Your Escape From North Korea
By: AZ
''Content warning: This game may contain mentions of death and prostitution depending on what choices you make. Each path contains descriptions of oppresion under a tyrannical government.''
[[Begin Your Journey]]
[[Bibliography]]
[[Author's Note]]Bibliography
Source 1: Bridges, Brian. "North Korea After Kim Il-Sung." The World Today 51, no. 6 (1995): 103-07.
Source 2: Clark, Donald N. Culture and Customs of Korea. Culture and Customs of Asia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000.
Source 3: The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. "Kim Il Sung." Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Last modified January 8, 2024. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kim-Il-Sung.
Source 4: Eschborn, Norbert, and Ines Apel. "North Korean Refugees in South Korea: Arduous Escape and Difficult Integration." Army and Society, January 1, 2014, 59-84.
Source 5: Gunde, Richard. Culture and Customs of China. Culture and Customs of Asia. N.p.: Greenwood Press, 2002.
Source 6: Gyeong, Hyeon-Kyung. E-mail interview by the author. Cincinnati/Seoul, Ohio/South Korea. April 9, 2024.
Source 7: Halberstam, David Lee. The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War. New York: The Amateurs Ltd, 2007.
Source 8: Lee, Hyeonseo. The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector's Story. Translated by David John. N.p.: Harper Collins UK, 2019.
Source 9: Lee, Sungju. Every Falling Star. Translated by Susan McClelland. N.p.: Amulet Paperbacks, 2017.
Source 10: Miller, Debra A. North Korea. The History of Nations. N.p.: Greenhaven Press, 2004.
Source 11: Min, Kichae, and Hyejin Ko. "Changes in the North Korean Welfare System: A Comparison of the Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un Eras." North Korean Review 14, no. 2 (2018): 46-63.
Source 12: Park, Yeonmi. In Order to Live. Translated by Maryanne Vollers. N.p.: Penguin Publishing Group, 2016.
Source 13: Shen, Zhihua, and Yafeng Xia. "Chinese--North Korean Relations and Chinese Policy Toward Korean Cross-Border Migration, 1950-1962." Journal of Cold War Studies 16, no. 4 (2014): 133-58.
Source 14: Sung, Jiyoung, and Myong-Hyun Go. "Resettling in South Korea: Challenges for Young North Korean Refugees." Asan Institute for Policy Studies, August 8, 2014, 1-19.
Source 15: Tanaka, Hiroyuki. "North Korea: Understanding Migration to and from a Closed Country." Migration Policy Institute. Last modified January 7, 2008. Accessed February 28, 2024. https://migrationpolicy.org/article/north-korea-understanding-migration-and-closed-country/.
Source 16: Warner, Geoffrey. "The Korean War." International Affairs 56, no. 1 (1980): 98-107.
[[Start]]
[[Begin Your Journey]]
[[Author's Note]]
It is currently mid-August in the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea. The year is 1994, just a month after the death of your eternal leader Kim Il-Sung. This is the year that many people, including yourself, begin to realize that North Korea has flaws and secrets that they can no longer hide. You have always been taught that Kim Il-Sung was an immortal god-like being. Now he's dead. The country has stopped rationing food and people are not being financially compensated for their work. You're taught to fear the filthy Americans, the Japanese, and the South Koreans because they are not communist. They are not powerful. You're taught from the age of four that Joseon, or North Korea, is the greatest country in the world (cycling-link:"*", "After Kim Il-Sung died in 1994, the government in North Korea began to collapse. Previously, the country had a ration program where they gave people extra food based on their status in society and how helpful they are to the government, but when Kim Jong-Il came to power, this program stopped. In addition, workers were paid less for doing the same work that they did before his death. The exact reason for the collapse of North Korea after the death of Kim Il-Sung is unknown, although it is assumed that things were on the way down already and the timing of his death was just a coincidence. Kim Il-Sung was considered a God and when he died it was a day of great mourning and disbelief for the North Korean people. (Sources 1, 2, and 11)"). These past few months, while you've been starving and living without running water or electricity, you've become less certain that you support the great regime of Joseon. You no longer follow (cycling-link:"<em>Juche</em>","North Korea's state ideology that is based on putting the nations needs before the people's needs",) or (cycling-link:"<em>Kimilsungism.</em>", "the idea that Kim Il-Sung is a god that does no wrong.") This is when you have your first thought of fleeing your homeland.
