10 Ways To Escape North Korea
10) Become a soldier
Crossing the border between North and South
Korea might seem like the most obvious way
to escape Asia’s premiere dictatorship.
After all, South Korea automatically accepts
all refugees from the North and makes them
full citizens.
But if you’ve seen the buffer between the
two countries, you’ll know that it’s not
simply a case of popping over the border and
enjoying some k-pop. Separating the two nations
is a 250 kilometres long boundary called the
DMZ, or Demilitarised Zone.
The DMZ is full of landmines, barbed wire,
and North Korean soldiers; who patrol the
area and shoot any potential escapees. Because
nothing shows the world how great your country
is like gunning down anyone who tries to leave.
So, the South Korean border isn’t really
an option for most people. However, there
have been cases of the very soldiers defending
the DMZ going AWOL and fleeing to the South.
To date three border guards have done this,
most recently in 2015 when a teenaged soldier
abandoned his post, walked up to the South
Korean fence, and surrendered himself.
9) Take a Boat
With North Korea sandwiched between the Yellow
Sea and the Sea of Japan, perhaps it’s not
surprising that some North Koreans just jump
in a boat and sail away.
The problem with trying to escape on the water
is that it means contending with North Korea’s
ginormous navy. You see, while the Worker’s
Party of Korea can’t find the money to construct
roads or power lines, it has pumped millions
into building world class ways to murder people
at sea.
Apart from having 70 submarines, the most
in the world, Kim Jong Un’s fleet is equipped
with 191 patrol ships, specifically designed
to blow fleeing vessels out of the water.
This constant prowling of heavily-armed ships,
added to the rough, unpredictable seas surrounding
Korea, mean things tend not to work out for
those making a break for the South.
However, there are examples of this tactic
working. In 2011, 22 defectors made it out
of Northern waters, and were picked up by
a South Korean naval ship.
8) Fly Air Koryo
Believe it or not, Delta is not the worst
airline in the world.
That dubious honour goes to Air Koryo, North
Korea’s one and only airline.
With the airline’s meals being made out
of an undisclosed “mystery” meat, and
the only inflight entertainment being propaganda
films, perhaps it’s no surprise Air Koryo
is the only one-star rated airline in the
world. The planes are so run down, the flight’s
stewards will tell you off if they catch you
taking photos. On the other hand, with a service
this bad at least there’s no risk of a long
queue at check-in.
Whatever its pros and cons for passengers,
flying Air Koryo has one obvious potential
benefit for staff: the opportunity to fly
out of North Korea. Pilots and stewards are
not monitored by guards or forced to return
to Korea at the barrel of a gun. Although
there are no known cases of it, flight’s
crew could simply get out of the plane and
walk off.
The problem with this plan is that Air Koryo
only flies to countries that are allies of
the regime like China and Russia. That means
even if a pilot did escape, the nation he’d
flown to would just send him back again.
7) Take your family
Living in North Korea isn’t great at the
best of times. That’s unless you’re Kim
Jong Un and get to spend your time eating,
skiing at luxury resorts, eating, smoking
designer cigarettes, and eating.
But for most people in the Asian nation, life
is already pretty tough. So imagine how bad
things get in a North Korean prison camp.
It’s this threat that likely keeps most
would-be defectors in line. Under the North
Korean system, the entire family of anyone
who flees the country will be rounded up and
sent to join the 120,000 prisoners already
interned in brutal labor camps across the
country.
Food in these camps is so scarce that prisoners
have been reported to eat rats and pick the
maggots out of dead bodies just to survive.
Torture, including sleep deprivation and beatings
with iron rods, is routine at the camps, and
internees are expected to work 12 hour days
ploughing fields.
The horrible reality of these camps means
that North Korean defectors are either forced
to abandon their loved ones or take the increased
risk of trying to leave with their entire
families.
6) Cross the Chinese Border
With the DMZ being 250-kilometres of barbed
wire and bullets, the only other land-based
option for fleeing North Korea is over the
Chinese border.
This relatively safe route is taken by hundreds
of defectors every year, and means crossing
either the Tuman or the Yalu River.
In the summertime, escapees try and wade through
the waist-high rivers. But leaving in the
winter means doing what the 15-year-old Joseph
Kim did in 2006, and tip-toeing carefully
over the frozen waters to safety.
And the deadly terrain is far from the only
danger facing potential defectors. Kim Jong
Un has recently reinforced the border, with
his troops spending the last couple of years
constructing electric fencing along the Tumen
River.
On top of all that, troops are constantly
patrolling the area. Grace Jo, Vice-President
of the refugee support group NKinUSA, describes
how her father was caught crossing the Chinese
border to bring back some rice for her family.
He was beaten to within an inch of his life
and sent to a work camp, dying on the train
there.
Despite the overwhelming risks, this route
remains the most popular, and the one taken
by the vast majority of the 30,000 successful
North Korean defectors.
5) Use the underground railroad
North Korea doesn’t have many allies. It
turns out pointing nukes at people is a bad
way to make friends.
