국내 언론에 이미 보도되었지만, BBC가 북한에 살고 있는 북한 주민 세명과 비밀 인터뷰 한 기사를 첨부한다. 아래는 그 기사를 대충 번역한 것이다. 남북 평화 정착 중요하지만 북한 인권에 눈 감고 북한 독재자들을 옹호하는 것은 결코 남북 평화 추구가 아니다. 팬데믹 동안 북한에서 일어나고 있는 상황 악화를 주의 깊게 살펴보아야 할 것이다.
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명석은 그녀의 전화기 위로 몸을 굽히며, 하나라도 더 팔려고 필사적으로 노력했다. 민첩한 여성사업가로서, 그녀는 밀수한 약품을 그것이 꼭 필요한 사람들에게 소량씩 비밀리에 팔고 있었다 – 그날 하루 간신히 생존할 수 있을 정도로. 그녀는 이미 한 번 체포된 적이 있었고 감옥에서 풀려나기 위한 뇌물을 겨우 마련할 수 있었다. 다시 잡히면 그 비용을 감당할 수 없다. 그러나 어느 순간에라도 문 두드리는 소리가 들려 올지 모른다. 그녀가 두려워하는 것은 경찰만이 아니다. 그녀의 이웃들도 두렵다. 이제 거의 아무도 믿을 수 없다. 전에는 이렇지 않았다. 명석의 약장사는 아주 번창했다. 그러나 2020년 1월 27일 북한은 팬데믹에 대한 조치로 국경을 완전히 폐쇄했다. 사람들만이 아니라 음식과 물품들이 북한으로 들어오는 것을 막았다. 북한 주민들은, 이미 다른 지역으로 이동하는 것이 금지되어 있었지만, 자신들이 살고있는 마을을 벗어날 수 없었다. 구호 활동가들과 외교관들은 짐을 싸서 떠났다. 경비병들은 국경에 접근하는 누구도 사살하라는 명령을 받은 상태였다. 세계에서 가장 고립된 나라가 이제 정보가 완전히 차단된 블랙 홀이 되었다.
김정은의 폭압적 통치하에서 북한 주민들은 외부 세게와 접촉하는 것이 금지되었다. Daily NK라는 기구의 도움으로, 이 기구는 북한 내에서 활동하는 정보원들의 네트웍 조직인데, BBC는 보토으이 북한 주민 세 명과 인터뷰할 수 있었다. 그들은 국경 폐쇄가 그들의 삶에 가져온 재난적 피해에 대해 외부 세계에 말하고 싶어 했다. 그들은 만약 정부가 자기들이 우리와 이야기 한 것을 알아낸다면 그들은 죽을 것이라는 것을 이해하고 있었다. 그들을 보호하기 위해, 우리는 그들이 우리에게 말한 것의 일부만 보도할 수 있다. 그렇지만 그들의 경험은 북한 내부에서 전개되고 있는 상황의 단면들을 보여준다.
“우리 식량 상황이 이처럼 나쁜 적이 없었어요.” 명석은 우리에게 말했다.
대부분의 북한 여성들처럼, 그녀는 가족의 주요 수입원이다. 남자들이 국가가 강제로 지정한 일에서 받는 변변찮은 임금은 쓸모없고, 아내들이 창조적인 방식으로 생계를 이어갈 방법을 찾도록 강요하고 있다.
국경이 폐쇄되기 전에는, 명석은 수요가 많은 약들을, 항생제를 포함하여, 중국에서 밀수하여 들여 오기로 계획을 세웠다. 이것을 그녀의 지역 장마당에서 팔 생각이었다. 그녀는 국경 경비원에게 뇌물을 줘야 했고 이것은 그녀가 버는 돈의 절반 이상을 차지했다. 그러나 그녀는 이것을 받아들이기로 했다. 그녀가 살고 있는 마을은 북한의 북쪽 중국과 국경을 마주하고 있는 곳이고 나머지 돈으로도 편안하게 살 수 있기 때문이었다.
가족의 생계를 책임지는 일은 그녀에게 늘 약간의 스트레스였지만 이제는 그녀를 완전히 사로잡았다. 팔 물건을 구하는 것이 거의 불가능해졌다. 절망적인 상황에서, 그녀는 약품 밀수를 시도했다가 체포되었고 이제는 계속 감시를 받고 있다. 그녀는 그 대신에 북한 약품들을 팔려고도 노력했으나 요즘에는 그것도 매우 어려웠다. 그녀의 수입이 절반으로 줄었다.
