JI HYUN PARK escaped the cruel North Korean regime twice – fleeing across the border over a frozen river with a hail of bullets flying at her back.
In an incredible tale of human resilience, Ji told the Sun how she was trafficked to an abusive husband in China, where she gave birth to a son, before officials ripped him from her arms just five years later.
Ellie Doughty /The SunJi Hyun Park spoke to The Sun about her harrowing journey[/caption]
APNorth Korean soldiers march during a mass military parade in Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square[/caption]
ReutersWomen, photographed from the Chinese side of the border, cross the bridge from Namyang in North Korea towards the town of Tumen[/caption]
She would later escape North Korea for the second time – making her way all the back to China to save her young son.
Years later they made their way to the UK alongside another brave defector who had saved Ji’s life and would go on to become her husband.
Ji, now 56, endured a decade of horrors in her brave efforts to escape the authoritarian regime, now in the grip of despot Kim Jong-Un.
She told how she was treated like an “animal”, beaten and raped by the man who bought her.
The triumphant survivor almost died several times and after a decade of struggle finally made it to Manchester, where she lives with her husband and three children.
Ji was raised in a two-room house in Chongjin City, in the North Hamgyong region, sharing a bedroom with her parents and siblings.
Brainwashed from birth by the state – whose propaganda arm consisted of only one TV channel and one newspaper – she was raised to view the West and America as evil.
Ji was taught to be constantly careful of what she said aloud, as secret police were “always watching and listening”.
Those who criticised or broke the rules were thrown into “political prisons”, where they and their families were forced to live out their days.
Ji’s family were careful for years to play by the rules in North Korea – as they saw people they knew disappear when they were thrown into prison.
My father told me ‘you have to leave this country and save your younger brother’
Ji Hyun Park
But after her beloved uncle Ilsub died of starvation in 1997, during a period of brutal nationwide rationing, things changed.
Her younger brother Jungho tried to leave the military and was beaten bloody by his superiors in front of Ji and her dad.
Her dad, distraught, begged her to try and flee and take Jungho with her.
She said: “The soldiers found my younger brother, and they beat him him. So blood is all over his face and his body… [they] continued beating him until 5am in front of us.
“My father told me ‘you have to leave this country and save your younger brother’.”
AFPNorth Korean soldiers patrol next to the border fence near the town of Sinuiju across from the Chinese border town of Dandong[/caption]
JI’S FIRST ESCAPE
In February 1998 Ji and Jungho hitchhiked to the Onsung border between North Korea and China, paying truck drivers in illegal alcohol to take them there.
They travelled across on foot, trekking over the frozen Tumen river at 2am.
North Korean soldiers fired at them from behind as they desperately ploughed on.
“We crossed the border at 2am, in February”, Ji said.
“The North Korean soldiers were shouting to us from behind, shooting at us.
“I couldn’t move. My legs were shaking. And then my brother said ‘We have to go, we have to go’, holding my hand.”
I couldn’t move. My legs were shaking. And then my brother said ‘We have to go, we have to go’, holding my hand
Ji Hyun Park
Once across the border, a man in a village they arrived at took them in and gave them food.
“Me and my brother quickly ate. And then he told us… in the early morning Chinese police are searching out these areas,” Ji recalled.
“So then we were really scared. He contacted his friend, and then two hours later, his friend came to us.
“His friend mentioned that China is still repatriating North Koreans. So this is really dangerous… and you have to marry the Chinese man.
“The first time I rejected it, denied it, and after he was really angry and he said, I want to contact the police stations, tell them you are both here.
“So then I accept that marriage. I thought that if I married the man, I could be saving my younger brother.”
Her brother urged her to go, and not to worry about him.
Tearing up, Ji said she still doesn’t know if he is alive or dead, but that she is “still waiting”, and hoping.
AFPA group of Chinese women prisoners at the Nanjing Women Prison, 2005[/caption]
MARRIAGE FROM HELL
Only days after escaping, Ji was sold in marriage to a Chinese man for around 5,000 yuan – amounting to roughly £500 GBP – or £870 in today’s terms.
Aged 29, she was sent to live with an abusive alcoholic, forced to do manual labour, beaten and raped by her husband, before eventually getting pregnant.
We are not human. We are kind of animals
Ji Hyun Park
Her mother-in-law and husband were cruel to her, she said: “We [North Koreans] are not human.
“We have got different prices. Younger people have high prices. And a person who was already married is at a lesser price.
“We are kind of animals.”
Ji found out money had changed hands only when she arrived at her new husbands home.
“I went to his house and then his mother told me ‘I borrowed a lot of money and bought you’. So you pay back this money.”
Ji ‘paid her back’ by working “all morning and until dark”.
Miserable and “degraded”, a suicidal Ji said: “So one day I say that I want to give up my life because I didn’t save my younger brother.
“That is my last decision. But after I found out that I was pregnant… I changed my mind.
“This child is my last family. And he gave me a lot of hope and dreams. So I want to change my mind, I want to keep my child.”
I went to his house and then his mother told me ‘I borrowed a lot of money and bought you’. So you pay back this money
Ji Hyun Park
Her pregnancy was long, lonely and hard. She said: “I never went to the hospital and I never got any vitamins.”
