My Escape from North Korea | Hyeonseo Lee | TED — Transcript

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1. 0:00Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast
2. 0:16When I was little, I thought my country was the best on the planet.
3. 0:20And I grew up singing a song called "Nothing To Envy."
4. 0:24And I was very proud.
5. 0:26In school, we spent a lot of time studying the history of Kim Il-Sung,
6. 0:29but we never learned much about the outside world,
7. 0:34except that America, South Korea, Japan are the enemies.
8. 0:39Although I often wondered about the outside world,
9. 0:42I thought I would spend my entire life in North Korea,
10. 0:46until everything suddenly changed.
11. 0:49When I was seven years old, I saw my first public execution.
12. 0:54But I thought my life in North Korea was normal.
13. 0:58My family was not poor,
14. 0:59and myself, I had never experienced hunger.
15. 1:03But one day, in 1995, my mom brought home a letter
16. 1:08from a coworker's sister.
17. 1:10It read, "When you read this,
18. 1:13our five family members will not exist in this world,
19. 1:18because we haven't eaten for the past three weeks.
20. 1:22We are lying on the floor together,
21. 1:24and our bodies are so weak, we are waiting to die."
22. 1:33I was so shocked.
23. 1:36This was the first time I heard that people in my country were suffering.
24. 1:43Soon after, when I was walking past a train station,
25. 1:46I saw something terrible that to this day I can't erase from my memory.
26. 1:51A lifeless woman was lying on the ground,
27. 1:54while an emaciated child in her arms
28. 1:57just stared helplessly at his mother's face.
29. 2:02But nobody helped them,
30. 2:04because they were so focused on taking care of themselves and their families.
31. 2:11A huge famine hit North Korea in the mid-1990s.
32. 2:15Ultimately, more than a million North Koreans died during the famine,
33. 2:20and many only survived by eating grass, bugs and tree bark.
34. 2:26Power outages also became more and more frequent,
35. 2:30so everything around me was completely dark at night,
36. 2:34except for the sea of lights in China,
37. 2:37just across the river from my home.
38. 2:39I always wondered why they had lights, but we didn't.
39. 2:45This is a satellite picture showing North Korea at night,
40. 2:49compared to neighbors.
41. 2:52This is the Amnok River,
42. 2:54which serves as a part of the border between North Korea and China.
43. 2:59As you can see, the river can be very narrow at certain points,
44. 3:03allowing North Koreans to secretly cross.
45. 3:08But many die.
46. 3:09Sometimes, I saw dead bodies floating down the river.
47. 3:17I can't reveal many details about how I left North Korea,
48. 3:22but I only can say that during the ugly years of the famine,
49. 3:26I was sent to China to live with distant relatives.
50. 3:31But I only thought that I would be separated from my family
51. 3:36for a short time.
52. 3:37I could have never imagined
53. 3:39that it would take 14 years to live together.
54. 3:44In China, it was hard living as a young girl without my family.
55. 3:48I had no idea what life was going to be like
56. 3:51as a North Korean refugee.
57. 3:53But I soon learned it's not only extremely difficult,
58. 3:57it's also very dangerous,
59. 3:59since North Korean refugees are considered in China as illegal migrants.
60. 4:07So I was living in constant fear that my identity could be revealed,
61. 4:12and I would be repatriated to a horrible fate,
62. 4:15back in North Korea.
63. 4:18One day, my worst nightmare came true,
64. 4:20when I was caught by the Chinese police,
65. 4:23and brought to the police station for interrogation.
66. 4:27Someone had accused me of being North Korean,
67. 4:31so they tested my Chinese language abilities,
68. 4:34and asked me tons of questions.
69. 4:38I was so scared.
70. 4:40I thought my heart was going to explode.
71. 4:43If anything seemed unnatural, I could be imprisoned and repatriated.
72. 4:49I thought my life was over.
73. 4:51But I managed to control all the emotions inside me,
74. 4:54and answer the questions.
75. 4:57After they finished questioning me,
76. 4:58one official said to another,
77. 5:01"This was a false report. She's not North Korean."
78. 5:05And they let me go. It was a miracle.
79. 5:09Some North Koreans in China seek asylum in foreign embassies.
80. 5:14But many can be caught by the Chinese police,
81. 5:17and repatriated.
82. 5:19These girls were so lucky.
83. 5:21Even though they were caught,
84. 5:23they were eventually released, after heavy international pressure.
85. 5:28These North Koreans were not so lucky.
86. 5:31Every year, countless North Koreans are caught in China
87. 5:35and repatriated to North Korea,
88. 5:37where they can be tortured, imprisoned, or publicly executed.
89. 5:44Even though I was really fortunate to get out,
90. 5:47many other North Koreans have not been so lucky.
91. 5:50It's tragic that North Koreans have to hide their identities
92. 5:54and struggle so hard just to survive.
93. 5:58Even after learning a new language and getting a job,
94. 6:01their whole world can be turned upside down in an instant.
95. 6:05That's why, after 10 years of hiding my identity,
96. 6:09I decided to risk going to South Korea.