Before you embark on your journey, you must choose your character. Both of these choices have advantages and takebacks that will lead you on different paths throughout your escape (cycling-link:"*", "Men and women have differences that lead them down very different paths while trying to escape North Korea. Men are forced to serve ten years in the military and it is almost impossible to escape North Korea while doing military service. At the same time, men are seen as less suspicious in the eyes of the government. Women on the other hand can often escape by becoming prostitutes for men in China, but only if they cross the border without being discovered, which is extremely hard for a female to do. Men are more likely to be able to bribe guards who let them into China to trade (Sources 8, 9, and 12)").
[[Be a fourteen-year-old girl from Kapsan County in the province of Ryanggang.]]
[[Be a fifteen-year-old boy from the nation's capital, Pyongyang.]]You are a young teenaged girl from Ryanggang province in North Korea. You live in Kapsan County, not far from China, with your mother and twelve-year-old sister. You used to live in big city of Chongjin, but your father lost his job a year and a half ago, forcing your family to move. Since your relocation, you and your sister Hayun have had to quit school due to financial difficulties (cycling-link:"*", "It was common for children to quit school and sell their textbooks for money when their parents were incapable of fully providing for the family. Some kids were not able to complete middle school, leaving their academic and social skills stunted in comparison to children in their bordering countries, China and South Korea (Sources 6 and 9)"). Your house consists of two rooms and recently, you only have electricity for an hour every week. A few months ago, your father decided to cross the border into China in search of a job, or even just a bit of food. You know it wasn't safe for him to go, but your family is starving, so he had no choice. Now that Kim Il-Sung has died, you have lost hope for your country. You know you need to get out somehow, before it's too late. You don't want to leave your mother and sister behind, but you also know that you have a better chance of escaping if you are alone. You contemplate what to do (cycling-link:"*","When beginning one's journey escaping North Korea, there are two choices that must be made before everything else. Firstly, people must decide they <em>want</em> to escape. Secondly, if they have family or friends, they must decide if they will escape with them. It is not uncommon that a person who wants to emmigrate decides not to because they don't want to put their family in danger (Source 6)").
[[Tell your mother and sister of your plans to escape. Offer for them to come with you.]]
[[Leave quietly without letting them know.]]You are a teenaged boy from Pyongyang, the capital of Joseon (cycling-link: "*", "North Korea is referred to as Joseon by its residents because Joseon was the name of the dynasty that ruled over Korean for 500 years (Source 7)"). For your whole life you have been devoted to your country and have planned to be a military general one day, like your father. Recently, though, you've noticed things about (cycling-link:"<em>Joseon</em>","North Korea") that you didn't before. In June, when you went to visit your grandparents in Songnim, you saw (cycling-link:"<em>kotjebi</em>","street boys with a very low social status") covered in dirt, lining the sidewalks by the train station. You realized that they weren't waiting to board the train, but most of them were laying down, as if they were sleeping there (cycling-link: "*", "There were so few people living on the streets in the capital at the time that if you were from Pyongyang and did not travel much, you might not have had much knowledge about what was happening in the rest of the country (Source 9)"). When you returned from your visit, you paid more attention to the signs on the buildings of Pyongyang. You noticed multiple flyers for public executions, things you didn't think the government did to people. Today, you realized that, though all you study at school anymore is how great Kim Jong-Il, the new leader, is, you have never seen this great leader in person. In fact, no one has (cycling-link:"*", "In the months after Kim Il-Sung's death, Kim Jong-Il did not show his face as a way of showing respect to his father by being in mourning. This frightened the North Korean people, though, because in there eyes, they had simply not seen their new great leader (Sources 1 and 9) "). As you become increasingly worried about the situation in Joseon, you decide that you need to know what's going on. You need information from the outside world. You aren't sure where to go since you've always been taught that people from other countries are evil and want to persecute North Koreans. Pyongyang is about equidistant from both China and South Korea. You must pick to go where you think is safest.