그녀의 남편과 자녀들이 아침에 일어나면 그녀는 옥수수로 아침을 준비한다. 쌀밥을 먹던 시절은 지나가 버렸다. 배고픈 이웃들이 문을 두드리며 먹을 것을 구걸하지만 그녀는 그들을 돌려보내야만 한다.
“우리는 목숨이 위태로운 상황에서 살고 있다” 그녀는 말한다.
국경 부근 다른 마을에 사는 찬호는 건설 노동자인데 좌절스러운 아침을 맞이한다. “내가 이 나라에 태어난 것을 얼마나 한탄하고 있는지 사람들이 알기를 바랍니다” 그는 분노를 터뜨렸다. 그는 아침 일찍 일어나 건설현장으로 가기 전에 그의 아내가 장마당에 나가는 것을 준비하도록 돕는다. 그는 그녀가 팔 물건들을 가져다가 그녀의 좌판에 올려놓는다. 그녀의 사업이 그가 아직 살아남을 수 있었던 유일한 이유라는 것을 잘 알고 있다. 그가 하루에 버는 4000원 (약 4달러)으로는 이제 더 이상 1킬로의 쌀을 사기에도 충분하지 않다. 그의 가족이 정부 배급품을 받은 이래로 오랫동안 그래왔다. 그는 그것들을 잊어 버렸다.
장마당은 대부분의 북한 주민들이 식료품을 사는 곳인데, 지금은 거의 텅비었고, 쌀 값, 옥수수 값, 양념 값은 높이 치솟았다고 그는 말한다.
북한은 그들의 주민들이 먹기에 충분한 식량을 생산하지 않기에 수입에 의존하고 있다. 국경폐쇄로 정부는 비료, 농작물 재배 기계와 더불어 필수적인 식료품 공급을 끊어 버렸다.
처음에 찬호는 코비드로 죽을지 모른다고 염려했으나 시간이 지나면서 그는 굶어 죽은 것을 걱정하게 되었다. 그가 그의 주위 사람들이 굶어 죽은 것을 보게 되면서.
그가 사는 마을에서 첫 번째로 굶어 죽은 가족은 한 어머니와 그녀의 자녀들이었다. 그녀는 너무 아파서 일하러 갈 수 없었다. 그녀의 자녀들이 음식을 구걸해 오는 동안 그녀는 목숨을 부지했고 결국 모두 죽었다. 다음은 한 어머니가 격리 규칙을 어겨 강제노동 처벌을 받았는데 그녀와 그녀의 아들은 결국 굶어 죽었다.
보다 최근에는 그의 지인의 아들이 군대를 제대했는데 그가 영양실조였기 때문이었다. 찬호는 그의 얼굴이 갑자기 부어올랐던 것을 기억한다. 일주일이 채 안 되어 그는 죽었다.
“나는 내 자녀들이 이 희망 없는 지옥에서 영원히 살아야만 한다는 것을 생각할 때 잠이 안온다”고 그는 말한다.
수백키로 떨어진, 상대적으로 부유한 수도 평양에서는 탑이 그 도시의 강가를 막고 있다. 지연은 일하러 가기 위해 지하철을 탄다. 그녀는 기진맥진해 있다. 비슷한 이유로 잠을 자지 못했기에.
그녀는 식료품점에서 일해 버는 돈으로 그녀의 두 자녀와 남편을 먹여살린다.
그녀는 그 상점에서 과일이나 채소를 몰래 가지고 나가 장마당에서 팔곤 했다. 그녀의 남편이 동료들에게 뇌물로 받은 담배도 팔았다. 이렇게 번 돈으로 그녀는 쌀을 사곤 했다. 이제는 그녀가 일을 마치고 가게를 나올 때 그녀의 가방은 철저히 수색 당한다. 그녀의 남편이 받아 오던 뇌물도 더이상 들어오지 않는다. 아무도 뭔가를 줄 능력이 안된다.
“그들은 부업을 가지는 것을 완전히 불가능하게 만들었어요” 그녀는 조바심을 내며 말한다.
요즘 지연은 세 끼 식사를 다 한 것처럼 가장하며 하루를 보낸다. 사실은 한 끼 식사만 했을 뿐이다. 그는 배고픔을 참을 수 있다. 사람들이 그녀가 가난하다는 것을 아는 것이 훨씬 좋다.
