Trapped in North Korea: Why Escape is So Hard

North Korea: The Biggest Prison on Earth?

Introduction

In this jeep, there's a North Korean soldier who's so fed up with Kim Jong Un's policies that he's trying to speed across the border. He knows full well that he might get shot or at least injured, so what could possibly be pushing him to take such a huge risk? We'll get into that later, but why is North Korea considered the biggest prison in the world, and why is it almost impossible to escape alive? Welcome back to JAM TV's videos, folks.

Life Under Kim Jong Un

In North Korea, leaving the country without permission is considered treason by Kim Jong-un, and the punishment can be life in prison or even death. Even moving from one province to another within North Korea without permission is seen as a crime. Almost every organization agrees that North Korea has the worst human rights record in the world. Every man is required to serve at least 10 years in the North Korean military. There's no such thing as free speech here, and all media is controlled by the state.

North Korea is a unique country where even family members can get punished for a crime committed by their relatives. Back in 2009, a 2-year-old kid was sentenced to life in prison just because a Bible was found near his parents. Following any religion is considered a crime there. It's also really tough for foreigners to enter the country, and even if someone does get permission to visit, they're monitored closely the whole time and only taken to specific places.

You only get to see what the government wants you to see. Sometimes, foreigners get killed if they do anything that goes against local laws in North Korea. Like what happened with the American guy who visited North Korea in 2015; he got arrested in 2016 for allegedly removing a government propaganda poster from his hotel room. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but just a year later, he was in a coma inside a North Korean prison camp.

They went away and were sent back to America. Just a few days after getting back to the US, they couldn’t shake off the wounds from what happened to them in North Korea. No one really knows what they went through there. Because of all this, North Korea is often seen as a huge prison where people live free but lead lives like slaves. That’s why North Koreans constantly try to escape, but it’s definitely not easy, and the biggest reason for that is North Korea itself.

Escape Routes and Their Dangers

Escape to the South:

• North Korea's geography is interesting. On the west side, it faces the Yellow Sea, and on the east, it borders the Sea of Japan. The North Korean Navy has such tight security that no illegal boats can even get close. To the south, there's South Korea, which is one of North Korea's biggest enemies. Because of this, the waters nearby are heavily patrolled. For those trying to escape North Korea, South Korea is really the only good option. It's not just because South Korea is a developed and free country, but there's more to it than that.

• South Korea considers all North Koreans as its own citizens. So if someone manages to cross that border to escape the North Korean army, it could change their life— but only if they make it alive. North Korea has so many soldiers stationed at the border that not even a bird would think of crossing without a hundred second thoughts. This video is from 2017, when a North Korean soldier was speeding toward South Korea in his jeep. Once the border guards noticed, they chased after him.

• He fired at them and then took off in his jeep towards the border. But North Korean soldiers opened fire on him. Luckily, he made it into South Korea, but he was hit by several bullets. Later that evening, South Korean soldiers came and dragged him to safety. There have been many attempts by North Korean civilians to escape too, but most of them were killed on the spot. Even those who managed to get to South Korea didn't survive long because of their gunshot wounds.

• Running away to Korea is like inviting death because North Korea has about 750,000 soldiers stationed along that border, plus they've set up barbed wire fences and landmines.

Escape to the North:

The other historical way to escape to South Korea is through the northern border, which connects to China and a little bit to Russia. This route is relatively easier, but it’s definitely not without its challenges since North Korea doesn't have to worry about attacks from China and Russia, which is why their military is deployed along those borders too.

It's not much, but that whole 1300 km border is packed with dangerous mountains and forests. Plus, the border between North Korea and China mostly runs along the Tumen and Yalu rivers. So, even if a defector makes it to the China border, they'll still have to deal with crossing the river. Defectors and smugglers would wait for winter when both rivers freeze over, and they could just walk across. This method also works in the scorching summer when the water levels drop significantly.

