Escape from Hell: To be a refugee from North Korea

National Review, Jan 27, 2003 by John J. Miller

Kang had it easy, as these things go. Her brother sent about $10,000 to a refugee broker in China, who forged a set of documents, arranged a few bribes, and bought Kang a plane ticket to Seoul. She arrived in South Korea in June 2001.

South Korea's constitution says that North Koreans are automatically citizens, and in theory it should never turn away a North Korean seeking protection. Despite this, the country has been wary of accepting many North Koreans, worrying that Pyongyang might take advantage of its openness by sending spies and saboteurs. In the wake of the growing refugee crisis, however, South Koreans are more likely to fear the chaos and instability that would follow a political implosion north of the DMZ. Many would rather have North Korea's 600 Scud missiles pointed at them than face a new and different threat: the economic turmoil of assimilating millions of people now living in barbaric squalor.

Today, defectors each receive about $28,000 to help with the transition. But there are only a few of them, and there's no pain-free way to extend such generosity to millions. The recent presidential election victory of Roh Moo Hyun, an outspoken anti-American politician who preaches detente with the North, was made possible by a younger generation of voters concerned more about their pocketbooks than about the North and its refugees.

Kang, for her part, is just glad to be somewhere else. "I know what freedom feels like here," she says.