그녀는 풀죽- 채소, 식물, 풀을 으깨서 죽처럼 생긴 풀에 갈아 넣은 음식-을 먹어야만 했던 때가 계속 떠올랐다. 그 음식은 북한 역사에서 가장 암울한 시기와 동의어이다. - 1990년대 북한을 초토화시킨 엄청난 기근으로 삼백만 명 이상이 사망했던 일.
“우리는 열흘 단위로 생각하며 버텨냈습니다. 남편과 내가 굶으면 적어도 애들은 먹일 수 있을테니까요. 지연은 말한다. 최근에 그녀는 이틀 동안 굶은 적도 있다.
”나는 자면서 둑겠구나 아침에 깨어나지 못하겠구나라고 생각했어요“ 그녀는 말한다.
그녀의 고통스러운 형편에도 불구하고 그녀는 더 어려운 사람들을 돌본다. 요즈음 구걸하는 사람들이 더 많아졌다. 길에 누워있는 사람들을 확인해보면 대개 그들은 죽어있다. 하루는 그녀가 이웃집에 물을 주기 위해 문을 두드렸는데 대답이 없었다. 3일 뒤에 당국에서 그 집에 들어 갔는데 온 가족이 굶어 죽은 것을 발견했다.
”재앙입니다.“ 그녀는 말한다. ”국경에서 공급품들이 들어오지 않으면 사람들은 어떻게 생계를 이어가야 할지 모릅니다. 최근에 그녀는 사람들이 집에서 자살했다거나 죽으러 산으로 갔다는 소문을 들었다. 그녀는 도시를 감싸고 있는 무자비한 정신상태를 한탄했다.
“옆집 사람이 죽어도, 사람들은 오직 자기 자신만 생각합니다. 너무 냉혹합니다.”
몇 달동안 사람들이 굶어죽고있다는 소문들이 퍼져 나가기 시작했고, 북한이 또 다른 기아 사태에 직면하기 직전이라는 두려움이 생겨나고 있다. 북한을 연구하는 경제학자 Peter Ward는 이러한 일들이 “매우 걱정스럽다”고 말했다.
“사람들이 굶어 죽었다는 소문을 들었다고 말하는 것은 아직 괜찮은 상황을 의미하지만, 자기가 사는 동네사람들이 굶어 죽어 가고 있다고 말하는 것은 식량 상황이 매우 심각함을 – 우리가 깨닫는 것 보다 더 심각하고, 1990년대 기아 사태 이후의 상황보다 더 악화되었음을 의미한다.” 그는 말한다.
북한의 기아사태는 비교적 짧은 북한 역사에서 전환점을 마련했다. 엄격한 사회 질서가 무너지기 시작했다. 국가는, 국민들을 먹여 살릴 수 없기에, 그들에게 자유를 조금 허용해서 그들이 생존하기 위해 필요한 뭐든 할 수 있게 했다. 수천명의 사람들이 북한을 떠났고 남한, 유럽, 혹은 미국에서 난민으로 살고 있다.
그러는 동안, 여성들이 콩에서부터 중고의류, 중국제 가전제품에 이르기까지 모든 것을 팔기 시작하면서 사적인 장마당이 생겨나기 시작했다. 비공식적인 경제가 생겨났고 이와 더불어 북한 주민 모두가 국가로부터의 도움이 거의 없어도 살 수 있다는 것을 배웠다 – 억압적인 공산 국가에서 자본주의적 번영.
장마당이 텅비게 되자, 명석은 줄어든 소득을 계산하면서, 국가가 자기와 자본주의적 세대에게 다시 억압적으로 다가오고 있는 것은 아닌지 걱정한다. 그녀는 판데믹은 당국자들에게 그들의 축소된 통제권을 사람들의 삶에 다시 행사할 구실을 제공했을 뿐이라고 생각한다. “그들은 정말로 밀수를 억압하고 사람들이 탈출하는 것을 막기를 원한다.” 그녀는 말한다. “이제는 누가 중국으로 가는 강가로 접근만 해도 지독한 처벌을 받을 수 있다.”
