Arguably no group is more surprised by the rapidly changing image of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un than the 30,000 people who successfully escaped his country for a new life in the south, CNN reports.
As Kim prepares for his second summit with President Donald Trump, these defectors provide a unique insight into life in Pyongyang.
What do they think of Kim’s standing in the world? Has their view of him been affected by recent events? And will he agree to denuclearization for the sake of economic benefits, CNN asks.
“Everything is ridiculous. What’s happening here is Kim Jong Un and his younger sister became like top celebrities in this country (South Korea). I mean these are dictators. So people seem to have forgot about what he’s done to his own people. And the big problem is ever since he (Kim) visited Panmunjom (the Joint Security Area between North and South Korea) nobody wants to talk about human rights. It’s so absurd,” says Lee Hyeon-seo, former North Korean student that defected in 1997.
“Human rights vocabulary had disappeared long ago after the new government. But it seems even in the US, it is kind of disappearing. When President Trump met us, it was last year. The focus was human rights issues. So during 50 minutes he only talked about North Korean human rights issues. I was so grateful for that. He was the only leader in the world who focused on the human rights issue. All the world was watching him but during the Singapore summit, I never heard him mention human rights.”
“What I’m really concerned about is in the last few months … the issue of a nuclear weapons list is slightly disappearing from the American’s agenda. President Trump is only talking about the stop of nuclear provocations by Kim Jong Un or the stopping of any nuclear missile launches,” says Thae Yong-ho, former deputy chief of the North Korean Embassy in the United Kingdom and a 2016 defector.
“I think if Trump goes on that kind of partial nuclear disarmament process instead of denuclearization process, there is no hope for South Korea or America to reach the final denuclearization of North Korea. I’d like to advise President Trump to stay on denuclearization,” he states.
“North Korea ambitiously declared that it’ll develop the economy, but the system of monopoly which the country owns and controls everything will not be able to bring economic development. We learned the lesson from Russia and China when they opened their labor markets and lifted travel bans, the economic development was realized,” says Oh Se-hyuk, a former North Korean laborer that defected in 1999.
“It’s the same for Mongolia. When it reformed and opened the market, people voluntarily went abroad and sent money back home to their families. North Korea sends out labor workers abroad but the regime takes about 80% of the income. The regime cannot efficiently allocate the money as government officials are corrupt. If regular North Koreans can keep more money, most of it will end up helping the domestic economy,” he noted.
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