A Dressmaker Reportedly Turned Defector Says She Is Trapped In South Korea And Wants To Return To Her Family In North Korea
After being hospitalized for six months in North Korea due to liver disease, dressmaker Kim Ryon Hui sought medical care for her illness in China in 2011 after she found out that the country has advanced treatment.
Kim thought that the treatment for her disease would be free of charge similarly in North Korea. This later became a burden to her as she could not keep up with the hospital bills for her treatment.
"It became a huge burden for me to go through treatment in that situation. I couldn't ask my cousin for money," she says, as noted by CNN on Thursday.
She says that the Chinese doctors demanded cash up front thus compelling her to work for a restaurant in Shenyang. However, the low wage was not enough to pay the medical bills.
"A broker told me that Chinese people go to South Korea and earn a lot of money. The broker's neighbor also did it for two months," says Kim.
She adds, "I was thinking of recovering completely before returning to my aging parents. I wanted to return home in healthy state. So I said I will go to South Korea for two months and earn the money and get myself treated."
Kim says she did not know her citizenship would be renounced after signing some papers. She adds that her passport was taken from her by a broker who refused to give it back to her.
"Other defectors who were with me said if I go out and get caught they too will be handed over to China's Public Security and their life will be in jeopardy. Because I didn't have a passport, I had to follow them and I ended up in South Korea," she says.
Kim started her plea to go home upon her arrival in South Korea where she feels "trapped." She even did some measures just to go back to North Korea.
"The wrong choice that I made, my choice of wanting to earn money for my treatment, led to the worst situation in my life. I am regretting with my heart and I am so sorry that I've brought such suffering to my aging parents and husband and my daughter," she says.
Meanwhile, a North Korean specialist doubts that Kim is doing this of her own will, as reported by NK News on the same day.
"The North Korean state has a predilection for using truly appalling tactics to put pressure on defectors to return, so I do not believe that she is making these comments of her own volition," says Michael Glendinning, director of the European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea in London.
He adds that Kim's "safety cannot be guaranteed" if South Korea will allow her to return in North Korea.
On the other hand, Human Rights Watch Asia deputy director Phil Robertson says both Koreas should "recognize that people have the right of movement, including being able to leave their country and return to it."
He adds, "So if this woman really wishes to return to North Korea, Seoul should not block her way to do so. South Korea constantly points out how it is different from North Korea, but now comes the time to prove it - by recognizing that international human rights law protects people's right to move in and out of their home countries as they wish."