When they reached Russia, the danger for defectors wasn’t over because North Korea had a military alliance with China and Russia. This meant that if they caught a North Korean defector on their land, they would hand them straight over to North Korea. It’s not hard to imagine what would happen to them there. So, even after reaching China and Russia, their troubles weren’t over; they still had to escape to another safe country. In southern China, there are Myanmar and Laos, but...

Both countries would catch North Korean defectors and send them back to North Korea, so the only options left were Thailand, Vietnam, and Mongolia, which share a direct border with China. These were considered safe countries for defectors because, as you know, South Korea considers all North Koreans as its citizens. That's why these three countries would send North Korean defectors not back to the North but to South Korea. So, defectors would plan to first enter China or Russia and then head to Thailand or Vietnam.

"Head to Mongolia and once you get there, surrender yourself to the authorities. From there, they would put you on a ship and send you to South Korea, where you could start a new life. Since 1990, a total of 34,000 North Koreans have successfully escaped to South Korea. Back then, North Korea had support from the Soviet Union, but after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, that support disappeared, and the U.S. started imposing a lot of sanctions. At that point, North Korea..."

The Famine and the Rise of Kim Jong Un

The situation in Korea got so bad that people started struggling to find food. Estimates suggest that during this time, about 3.5 million people died due to lack of basic necessities. That’s when many decided to flee after 1991. Each passing year, more and more people left North Korea, and even after the famine ended, the trend of defectors continued. By 2009, a record number of defectors were reported, reaching up to 3,000. The numbers remained high in 2010 and 2011 as well.

The Kim Jong Un Era: Increased Crackdown and COVID-19 Lockdown

Then, at the beginning of 2012, something happened that suddenly dropped the number of defectors to less than 50. The guy who had been ruling North Korea since 1994 passed away, and it was now time for his son, Kim Jong-un, to take over. As soon as he came into power, Kim Jong-un cracked down hard on smuggling and people trying to escape the country. They installed signal jammers all along the northern borders and significantly increased intelligence monitoring. Fences were put up along the border, and military patrols were stepped up. Additionally, Kim Jong-un reached out to Russia and...

They also made arrangements with China to maintain a tougher stance on their side. As a result, China set up surveillance systems all along the border. Because of these changes, it became pretty difficult for North Korean defectors to enter China. The brokers who used to help these defectors escape North Korea in exchange for money also raised their rates significantly. Back in 2007, Chinese brokers used to charge around $2,000 for this service, but by 2017, after the crackdown, they started asking for $10,000 per defector.

Most North Koreans, who make about $2,000 a year, have found it nearly impossible to gather enough money to escape. That's why, since Kim Jong-un came to power in 2012, the number of defectors has been steadily decreasing each year. In 2019, only 1,000 defectors managed to flee. But then in 2020, things changed dramatically, making it almost impossible to escape from North Korea. At the end of 2019, when the first COVID-19 case was reported in China, North Korea was the first country in the world to shut down all its borders.

They completely shut down the borders because they didn't want a single COVID case to make its way into North Korea. There was a total ban on any means of entering or leaving the country. This was crucial for North Korea since 42% of the population still struggles to get enough food, meaning their bodies wouldn't even be able to handle the COVID-19 virus. On top of that, in August 2020, the North Korean military ordered the Northern Border Patrol to shoot to kill, giving them full authority to do so.

They’ve been told that if they see anyone going to or coming from the China border, they should shoot them on the spot. That’s why over the past few years, hardly anyone has managed to escape from here, and North Korea has become like a huge prison where people can’t follow any religion or have any contact with the outside world. The outside world has no idea about what’s going on here; executions aren’t done by hanging but by sending firing squads to shoot people in front of everyone.

In North Korea, if someone tries to talk on the phone with a relative in South Korea, they can get executed. The whole world is watching this circus, but no one can do anything about it because the Soviet Union gave North Korea nuclear technology. That's why even a superpower like the U.S. can only impose sanctions and nothing more. Thank you so much for your loving comments! Catch you later!