Ji was made to labour alone for “14 hours”, but said: “When I was holding my son in my arms, you know, my happiness… that’s the moment I will never forget.
Speaking of her son, she said “it’s a trauma because his biological father was a drunk and beat me in front of him.”
Five years later, 10 plain clothed Chinese officers showed up on her doorstep at 10pm to take her away.
Without proper ID, and after neighbours had reported her to them, Ji was thrown into prison.
How you can get help
Women’s Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
Always keep your phone nearby.
Get in touch with charities for help, including the Women’s Aid live chat helpline and services such as SupportLine.
If you are in danger, call 999.
Familiarise yourself with the Silent Solution, reporting abuse without speaking down the phone, instead dialing “55”.
Always keep some money on you, including change for a pay phone or bus fare.
If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try to go to a lower-risk area of the house – for example, where there is a way out and access to a telephone.
Avoid the kitchen and garage, where there are likely to be knives or other weapons. Avoid rooms where you might become trapped, such as the bathroom, or where you might be shut into a cupboard or other small space.
If you are a victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – messageinfo@supportline.org.uk.
Women’s Aid provides a live chat service – available weekdays from 8am-6pm and weekends 10am-6pm.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
PRISON ABUSE
After arriving alone at a prison for North Korean defectors, Ji was ordered to strip naked in front of male guards.
She told of the horrifying reality inside, where prison officers would sexually assault the female inmates in order to find money they believed were hidden in their genitals.
The officers would even tear through their used sanitary pads to find contraband.
Ji said she knew she had to leave behind her beloved son in China, or else he would starve in North Korea, and after weeks in the prison she was repatriated back to the authoritarian regime.
Thrown into a labour camp in North Korea, Ji was worked so hard she almost died.
Her leg was so badly injured by the time they threw her out that she could see bone.
SECOND AND FINAL ESCAPE
In November 2004, as the freezing winter set in, Ji once again found herself with nowhere to go.
She explained how brokers – who forged human trafficking deals to get North Koreans into China – were even more commonplace then than when she had first escaped six years earlier.
Ji sought one out, concealing her leg wound as best she could and essentially selling herself for another marriage in China.
Alongside two other defectors – a young woman and an old man – as well as the broker himself, Ji spent a day and a half trekking through frozen mountains to get back into China.
She was soon forced to reveal her true plan to the broker who had brought her across, showing him her mangled leg and telling him she had come back to find her son.
He thought that his mummy abandoned him
Ji Hyun Park
Moved by her experiences, with sons of his own, the broker incredibly agreed to let her go.
With only one phone number etched in her memory, Ji rang her son’s grandmother’s home.
To her shock and relief, he was still living there.
Talking about that first “heart-racing” conversation with him she teared up and said: “My heart is beating quickly, and then my son is on the phone.
“He hangs up. So I called him again, often, and I say ‘Son, it’s mum’.
“And after he was really silent. And then he just said only one word, ‘mom’. And then he cried. And I cried.
“I was so sorry, because he didn’t understand the situation. He thought that his mummy abandoned him.”
Speaking about the moment they were reunited, she said: “I found my son playing outside. When I caught up to him, I was shocked.
“They did not care about my son. His skin was dirty, his clothes were dirty. He was really skinny.”
They travelled to Beijing together, heading to the South Korean embassy.
But without ID pointing to their North Korean citizenship, they couldn’t get the help they needed.
GettyA maximum security women’s prison in China[/caption]
MOVE TO MONGOLIA
By Spring 2005, Ji’s son is six and the pair of them met seven other North Korean defectors at the embassy in Beiijng.
All of them decide to make the trek over to Mongolia in search of a better life – careful to try and dodge Chinese police who might try to repatriate them.
Ji and her son couldn’t run like the others – and when they reached the border, had to more slowly walk hand in hand.
Seeing what she thought was a Chinese police car, Ji panicked.
Until it reached her and she realised it was one of the men from the group of defectors she’d met in China.
He had driven back to rescue her and her little boy, and today is her husband. The pair would go on to have two children.
Ji said: “He’s my hero. And also my love.”
BACK TO BEIIJING
After some months in Mongolia, with little food or money, the three of them decided they should return to Beijing, where they soon had a baby boy.
They would live there for two years, from 2006 to 2008, making money by selling food and Korean delicacies like Kimchi at market stalls in the city.
One of Ji’s most loyal customers was an American-Korean pastor.
Ji said: “They are looking for many illegal people who live in China… all repatriated or sent back to their countries, especially North Korea.
“So I met with an American Korean pastor in my market because he was my customer. He told us he already knew that we are North Korean.”
He offered to help them leave China.
Ji said: “I was scared. But China’s political system… it was a really dangerous moment.
“So we said okay, we need your help. And then he sent us to the United Nations refugee office in Beijing.
“They ask us which country do you want to go? Me and my husband decided on England.”
Now the family of five – Kim and her husband, their two sons, 26 and 18 and daughter, 15, live in Bury in Manchester.
She is a human rights activist and a local Tory councillor-hopeful, planning to stand again in 2026.
Ji wrote a book about her harrowing and incredible journey, The Hard Road Out: One Woman’s Escape from North Korea.