찬호, 건설 노동자, 역시 한계점에 다다르고 있다. 이것은 그가 지금까지 겪었던 것 보다 가장 고통스러운 시기이다. 기아사태는 어려웠지만, 요즘 같은 지독한 탄압이나 처벌을 없었다고 그는 말한다. “(그때는) 사람들이 탈출하기를 원했다면, 국가는 달리 막을 방도가 없었다.” 그는 말한다.
“지금은 한 발자욱만 잘못 내딛어도 처형당한다.”
그의 친구의 아들이 국가에 의한 처형장면들을 목격했다. 각각의 경우에 서너명의 사람들이 처형되었다. 그들의 죄목은 탈출 시도였다.
“내가 법을 지키며 산다면, 나는 굶어 죽게 될 것입니다. 그러나 살아남기 위해 시도한 것만으로 나는 체포될 수 있고, 반역자로 몰리고, 처형될 수 있어 두렵다”‘ 찬호는 우리에게 말한다.
“우리는 여기에 갇혀 있다, 죽는 것을 기다리며.”
국경 폐쇄 전에는 매년 1000명 이상의 탈북민들이 남한에 도착하곤 했다. 그러나 그 이후에는 단지 몇 명만이 탈출해 남한으로 갔다고 알려진다.
NGO Human Rights Watch가 분석한 위성 자료는 북한 당국이 지난 3년 동안 여러 겹의 벽과 담장들과 경비초소들을 세워 국경경비를 강화했음을 보여준다. 탈북은 거의 불가능하게 되었다.
Inside North Korea: “We are stuck, waiting to die”
2:14 AM Inside North Korea: “We are stuck, waiting to die”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/bskbb4rmae/inside-north-korea?fbclid=IwAR2IoJ7rvdQppQsgdwtsDr6lfj-saUnXIcOBWPe3X7OI3tD-88k3iwB6… 1/37
SBBCearch
6/17/23, 12:14 AM Inside North Korea: “We are stuck, waiting to die”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/bskbb4rmae/inside-north-korea?fbclid=IwAR2IoJ7rvdQppQsgdwtsDr6lfj-saUnXIcOBWPe3X7OI3tD-88k3iwB6… 2/37
6/17/23, 12:14 AM Inside North Korea: “We are stuck, waiting to die”
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6/17/23, 12:14 AM Inside North Korea: “We are stuck, waiting to die”
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----------------
For months, the BBC has been communicating in secret
with three North Koreans living in the country. They
expose, for the first time, the disaster unfolding there
since the government sealed the borders more than
three years ago.
Starvation, brutal crackdowns, and no chance to
escape.
We have changed their names to protect them.
Myong Suk is hunched over her phone, desperately trying to make
another sale. A shrewd businesswoman, she is secretly selling
minuscule amounts of smuggled medicine to those who desperately
need it - just enough so she can survive the day. She has already
been caught once and could barely afford the bribe to stay out of prison. She
cannot afford to be caught again. But at any moment there could be a knock on
the door. It is not just the police she fears, it’s her neighbours. There is now almost
no-one she can trust.
This is not how it used to be.
Myong Suk’s medicine business used to be thriving.
| Myong Suk: “I tried to smuggle, but I got caught”
But on 27 January 2020 North Korea slammed shut its border in response to the
pandemic, stopping not just people, but food and goods, from entering the
country. Its citizens, who were already banned from leaving, have been confined to
their towns. Aid workers and diplomats have packed up and left. Guards are under
order to shoot anyone even approaching the border. The world’s most isolated
country has become an information black hole.
Under the tyrannical rule of Kim Jong Un, North Koreans are forbidden from
making contact with the outside world. With the help of the organisation Daily NK,
which operates a network of sources inside the country, the BBC has been able to
communicate with three ordinary people. They are eager to tell the world about
the catastrophic toll the border closure has taken on their lives. They understand
if the government discovers they are talking to us, they would likely be killed. To
protect them, we can only reveal some of what they have told us, yet their
experiences offer an exclusive snapshot of the situation unfolding inside North
Korea.
“Our food situation has never been this bad,” Myong Suk tells us.
wages men earn in their compulsory state jobs are all but worthless, forcing their
wives to find creative ways to make a living.
Before the border closure, Myong Suk would arrange for much-needed drugs,
including antibiotics, to be smuggled across from China, which she would sell at
her local market. She needed to bribe the border guards, which ate up more than
half of her profits, but she accepted this as part of the game. It allowed her to live
a comfortable life in her town in the north of the country, along the vast border
with China.
