[INTERVIEW] Former N. Korea child beggar aspires to become int'l expert

Lee Sung-ju, a former North Korean child beggar and now aspiring to become an international affairs expert, poses with his English book "Every Falling Star" at a Manchester library last year. / Courtesy of Lee Sung-ju

By Kim Ji-soo

With an infectious smile and a matching soft laugh, Lee Sung-ju, 30, in jeans and sporting a backpack fits right in with the myriad of students in the crowded neighborhood of Gangnam in southern Seoul. He just finished a group meeting to study for the Graduate Record Examination (GRE); he wants to enter a doctoral program in the United States to become an expert in conflict resolution and international relations.

"Studying for the GRE is hard," he said over coffee. Lee is a former North Korean child beggar who reunited with his family to settle in South Korea.

If his book "Shoes of a Street Boy" should serve as a guide, Lee is all too familiar with the many aspects of hardship. His current hardship of studying for the GRE is a mere step toward his dream of becoming an international conflict resolution expert. Living on the streets from 1998 to 2002 in Hamgyeong area of North Korea, he knows what living without a dream of a better future means, when your only goal in life is to fill your stomach and nothing else.

"When you hit bottom, you realize how important hope is," Lee said. Through his young adult novel, he wants to convey this message and urge readers to have courage and love in their lives. First written in English and published last September as "Every Falling Star," the book has now been translated into Korean with the title "Shoes of a Street Boy."

"I lost everything when I was 11, but I want to tell people, especially those in their teens and 20s, that life is hard, but when you have hope, courage and love, you will come through," Lee said.

"I had always hoped that I would reunite with my father and my mother, and I shared this hope with my child beggar friends. Sure I was scared when I had to fight other street gangs, because fights can physically hurt you or even kill you. But I did it for my friends and also to survive," Lee said.

Born in 1987, Lee and his parents lived well in Pyongyang before they were exiled to Gyeongseong in the northeast for his father's political mistake. Food was scarcer outside of the North Korean capital.

Then one day in 1998, his father left for China for food but never returned; then, his mother left for his aunt's house for food but never returned as well. Left alone, he sought the company of six likeminded friends or "siblings," with whom he begged for food and stole.

He was a leader, often leading his group in turf fights. He saw two of his friends die.

"The title ‘Every Falling Star' is a song my mother used to sing to me when I lay on her knees and she told me that if you wish upon a falling star, your wish will come true. Also, there is a saying in the North that when a person dies, a star falls. It is also my tribute to all the deaths, the silent deaths, that I have seen while on the streets," he said.

Turn the pages of "Shoes of a Street Boy," and you'll find it easy to imagine being in the shoes of street children, who are thrown into the surreal reality of life on the streets.

When Lee was 15, he was spotted on the streets near Gyeongseong train station by his maternal grandfather, and he went to live with his grandparents. Now a devout Christian, he calls this event a blessing.

"Everybody asks me whether that is true, and it is. My grandfather said he was actually looking for his daughter, not for his grandson,"Lee said, smiling ruefully. His mother remains missing.

When he was living with his grandparents, a man came with a letter from his father who had settled in South Korea, and Lee trekked to China and then flew to South Korea in 2002.

In the South, he attended one year of middle school in Pyeongtaek and then took an exam to advance to high school. He went to the church-run Jiguchon School in Busan and then entered Sogang University in 2009.

"I began learning English only at 18. So, I started out writing about my life in the North when my English teacher in high school advised that I write a daily diary," Lee said. His book, "Every Falling Star," is based on those journals. After college, Lee won a scholarship to the University of Warwick. He has his eye on prestigious schools such as Princeton and Johns Hopkins University in the United States to earn his doctorate. Currently as he studies, he works with the Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights and also appears on a cable channel show featuring panelists talking about life in the North.

Cover of Lee's book

Lee has had received many offers to write his story in South Korea, but they all offered their own angles or titles for his story, so he refused. But when he was doing an internship for Conservative member of Canadian Parliament Barry Devolin, his editor and coauthor Susan McCLelland proposed Lee write about his life his own way.

He said the main buyers of his book in Korea are those in their 60s, while those in the United States vary in age.

"I consider myself as a person of the Korean Peninsula. Both North and South Korea are my home, so I am a man of the Korean Peninsula," he said.

When he says this, he asserts not only his identity but also a life goal. Lee has his mind set on becoming a conflict resolution expert who identifies various conflicts around the globe, assesses their causes and prescribes solutions. In the same vein, Lee sees the South-North divide as a conflict that needs to be resolved, eventually leading toward reunification.

However, with inter-Korean tensions ratcheting as the North launches missiles, is he worried about the possibility of North Korean teens suffering more hardships, including the acute hunger he himself experienced?

"I think North Korea, at most, will have two more nuclear tests. For nuclear tests, a country acquires the technology for a nuclear arsenal, so at the maximum, there are one or two more nuclear tests ahead," the international relations major said. "After that, they will continue to fire missiles, but that doesn't necessarily mean the economic suffering will deepen."

He explained the economic alignment between China and its borders with North Korea may mean China will continue to support the North up to a certain level. "That's why I say the United States' pressure tactics toward Pyongyang will not work," Lee said. "We need a combination of both pressure and dialogue."

But how does he really feel, in his heart and mind, when reading about the bellicose North Korean regime?

"Of course I am worried about the sufferings of the people," he said.

He opined that, as hard as it seems, South Korea should regard the North Korean regime and its people separately.

"If the new Moon Jae-in government is serious about reunification, it should legislate some minimum law regarding reunification that both the liberals and conservatives in the South can agree on," Lee said.

He is not limiting his future to academia; rather, he sees himself more at work in the field. He also hopes to one day write about what he thinks of the Korean Peninsula, its nations, reunification, peace and human rights.

"Human rights, it comes through the mouth. Human rights are about resolving the hunger of the people," he said.