97. 6:13And I started a new life yet again.
98. 6:16Settling down in South Korea
99. 6:17was a lot more challenging than I had expected.
100. 6:21English was so important in South Korea,
101. 6:24so I had to start learning my third language.
102. 6:28Also, I realized there was a wide gap between North and South.
103. 6:33We are all Korean, but inside,
104. 6:35we have become very different, due to 67 years of division.
105. 6:41I even went through an identity crisis.
106. 6:44Am I South Korean or North Korean?
107. 6:48Where am I from? Who am I?
108. 6:51Suddenly, there was no country I could proudly call my own.
109. 6:58Even though adjusting to life in South Korea was not easy,
110. 7:02I made a plan -- I started studying for the university entrance exam.
111. 7:07Just as I was starting to get used to my new life,
112. 7:11I received a shocking phone call.
113. 7:13The North Korean authorities intercepted some money
114. 7:16that I sent to my family,
115. 7:18and, as a punishment, my family was going to be forcibly removed
116. 7:23to a desolate location in the countryside.
117. 7:26They had to get out quickly.
118. 7:29So I started planning how to help them escape.
119. 7:32North Koreans have to travel incredible distances
120. 7:36on the path to freedom.
121. 7:38It's almost impossible to cross the border
122. 7:41between North Korea and South Korea.
123. 7:44So, ironically, I took a flight back to China
124. 7:47and headed toward the North Korean border.
125. 7:52Since my family couldn't speak Chinese,
126. 7:54I had to guide them somehow through more than 2,000 miles
127. 7:59in China, and then into Southeast Asia.
128. 8:04The journey by bus took one week,
129. 8:06and we were almost caught several times.
130. 8:09One time, our bus was stopped and boarded by a Chinese police officer.
131. 8:16He took everyone's I.D. cards,
132. 8:18and he started asking them questions.
133. 8:21Since my family couldn't understand Chinese,
134. 8:25I thought my family was going to be arrested.
135. 8:29As the Chinese officer approached my family,
136. 8:31I impulsively stood up, and I told him
137. 8:34that these are deaf and dumb people that I was chaperoning.
138. 8:39He looked at me suspiciously,
139. 8:41but luckily, he believed me.
140. 8:45We made it all the way to the border of Laos.
141. 8:48But I had to spend almost all my money
142. 8:53to bribe the border guards in Laos.
143. 8:56But even after we got past the border,
144. 8:58my family was arrested and jailed for illegal border crossing.
145. 9:04After I paid the fine and bribe,
146. 9:06my family was released in one month.
147. 9:09But soon after, my family was arrested and jailed again,
148. 9:13in the capital of Laos.
149. 9:16This was one of the lowest points in my life.
150. 9:20I did everything to get my family to freedom,
151. 9:26and we came so close,
152. 9:28but my family was thrown in jail,
153. 9:30just a short distance from the South Korean embassy.
154. 9:34I went back and forth between the immigration office
155. 9:37and the police station,
156. 9:39desperately trying to get my family out.
157. 9:42but I didn't have enough money to pay a bribe or fine anymore.
158. 9:46I lost all hope.
159. 9:48At that moment, I heard one man's voice ask me,
160. 9:51"What's wrong?"
161. 9:53I was so surprised that a total stranger cared enough to ask.
162. 9:58In my broken English, and with a dictionary,
163. 10:01I explained the situation, and without hesitating,
164. 10:05the man went to the ATM,
165. 10:07and he paid the rest of the money for my family,
166. 10:10and two other North Koreans to get out of jail.
167. 10:14I thanked him with all my heart, and I asked him,
168. 10:17"Why are you helping me?"
169. 10:20"I'm not helping you," he said.
170. 10:22"I'm helping the North Korean people."
171. 10:25I realized that this was a symbolic moment in my life.
172. 10:30The kind stranger symbolized new hope for me and the North Korean people,
173. 10:35when we needed it most.
174. 10:37And he showed me that the kindness of strangers
175. 10:40and the support of the international community
176. 10:43are truly the rays of hope we North Korean people need.
177. 10:48Eventually, after our long journey,
178. 10:50my family and I were reunited in South Korea.
179. 10:54But getting to freedom is only half the battle.
180. 10:57Many North Koreans are separated from their families,
181. 11:01and when they arrive in a new country,
182. 11:03they start with little or no money.
183. 11:07So we can benefit from the international community
184. 11:10for education, English language training, job training, and more.
185. 11:16We can also act as a bridge
186. 11:18between the people inside North Korea and the outside world.
187. 11:22Because many of us stay in contact with family members still inside,
188. 11:27and we send information and money
189. 11:29that is helping to change North Korea from inside.
190. 11:34I've been so lucky, received so much help and inspiration in my life,
191. 11:39so I want to help give aspiring North Koreans
192. 11:43a chance to prosper with international support.
193. 11:48I'm confident that you will see more and more North Koreans
194. 11:52succeeding all over the world,
195. 11:54including the TED stage.
196. 11:56Thank you.
197. 11:57(Applause)