I’m writing to express my concern about the human rights of North Koreans responding to the article “North Korean defectors open up online,” published on Oct. 11th, 2016 by Rumy Doo.

I am a South Korean student who has been translating North Korean defectors’ testimonies for the last few months. I’ve learned that North Korean defectors are coming in to the South Korean society and feeling free to tell and share their experiences. While I was translating, I’ve gotten to know a lot about North Korean society. Therefore, I would like to share some of it.

In one of the testimonies that I translated, it said, “The North Korean Government made them memorize a song titled ‘Trust like the sky, trust in the leader.’ Through many years of brainwashing, people have become stupid.”

Can you believe that this is happening? However, this is the reality of North Korea. People are getting brainwashed, now they may not even know what it is to feel free. As we are all the same, my opinion is that they may want the same freedom that we have and to live in such a society. Therefore, when many other North Korean defectors raise their voices, it could be a small help to those who are suffering in North Korea.

I urge you readers to think about this topic much more carefully, how the people in the North are suffering in the horrendous communist state. Even at this moment, there may be people dying of hunger. Let us add our voices to help them.

Jinhye Kim
Yangcheon-gu, Seoul