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| From left to right: Lee Eun-koo, TNKR co-founder; Kim Chung-ho, Sogang University economics professor and contest judge; Pak Hyun-ju, lawyer with Shin and Kim Law Office and contest judge; Kim Young-dam, chairman of Shin and Kim Law Office; Jung Yu-na, TNKR student and speech contest winner, Casey Lartigue Jr., TNKR co-founder; Wayne Finley, educator and publicity chairman at Korea TESOL. Courtesy of TNKR |
On Aug. 30 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seoul, the Teach North Korean Refugees Global Education Center (TNKR) held its 11th English speech contest. Six North Korean refugees competed in the contest sponsored by The Korea Times and Shin and Kim Law Office, giving original speeches in English addressing the theme, "I am from North Korea." Jung Yu-na, a North Korean refugee who joined TNKR in 2018, was selected as the winner by a panel of judges. The excerpt below shares one of the three freedom moments she presented in the contest. ― ED
By Jung Yu-na
I was born in North Korea without any liberty. I couldn't say the words I wanted to say, see what I wanted to see, hear what I wanted to hear.
I never expected that my first trip to another country would be when I escaped from my own.
I thought if I went to China, I would have freedom, but that expectation was completely wrong because I always had to run and hide myself from the Chinese police.
I needed a passport to show them, but like other North Korean defectors, I didn't have any traveling documents.
We were never allowed to have a passport to go outside of North Korea, except for official business. And not many North Korean people went on official business trips.
Furthermore, the North Korean authorities demanded that China catch North Korean defectors and immediately send them back to North Korea.
For that reason, I was always being pursued by Chinese police.
If they had caught me, they would have deported me to North Korea, and probably put me in jail for my entire life.
Luckily, my aunt escaped to South Korea before me, and helped to bring me here where finally my first taste of real freedom began.
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| Jung Yu-na speaks during the 11th Teach North Korean Refugees Global Education Center English speech contest. Courtesy of TNKR |
My third moment of freedom was the day I got my passport.
Can you picture someone actually getting a passport who never thought they could?
How exciting would that be?
If I had had a passport when I escaped, I would have avoided the dangerous experiences in the countries I went through on my way to South Korea.
So, then I suddenly had an idea. What if I went to China with this powerful document? So I did. I wanted to show and teach the authorities that they can never stop someone who really desires to have something so desperately.
It felt so weird; so delightful. I felt so refreshed, like I had colonized the colonizers.
Kim Jong-un has ICBMs and missiles, but he cannot go anywhere freely. But I have a passport. I can go to America, Europe, and anywhere in the world. So I felt like I had more freedom than Kim Jong-un.
He thinks he can control all North Korean people, but he cannot.
My escape was like a scene from a drama; that one little girl escaping her own country. Leaving behind her hometown with childhood memories and everything. She tried her best to take in the last scene of her home. She knew she loved her hometown, but she also knew the government didn't let people live in freedom and they didn't care about human rights. So, she swallowed her tears and crossed the Tumen River to have a better life with freedom and human rights.
So please, be thankful for what you have right now and count your blessings for not being born in North Korea. In your daily life, please think about the small things that you take for granted and know that to people like me, they are precious.
Casey Lartigue Jr., co-founder along with Eunkoo Lee of the Teach North Korean Refugees Global Education Center, was the 2017 winner of the "Social Contribution" Prize from the Hansarang Rural Cultural Foundation and the 2019 winner of the "Challenge Maker" Award from Challenge Korea.
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