However, one of the few countries that does
support Kim Jong Un’s regime is China. Their
government will deport any and all North Korean
defectors it captures, and China’s police
force even routinely stake out the South Korean
embassy to arrest any suspected North Koreans
on the way in or out.
All of this means that simply crossing the
border into China is not enough for the North’s
runaways. They then have to travel all the
way through the country into either Thailand
or Mongolia.
Thankfully, defectors can expect some help
from Asia’s underground railroad, a network
of activists that finds North Korean escapees
and helps funnel them out of China. Over the
years, South Korean Pastor Kim Seung-eun,
has helped dozens of defectors to escape to
Laos. This means a 12-hour nighttime trek
through the mountains, carefully avoiding
any border security.
And as if that wasn’t enough, the journey
has recently become even harder. In 2013,
Loas started proactively hunting for North
Korean immigrants and deporting them back
to Pyongyang.
So to reach safety now, refugees must sneak
through Loas’ jungles and into Thailand,
or trek through the Gobi desert into Mongolia.
4) Become a student
If you want a gap year story to top anyone
else’s, try taking some time out to study
abroad in North Korea.
Yes as strange as it sounds, even crazy dictatorships
like North Korea run a student exchange programme.
The scheme hasn’t proved popular with Westerners,
probably something to do with not wanting
to live in a repressive autocracy where everyone
thinks you’re the devil. But every year
about 90 Chinese students for a year at Kim
Il-sung University in Pyongyang.
More importantly, the student exchange also
means that a select few North Koreans are
allowed out of the country. Although students
are closely monitored by government agents,
the relative freedom of being in another country
makes escape easier.
In February 2017, 18 year old student managed
to run away while representing his country
at the International Maths Olympiad in Hong
Kong. Taking a taxi to the airport, he found
a South Korean airline and asked for directions
to their consolute.
There Yol-ri spent two months holed up while
the consolute negotiated with China, eventually
securing his safe passage to South Korea.
3) Swim For It
We’ve already looked at the problem with
escaping North Korea by boat. Namely that
the navy will blow you to pieces the second
you drift a little too far.
But a number of desperate people have been
known to successfully swim across the sea
to the South.
In 2014, a two men swam two and a half kilometres
from the North Korean coast to the South Korean
island of Gyodongdo. Travelling in the dead
of night to avoid detection, the two swimmers
were spotted by local marines at 4AM and pulled
out of the water.
The advantage of trying to swim across the
sea is that it’s next to impossible for
even the most zealous patrol ship to spot
a single swimmer out amongst the waves. But,
as with, any attempt to leave North Korea,
it’s fraught with peril.
As mentioned earlier, the waters around Korea
are rough. And most North Koreans have been
starved to the point where they barely have
enough energy to run, let alone force their
way through kilometres of turbulent waves.
2) Join a labor camp
You know your country is messed up when people
are volunteering for Siberian labor camps
just to leave it.
For decades now, North Korea and Putin have
had a deal. Kim Jong Un sends over thousands
of citizens to toil in Russian labor camps,
where they work on giant construction projects
like the new World Cup stadium. No, we’re
not making that up.
In return, Putin pays Pyongyang around $7
million a year. That money is then spent back
in North Korea to better the lives of citizens
at home... I’m just kidding, the government
blows it all on massive missiles and keeping
Kim Jong Un drunk.
Regardless, these work camps can actually
be a great opportunity for fleeing North Koreans.
After all, it’s a lot easier to escape one
work camp than an entire country. According
to Choe Myong-bok, who slipped past the guards
of his Siberian camp in 1999, as many as 40
North Koreans have defected this way.
1) Work your way into the elite
Like any corrupt system, life in North Korea
is way, way better for the elite.
While the masses are driven so hungry many
resort to cannibalism, wealthy party members
use mobile phones, wear designer clothes,
and drink $9 coffees. Yep, even North Korea
has hipsters.
For this upper class, there may be less need
to leave North Korea. But it’s also far
easier to do so. Apart from just having more
money to bribe border guards and buy transportation
with, party members often have privileges
the average citizen could only dream of.
Take the case of Thae Yong Ho, North Korea’s
highest-ranking defector. The former diplomat
spent years stationed in the United Kingdom.
And while most citizens posted abroad have
to leave their families behind, Thae eventually
managed to have his his wife and children
with him to London.
Once they were safely in Britain, Thae and
his family simply turned themselves over to
the South Korean authorities.
However, even a diplomat as high-ranking as
Yong Ho couldn’t escape with everyone. Thae’s
brother and sister remained in North Korea,
and have recently been forced to denounce
their sibling as ‘human scum.’
So, that was 10 Ways To Escape North Korea.
What heroic dash for freedom was your favourite?
Did we leave any great escapes off the list?
Let us know in the comments below.
And if you want to know more about the world’s
most repressive state, check out 10 Secrets
North Korea Don’t Want You To Know.