The responsibility to provide for her family has always caused her some stress, but
now it consumes her. It has become nearly impossible to get hold of products to
sell.
Once, in desperation, she tried to smuggle the medicine herself, but was caught,
and now she is monitored constantly. She has tried selling North Korean medicine
instead, but even that is hard to find these days, meaning her earnings have
halved.
Now when her husband and children wake, she prepares them a breakfast of corn.
Gone are the days they could eat plain rice. Her hungry neighbours have started
knocking at the door asking for food, but she has to turn them away.
“We are living on the front line of life,” she says.
In a town elsewhere on the border, Chan Ho, a head-strong construction
worker, is having a frustrating morning. “I want people to know that I am
regretting being born in this country,” he vents.
He is up early again to help his wife set up for the market, before heading to the
construction site. He dutifully carries her products and loads them on to her stall,
fully aware that her business is the only reason he is still alive. The 4,000 won he
makes a day – the equivalent of $4 (£3) - is no longer enough to buy one kilo of
rice, and it has been so long since his family received government food rations, he
has forgotten about them.
The markets, where most North Koreans buy their food, are now almost empty, he
says, and the price of rice, corn and seasonings has soared.
Because North Korea does not produce enough food to feed its people, it relies on
imports. In sealing the border, the government cut off vital supplies of food, along
with the fertiliser and machinery needed to grow crops.
| Chan Ho: “When they closed the border, everything became scarce”
At first Chan Ho was afraid he might die from Covid, but as time went on, he began
to worry about starving to death, especially as he watched those around him die.
The first family in his village to succumb to starvation was a mother and her
children. She had become too sick to work. Her children kept her alive for as long
as they could by begging for food, but in the end all three died. Next came a
mother who was sentenced to hard labour for violating quarantine rules. She and
her son starved to death.
More recently, one of his acquaintance's sons was released from the military
because he was malnourished. Chan Ho remembers his face suddenly bloating.
Within a week he had died.
“I can’t sleep when I think about my children, having to live forever in this hopeless
hell,” he says.
Hundreds of miles away, in the relative affluence of the capital
Pyongyang, where tower blocks line the city’s river, Ji Yeon rides the
subway to work. She is exhausted, after a similarly sleepless night.
She has two children and her husband to support with the pennies she makes
working in a food shop.
She used to sneak fruit and vegetables out of the shop to sell at the market,
alongside cigarettes her husband received in bribes from his co-workers. She
would buy rice with the money. Now her bags are thoroughly searched when she
leaves, and her husband’s bribes have stopped coming. No-one can afford to give
anything away.
“They’ve made it impossible to have a side-hustle,” she frets.
Ji Yeon now goes about her day pretending she has eaten three meals, when in
truth she has eaten one. Hunger she can endure. It is better than having people
know she is poor.
She is haunted by the week she was forced to eat puljuk – a mash of vegetables,
plants and grass, ground into a porridge-like paste. The meal is synonymous with
the very bleakest time in North Korea’s history – the devastating famine that
ravaged the country in the 1990s, killing as many as three million people.
| Ji Yeon: “I know one family that starved to death at home”
“We survive by thinking 10 days ahead, then another 10, thinking that if my
husband and I starve, at least we will feed our kids,” Ji Yeon says. Recently she
went two days without food.
“I thought I was going to die in my sleep and not wake up in the morning,” she
says.
Despite her own hardship, Ji Yeon looks out for those worse off. There are more
beggars now, and she stops to check on the ones lying down, but usually finds
they are dead. One day she knocked on her neighbour’s door to give them water,
but there was no answer. When the authorities went inside three days later, they
discovered the whole family had starved to death.
“It’s a disaster,” she says. “With no supplies coming from the border, people do not
know how to make a living.” Recently she has heard of people killing themselves at
home, while others disappear into the mountains to die. She deplores the ruthless
mentality that has blanketed the city.
“Even if people die next door, you only think about yourself. It’s heartless.”
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Rare photos taken inside North Korea during the pandemic, courtesy of NK News
For months, rumours have been swirling that people are starving to death,
prompting fears North Korea could be on the brink of another famine. The
economist Peter Ward, who studies North Korea, describes these accounts as
“very concerning”.