[[Begin your route towards China.]]
[[Begin your route towards South Korea.]]You tell your family about your desire to flee North Korea. You explain that you plan on going through Hyesan to reach China. Your mother is worried about your safety on this trip, but she is more worried about your safety if you stay here. She decides to stay in North Korea in case your father comes back to look for her, (cycling-link:"*", "Many people that had family who travelled and never came back were weary to leave their homes in the hope their family might return") though she tells you to take your sister with you. You and Hayun pack what little things you have, say goodbye to your mother, and begin the trip to China. You have a small amount of money with you. You can hire a broker who will help you safely get to China, or you can attempt to escape on your own (cycling-link: "*", "Brokers are people who help other people defect from one place to another. North Korean brokers have helped thousands of people over the years and continue to increase the amount of people they help to this day (Sources 13 and 15)").
[[Hire a broker.]]
[[Go by yourselves.]]Though you will miss your mother and sister, you know that the journey to China will be difficult enough by yourself and you don’t want to put them in danger. You decide to leave at night, hoping that if you escape successfully, you can hire a (cycling-link:"<em>broker</em>","person who smuggles people across country's borders") to bring them to you.
You have heard about a group of young women called the Nightflowers who are prostitutes hired by Chinese men. You know of a few groups of Nightflowers in Hyesan, which is right across the border from China. You could go work for them in order to earn enough money for a broker who will smuggle you into China (cycling-link:"*", "The Nightflowers are groups of women who are prostitutes for rich men in both North Korea and China. While it is illegal to be involved in this buisness, most of the time the male officials could be bribed by the women so that they were not put in jail. While people in North Korea are aware that this organization exists, it is not commonly known by people outside of the country. Even in China, the men who use this like to keep it on the down-low (Sources 8 and 9)").
[[Try to find the Nightflowers and work for them.]]
[[Forget about the Nightflowers and escape on your own.]]You decide you want to try to escape through China. You begin to head North by train. Since you are from the capital, you are allowed to travel without explicit permission, just your license, but that doesn't mean that authorities won't be suspicious. Recently, even people of your songbun, (cycling-link:"<em>the haeksim songbun,</em", "the most loyal and privledged class,") have been arrested without proof of a crime (cycling-link: "*", "Certain people in North Korea are not allowed to travel. If they have been to a prision camp or anything like that, they have a mark on their passport that lets them be immediately discovered. Many people do not even have a passport as the process to get one continues to become increasingly difficult since it is largely based on what the government wants. Songbuns, similar to social status', are a way of distinguishing how helpful one's family has been to the government. Hakesim is at the highest level, and people from this class occasionally get privledges. The lower classes are Dongyo and Choktae. People from the Choktae class are generally seen as hostile criminals and are discriminated against heavily (Source 4)").
When you arrive in T'aech'on, you discover that the next train you want to take is currently not running due to a lack of electricity (cycling-link: "*", "Often times North Korea as a whole country would run out of electricity, making it hard for buisnesses, including transportation to operate. If someone needed to get somewhere, it was their choice whether to walk, or wait in hopes that electricity would come back soon (Source 9)"). When you look around the train station, you spot two guards positioned at each door in addition to the men checking people's passports. You could wait for your train to come, though you don't know how long that will be. Otherwise, you will have to travel by foot and Uliju, your final destination, is nearly 18 miles away.
[[Wait for your train to arrive at the station.]]
