it not for his age they would killed him. And so began a series of escapes to China and returns to Korea.

His story is a heart wrenching one, about survival against all odds, about loneliness, about abuse and mistreatment from supposed friends and strangers, about injustice, about providential provision by the God he learned about outside of North Korea, about overcoming the brainwashing of the Communist Regime, about starting a new life in a new country. He got asylum in South Korea, but since he left school at a very young age he does not have any education and cannot find a job. Neither can he study – he would like to study theology and help other North Korean defectors. One of the worst things for him is the terrible loneliness he feels. He will probably never be able to see his family again.

He spoke with us for about an hour and a half, so I’ve rendered here a very diluted version of his telling. I have a heavy burden for the North Korean people. I look forward to the day when those people will be freed from the dictatorship they are under. There is such terrible suffering in the world I feel crushed under the thought thereof. When my life, even with all of the pain I had suffered, is foiled against the life of someone like this young man (25), I feel abundantly blessed. It makes me feel ashamed of thinking I had it difficulty.