“It’s all well and good to say you’ve heard about people starving to death, but
when you actually know people in your immediate vicinity who are starving, this
implies the food situation is very serious - more serious than we realised and
worse than it has been since the famine in the late 1990s,” he says.
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Archive images from North Korea’s famine in the 1990s
T
he North Korean famine marked a turning point in the country’s
relatively short history, sparking a breakdown in its rigid social order. The
state, unable to feed people, gave them fragments of freedom to do
what they needed to survive. Thousands fled the country, and found
refuge in South Korea, Europe, or the United States.
Meanwhile, private markets blossomed, as women began selling everything from
soybeans, to used clothes and Chinese electronics. An informal economy was
born, and with it a whole generation of North Koreans who have learnt to live with
little help from the state – capitalists thriving in a repressive communist country.
As the market empties out for the day, and Myong Suk counts her reduced
earnings, she worries the state is coming after her and this capitalist generation.
The pandemic, she believes, has merely provided the authorities with the excuse
to re-exert its diminished control over people’s lives. “Really they want to crack
down on the smuggling and stop people escaping,” she says. “Now, if you even just
approach the river to China, you’ll be given a harsh punishment.”
Chan Ho, the construction worker, is also nearing breaking point. This is the
hardest period he has ever lived through. The famine was difficult, he says, but
there were not these harsh crackdowns and punishments. “If people wanted to
escape, the state couldn’t do much,” he says.
“Now, one wrong step and you’re facing execution.”
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His friend’s son recently witnessed several executions carried out by the state. In
each instance three to four people were killed. Their crime was trying to escape.
“If I live by the rules, I’ll probably starve to death, but just by trying to survive, I
fear I could be arrested, branded a traitor, and killed,” Chan Ho tells us.
“We are stuck here, waiting to die.”
Before the border closure, more than 1,000 escapees used to arrive in South Korea
every year, but since then only a handful are known to have fled and made it to
safety in the South.
Satellite imagery, analysed by the NGO , shows that
authorities have spent the past three years building multiple walls, fences and
guard posts to fortify the border - making it almost impossible to flee.
Human Rights Watch
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Merely trying to contact people outside the country is increasingly dangerous. In
the past, residents near the border have been able to make secret phone calls
abroad by connecting to Chinese mobile networks, using Chinese phones
smuggled into the country. Now, at every community meeting, Chan Ho says
anyone with a Chinese phone is told to turn themselves in. Recently Myong Suk’s
acquaintance was caught talking to someone in China and was sent to a reeducation prison for several years.
By cracking down on smuggling and people's connection to the outside world, the
state is stripping its citizens of their ability to fend for themselves, says Hanna
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Song from the North Korean Database Centre for Human Rights (NKDB).
“At a time when food is already scarce, it is fully aware of the damage this will
cause,” she says.
Y
et these extreme controls could not keep coronavirus out. On 12 May
2022, almost two and a half years into the pandemic, North Korea
confirmed its first official case.
With no means to test people, those with a fever were, in effect, locked in their
homes for 10 days. They and their entire household were forbidden from taking a
single step outside. As the outbreak spread, whole towns and streets were locked
down, on some occasions for more than two weeks.
In Pyongyang, Ji Yeon watched from her window as some of her neighbours, who
did not have enough food to last the lockdown, had vegetables put outside their
door every other day. But up along the border there was no such help.
Myong Suk panicked. She was already living day to day, meaning her cupboards
were empty. This is how she ended up frantically selling medicine in secret,
convinced it would be better to earn money and risk catching the virus than risk
starvation.
Chan Ho says five families were “half-dead” by the time they were released from a
lockdown. They only survived by sneaking out to find food after dark. “Those
strait-laced people who stayed at home could not survive,” he says.
“People were clamouring, saying they were going to starve, and for a few days the
government released some emergency rice from its stockpiles.” There are reports
that in some areas lockdowns were called off early when it became clear people
would not otherwise survive.
Those who caught the virus could not rely on the country’s decrepit hospitals to
treat them. Even basic medicine ran out. The official government advice was to use
folk remedies to relieve symptoms. When Ji Yeon herself got sick, she desperately
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called her friends for tips. They recommended she drank boiling water infused
with green onion roots.