[[Leave and begin traveling by foot.]]You decide you want to escape through South Korea. You take one last look at Pyongyang as you board the train that will take you as close as is allowed to the (cycling-link:"<em>38th parallel.</em>", "border between North and South Korea.")
When you arrive at the train station in Kaesong, you realize that even though you are a few short miles away from escaping Joseon, you have not yet been through the most dangerous part of the journey. Since 1953, there has been a demilitarized zone between the two countries that is about 3 miles wide. North Korea's border control just before that zone is almost impossible to get through, and even if you make it past that, there are landmines in the ground just beyond the fence (cycling-link: "*", "In July of 1953, the Korean War ended, leaving the Korean Penninsula officially split into the North and South. Years beforehand, in 1945, at the end of World War II, the 38th parallel was used as a rough latitude line of boundary between the two places. A demilitarized zone was then added as an attempt to keep the peace. North Korea, however, put landmines on both sides of the gate that separates its country from the demilitarized zone as a line of defense against people trying to escape (Sources 6, 7, 9, and 16)"). You could hire a broker for help across the border, but being this close to border control, you never know if the broker is really a military officer in disguise.
[[Hire a broker for help.]]
[[Don't risk it. Find a way across yourself.]]You decide that if you and your sister want to reach China safely, you will need a broker to help.
The two of you walk a little ways until you reach a marketplace, your best chance to find a broker on such short notice (cycling-link: "*", "For people to hire brokers there was obviously no store to go to and get in touch with them. Often, you had to know someone who knew a broker to be able to get help. Sometimes though, brokers hung out in the marketplace, watching and discretely advertising for people that needed help (Source 9)"). After a while, you come across a seemingly trustworthy man willing to help, but his price is so high that you will be nearly out of money when you get to China. Even so, you know the price is worth your freedom. You and Hanyu follow the man as he begins to lead you to China.
[[Go to China.]]You and your sister are skeptical that hiring a broker would be a trap in addition to being extremely expensive (cycling-link: "*", "Sometimes, officials would pretend to be brokers in order to catch people who wanted to escape (Source 9)"). You decide that you can escape without any help, so you travel onward towards the Chinese border. Unfortunately, too late, you realize it is impossible to simply wade across the river without being caught by border control. A North Korean guard sees you running and catches up before you can hide.
You are sent to a re-education camp in North Korea. Though the facilities and conditions are bad, they allow you to stay with your sister. You are released after four months and after the horrors of the camp, you and Hayun decide to return to Kapsan to live with your mother (cycling-link: "*", "People were sent to re-education camps or <em>prision camps</em> for kwan-il-so crimes. These crimes consisted of wrong-doing, wrong-thought, wrong-knowledge, wrong-association, and wrong-class-background. People who had thoughts of escaping North Korea were sometimes considered guilty of wrong-thought if they were lucky, and were only sentenced to a few months in a camp. People guilty of political crimes, or kyo-hwa-so crimes, such as becoming pregnant by a Chinese man, were able to be sentanced by death (Source 4)"). You have now lost hope for escaping your country as well as living in it.
[[The End.]]You begin to look for an organization of Nightflowers as close to the border as possible. You eventually come across a woman in need of more young girls like you. She informs you that there is a middle aged Chinese man expecting to pick up a girl later in the day. Since the girl he expects has fallen quite ill, she offers the job to you. She mentions that life this way is not always pretty, but you can earn more money than just about anywhere else in the country (cycling-link: "*", "Often, young girls in hope of a few extra won did not fully understand what they were signing up for. If caught by the North Korean or Chinese government, they could be arrested, or even executed for acts of treason. In addition, they often did not comprehend the danger of being with a man who only wanted to take advantage of them. People who employed these girls were more than usually not honest about the full dangers of the job (Source 8)").
[[Take the job.]]
[[Leave the woman.]]Though working for the Nightflowers might earn you money, you would rather not be a prostitute. You decide to continue on through Hyesan and find a way across the border without a broker and without the Nightflowers.
