Defectors still haunted by potent memories of torture after repatriation


It has been more than a decade since Choi Young-hak defected to South Korea from the North. But traumatic memories of the torture he suffered in what he dubs the “valley of death” continue to haunt him.

Choi crossed the border with China in 1998, risking his life to escape hunger and suppression in the communist state. But only two weeks later, he was caught by Chinese security officers and repatriated. He was 24 years old.

After he and other defectors were handed over to the North Korean security authorities, their unspeakable ordeal began. Choi still vividly remembers that they were labeled “traitors,” beaten and tortured to the extent that they looked like corpses.

“On a truck (traveling to an investigation facility), we were all tied together with shoe strings and could not wipe up the blood oozing out of wounds in our lips. We just tried to cover our heads so that we would not be hit again by the boots,” he said in an essay.

“Like animals being dragged into a slaughterhouse, we were being taken to the security authorities for interrogation.”

His essay and those of 35 defectors were put together in a book, entitled “Self-portraits.” The book was published earlier this month by the Seoul-based Free North Korea Radio run by defectors.

After being repatriated, the interrogation process was unimaginably brutal, Choi recalled.

“After the daylong interrogation and merciless torture, I was dragged into a dark solitary cell, and lay on the ground. I could not think of anything (because of pain and exhaustion), but just wished to die as soon as possible,” Choi said.

“In the dark interrogation room, I was writhing (in the throes of pain) at the crossroads of life and death. The light spewing out of a little lamp was my only friend (while in the room).”

While being investigated for a month, the authorities leveled three charges against him: spreading capitalism and “yellow culture”; damaging the superiority of socialism; and illegally crossing the border.

“After failing to endure the torture and losing consciousness, (they) put my face into a wooden jar filled with water to wake me up. I was repeatedly tortured in that manner. It is frightening even to just imagine that,” he said.

“My body was slowly being destroyed like this. I was breathing and my heart was still beating. But I was no better than a dead body.”

The issue of human rights in the North has recently gained renewed attention as calls online and offline have mounted to protect North Korean defectors at the risk of forcible repatriation.

The new Kim Jong-un regime has reportedly warned of the “annihilation of three generations” of a family with any member caught defecting. Some defectors argue once they are sent back, they are likely to face harsh punishment including execution.

Yoo Young-sik is another North Korean defector who was once repatriated and endured a prison term.

“I felt like I would go insane, thinking I would be handed over to the security authorities as a political prisoner, when I did not have even the faintest idea of what lay ahead with my feet shackled with other defectors,” he said in his essay.

“When we stepped into a (temporary) cell, prison guards mercilessly beat us until one of us vomited blood and collapsed.”

Yoo recalled that there were many inmates who were taken into prison on a variety of charges. Some were jailed for their involvement in a reading club while others were caught for registering as members of a young group against the socialist system.

One college professor was taken into jail for saying, “There is no future in North Korean society.” There was also a young person accused of simply saying that he would defect from his homeland.

Among those who contributed to the compilation was Choi Hyun-mi who served as a customs official under the supervision of the North’s security authorities. She described pregnant women enduring horrific abuse after repatriation.

“I took female defectors to a hospital to find out whether they were pregnant or had some sexually transmitted diseases. Once one was found to be pregnant, she was harshly treated while being criticized for having the seed of the Chinese,” she said.

Choi revealed that any baby of a mother who was repatriated from China had to be killed.

“When a mother, heavy with child, was repatriated, the authorities allowed her to give birth to her baby. Then with her looking at it, they wrapped the baby with a thin plastic sheet and suffocated it,” she said.

“Would there be another state like this across the ages and in all countries of the world? It should have cared for the defectors who crossed the border as it failed to feed them. It, instead, punished them through evil acts.”

She recalled that she had a deep sense of shame while carrying out her work as a customs official.

“My job focused more on handling defectors rather than on the key responsibility as a customs official. I was then able to use expensive imported cosmetics and watch South Korean soap operas that were confiscated. I had a more luxurious life that ordinary citizens there could imagine,” she said.

“As I was told to do that, I could not help but be mean to them on many occasions. I often had skepticism and a sense of shame about my work.”

By Song Sang-ho
(sshluck@heraldcorp.com)