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According to Ji Yeon, many old people and children have died from Covid-19. In a
country where an estimated is malnourished, health
experts say it makes sense that, unlike in other countries, children fell sick. One of
the city’s doctors told Ji Yeon that during the outbreak about one in 550 people in
each neighbourhood in Pyongyang died. If extrapolated to the rest of the country,
that would equate to more than 45,000 deaths - hundreds of times the official
death toll of 74. But everyone was given an alternative cause of death, she was
told, be it tuberculosis or liver cirrhosis.
40% of the population
In August 2022, three months after the outbreak, the government declared victory
over the virus, claiming it had been eradicated from the country. Yet many of the
quarantine measures and rules are still in place.
W
hen Kim Jong Un sealed the border in such an extreme manner, he
surprised the international community. North Korea is one of the
most heavily sanctioned countries in the world, due to its pursuit of
nuclear weapons. It is banned from selling its resources abroad, and
unable to import the fuel it needs to function. Why, many asked, would a country
already in economic ruin willingly inflict so much pain upon itself?
“I think the leaders decided that Covid-19 could kill a lot of people, or at least the
wrong kinds of people, the people they feared dying,” says Peter Ward, referring to
the military and elite who keep the Kim family in power. With one of the worst
healthcare systems in the world, and a malnourished and unvaccinated
population, it was reasonable to assume many would die.
But according to Hanna Song from NKDB, Covid has also presented Kim Jong Un
with the perfect opportunity to re-exert control over people’s lives.
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“This is what he has secretly wanted to do for a really long time,” she says. “His
priority has always been to isolate and control his people as much as possible.”
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After preparing and eating her meagre dinner, Ji Yeon washes the dishes and
cleans her home once over with a damp towel. She climbs into bed early, hoping
for a better night’s rest. She will probably manage more hours’ sleep than Chan
Ho. Work is so busy now, he often has to sleep at his construction site.
But in the relative quiet of her border town, Myong Suk steals a moment to
unwind, sitting with her family to watch TV, using a battery they have charged up
during the day.
She particularly enjoys South Korean TV dramas, even though they are forbidden.
The shows are smuggled across the border on micro-SD cards and sold in secret.
The most recent release Myong Suk saw was about a K-pop star who shows up at
his family’s house claiming to be their long-lost son. Since the border closure,
hardly any new shows have made it into the country, she says. Plus, the crackdown
has been so strong that people are being more careful.
She is referring to the Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act, passed in
December 2020. Under this law, those who smuggle foreign videos into the
country and distribute them can be executed. Chan Ho calls this “the scariest new
law of all”. Merely watching the videos can lead to 10 years in prison. The purpose
of the law, according to a obtained by the
, is to prevent the spread of “a rotten ideology that depraves our society”.
copy of the text news organisation Daily
NK
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| North Korean propaganda video from late 2022 sourced by Daily NK
The one thing Kim Jong Un is thought to fear above all else is his people learning
about the prosperous and free world that exists outside their borders, and waking
up to the lies they are being sold.
Chan Ho says since the law was passed, foreign videos have almost disappeared.
Only the younger generation dares to watch them, causing their parents immense
worry.
Ji Yeon recounts a recent public trial in Pyongyang. The local leaders were
gathered to judge a 22-year-old man who had been sharing South Korean songs
and films. He was sentenced to 10 years and three months in a hard-labour camp.
Before 2020, Ji Yeon says this would have been a quiet trial, with perhaps one year
in prison.
“People were shocked how much harsher the punishment was,” she says. “It’s so
scary, the way they are targeting young people.”
Ryu Hyun Woo, a former North Korean diplomat who defected from the
government in 2019, says the law was introduced to ensure young people’s
loyalty, because they have grown up with such a different attitude from that of
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their parents. “We grew up receiving gifts from the state, but under Kim Jong Un
the country has given people nothing,” he says. Young people now question what
the country has ever done for them.
To enforce the law, the government has created groups that go around
“ruthlessly” cracking down on anything deemed anti-socialist, says Ji Yeon.
“People don’t trust each other now. The fear is great.”
Ji Yeon herself was taken in for questioning under the new law. Since her
interrogation, she never reveals to others what she really thinks. She is more afraid
of people now.
This erosion of trust concerns Prof Andrei Lankov, who has been studying North
Korea for 40 years. “If people don’t trust each other, there is no starting point for
resistance,” he says. “What that means is North Korea can stabilise and last for
years and decades to come.”