About a mile away from the first signs of border control, you pause. You're starting to get nervous and are having second thoughts about leaving your country. As you stand there, a car pulls up beside you. frightened, you don't know if you should run or not (cycling-link: "*", "In reality, this is unlikely happening so close to the Chinese-North Korean border, although it is possible that a person would come up to someone walking by themselves and has been accounted for on certain occasions").
[[Run away!]]
[[Stay to see who it is.]]You decide it's safer to wait out at the train station for the next train to Uliju. You find a bench and take a seat, having nothing better to do than sleep. You are quickly awoken by a commotion close by. As the sun begins to set, the station guards are going around, kicking the kotjebi out on the streets (cycling-link: "*", "In North Korea, homeless people are not allowed to sleep inside any buildings and the guards often have to forcibly remove people from public places (Source 8)"). You look around for a place to hide, but see nothing. The guards put you, too, out on the streets.
There, you come across a gang. Their leader challenges you to a fight, but you have never before learned combat, making you shy away. The gang circles you and tells you that you must now work under them, stealing food from nearby markets (cycling-link: "*", "Gangs of young men were extremely common in North Korea. When gangs met up, they would fight for control of the nearest marketplace. This meant that no other gang would be able to steal from their market. If a gang didn't want to fight, the other option was to join them (Source 9)"). You see one way out of the circle they have trapped you in, but trying to outrun five boys a few years older than you would be quite the challenge.
[[Work for the gang.]]
[[Take your chance and run.]]You know that trying to escape to the South by yourself is extremely dangerous. Though there are cons to getting a broker, including the expense, you decide you have a better shot of getting to South Korea with a broker. Fortunately, there are many brokers this close to South Korea, so you are able to easily find one that takes a cheaper price than most (cycling-link: "*", "The price of getting a broker in North Korea is around 10,000 USD, and not many people could afford a broker that was not personally connected to them somehow. Since it is such a dangerous job, people often charged high prices (Source 12)").
He tells you that he will be driving you across the border in his car. He regularly makes deliveries under the pretense of trading food where he meets South Korean guards on the other side of the demilitarized zone. Today, he will hide you with his deliveries until you cross the border into South Korea. Although you are nervous about the situation, you agree to it and hide in his trunk.
[[Go to South Korea.]]You decide that though you have the money for a broker, you don't want the risk that comes with it. You embrace the fact that you will start and end this journey alone.
You are now close enough that you can see the large black gate which separates Joseon from South Korea. Oddly enough, you don't see guards this close to the border. You stand where you are for a moment, trying to decide how to approach the gate. You walk around trying to find a place where the gate is shortest in the hopes that you might be able to jump over. Eventually, you find a broken down portion of the gate. Though you aren't the best jumper in the world, you see your freedom just feet away from you, so you decide to give it a try. You get a running start, but as you lift one leg, preparing for the jump, you feel a shift in the ground, and everything goes black.
While trying to jump over the border gate, you stepped on a land mine, North Korea's final defense against people trying to escape (cycling-link: "*", "Sadly, this is a quite possible ending to a hopeful defector's life. North Korea has many land mines by the border between it and it's Southern partner in order to prevent as many people from escaping as possible. This is also a true description of what the gate between the two countries looks like. In many places it is black, winding, pointy, and worn down (Sources 1 and 8)"). In Pyongyang, they never spoke about such horrific things, so you were not prepared. You were born and killed in North Korea, but your dedication to Kim Il-Sung died long before you did.