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In January 2023 the government passed yet another law, banning people from
using words associated with the South Korean dialect. Breaking this law can, in the
most extreme cases, also result in execution. Ji Yeon says there are now too many
laws to remember, and that people are being taken away without even knowing
which one they have supposedly violated. When they ask, the prosecutors simply
respond by saying: “You don’t need to know which law you have broken.”
“What these three North Korean people have shared supports the incredible idea
that North Korea is even more repressive and totalitarian than it has ever been
before,” says Sokeel Park, from the organisation Liberty in North Korea, that helps
North Korean escapees.
“This is devastating tragedy that is unfolding,” he says.
Recently there have been signs the authorities could be preparing to open the
border. Myong Suk and Chan Ho, who live along the border, say most of those in
their towns have now been vaccinated against Covid - with the Chinese vaccine
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they presume - while in Pyongyang, Ji Yeon says a good number of people have
received two shots. Furthermore, customs data shows the country is once again
allowing some grain and flour over the border from China, possibly in an attempt
to ease shortages and stave off a much-feared famine.
But when North Korea finally decides to reopen, it is unlikely people’s old
freedoms will be returned, says Chad O’Carroll, who runs the North Korea
monitoring platform NK Pro.
“These systems of control that have emerged during the pandemic are likely to
cement. This will make it harder for us to understand the country, and sadly much
harder for North Koreans to understand what is happening outside of what they
are told.”
There are small signs however that the regime will not emerge unscathed from the
hardship it has inflicted on its people over the past three years.
Chan Ho says during the week, people do not think much about changing the
system. They are so focused on finding one meal a day, simply happy to have food
in front of them. But come the weekend, he, Myong Suk, and Ji Yeon have time to
reflect.
They must attend their weekly Life Review Session, compulsory for every citizen.
Here they admit to their mistakes and failures, whilst reporting the shortcomings
of their neighbours. The sessions are designed to encourage good behaviour and
root out dissidents. They could never admit to it in the classroom, but Chan Ho
says people have stopped believing the propaganda on TV.
“The state tells us we are nestling in our mother’s bosom. But what kind of mother
would execute their child in broad daylight for running to China because they were
starving?” he asks.
“Before Covid, people viewed Kim Jong Un positively,” says Myong Suk, “but now
almost everyone is full of discontent.”
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North Korea: The Insiders
For more than three years, North Korea has sealed its borders. People are banned
from leaving or entering the country. Almost every foreigner who was inside has
packed up and left. Three people inside North Korea have risked their lives to tell
the BBC what is happening.
Watch now on BBC iPlayer (UK Only)
Ji Yeon remembers when Kim Jong Un met President Trump in 2018, to negotiate
giving up his nuclear weapons. She recalls being filled with hope and laughter,
thinking perhaps she might soon be able to travel to foreign countries. The talks
broke down, and since then Mr Kim has continued to spend his limited finances on
improving his nuclear arsenal, spurning all offers of diplomacy from the
international community. In 2022, he conducted a record number of missile tests.
“We were tricked,” says Ji Yeon. “This border closure has taken our lives back 20
years. We feel hugely betrayed.
“The people never wanted this endless weapons development, that brings
hardship to generation after generation,” she laments.
Chan Ho blames the international community. “The US and UN seem half-witted,”
he says, questioning why they still offer to negotiate with Kim Jong Un, when it is
so clear he will not give up his weapons. Instead, the construction worker wishes
the US would attack his country.
“Only with a war, and by getting rid of the entire leadership, can we survive,” he
says. “Let’s end this one way or another.”
Myong Suk agrees. “If there was a war, people would turn their backs on our
government,” she says. “That’s the reality.”
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/bskbb4rmae/inside-north-korea?fbclid=IwAR2IoJ7rvdQppQsgdwtsDr6lfj-saUnXIcOBWPe3X7OI3tD-88k3iwB… 34/37
But Ji Yeon hopes for something simpler. She wants to live in a society where
people don’t starve, where her neighbours are alive, and where they don’t have to
spy on each other. And she wants to eat three meals of rice a day.
The last time we heard from her, she did not have enough to feed her child.
We put our findings to the North Korean (DPRK) government.
A representative from its embassy in London said: “The information you have
collected is not entirely factual as it is derived from fabricated testimonies from
anti-DPRK forces. The DPRK has always prioritised the interests of the people
even at difficult times and has an unwavering commitment to the well-being of the
people.
“The people’s well-being is our foremost priority, even in the face of trials and
challenges.”
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