[[The End.]]You safely make it across the border and into China, but that does not mean you are safe forever. North Korean refugees are seen as illegal immigrants by the Chinese government. If discovered, you and your sister will be sent back to North Korea (cycling-link: "*", "In 1998, China agreed to a border protocol with North Korea where they said they would forcibly return any North Korean refugees. Even before 1998, China sent many defectors back to their country where they would be considered a political traitor, and most likely sentanced to a public execution (Sources 5, 9, and 13)"). You know of a city called Songjianghe where there is a large population of Koreans. You could be safe amongst people that speak your language (cycling-link: "*", "In reality, a girl from Hyesan would not be rich or knowledgeable enough to know about a city in China full of ethnic Koreans, but for Twine purposes, it makes the story more interesting").
[[Go to Songjianghe.]]
[[Try to reach a third country.]]You spend months in Songjianghe safely, amongst many Koreans, both from the North and South. Eventually though, authorities crack down on Korean populations in China since so many defectors hide out in those places. During your interrogation, a Chinese officer detects your North Korean accent, and without any further questions, you are sent on a truck back to North Korea (cycling-link: "*", "After the border protocol was set in place in 1998, the Chinese government began actively searching for North Korean refugees. They would interrogate every Korean in China and if they thought they had a slight North Korean accent, they were automatically sent to North Korea (Source 15)"). During the interrogation, you were separated from your sister. You never saw Hayun again.
You live out the rest of your days completing forced labor in a detention center in North Korea. Due to the combination of hard labor and lack of food, you die after about four months from starvation while in the detention center (cycling-link: "*", "The conditions in North Korean detention centers are so bad that to this day, many people die before they are ever released (Source 4)").
[[The End.]]In order to finally feel safe, you decide that it is worth the cost to buy fake passports and plane tickets for you and your sister to get to Thailand (cycling-link: "*", "The only way for North Korean defectors to be truly safe is by reaching a third country when they escape through China. The most common places to immigrate to are Laos and Thailand, and both of these countries accept North Korean refugees (Sources 13 and 15)"). Getting through the airport in China undetected is hard, but you succeed to get on the plane. Though you now have no money, you have your sister and are hours away from being free.
When you land in Thailand, you let a securituy guard know that you and Hayun need help. Immediately, he understands where you are from and shows you to a room where people can help you. Everything about this is overwhelming you, but when you are shown to a hotel that is housing other North Koreans, you finally take a breath, realizing you have safely escaped the oppression of your homeland.
[[The End.]](cycling-link:"<em>Kkeut.</em>", "The End.")
You have completed your journey trying to escape North Korea.
You may restart the journey if you wish to take a different path.
[[Start]]
[[Bibliography]]
[[Author's Note]]Before the car comes to a full stop you start to sprint away, worried about who was driving. While in a state of panic, you accidentally run too close to the guards at the border. One of them sees you, and by the time you start to run in the opposite direction, it's too late. The guards catch you and escort you back to Kapsan County. They do not put you in a detention center, but rather, they give you away to a former military officer who lives in Kapsan. You live with him for three years until he finally lets you return to your home (cycling-link: "*", "Sometimes, young women would be given away like a slave. Though their conditions were usually better than in detention centers, they never knew what would happen from day to day (Source 8)"). When you get to your old house, you find it abandoned. Though you can live there again, you are never able to track down your mother and sister.
[[The End.]]You're scared, but curiosity gets the best of you. You stay where you are and wait for the driver of the car to show themselves. Slowly, the car window is rolled down to reveal the face of a middle aged man. He beckons you to come closer and you do. He explains that he is from Pyongyang, the capital, and he does all of his work trading with China. Once a month he drives to Hyesan and bribes the guards to let him across and into China for two days, then he returns (cycling-link: "*", "Many North Koreans of high status bribe border guards to allow them to trade in China. This allows them to get much more money than they would selling things in North Korea (Source 13)"). He says that many times, he has taken young people wishing to escape with him. When he offers for you to come with him, you accept. Yes, there are risks, however; you believe you have a better shot at freedom with the help of this man. You quickly get in the trunk of his car and hope for the best.
As the trunk opens, what feels like days later, you realize that you're in China. The man lets you out and tells you to run until you can't anymore. You thank him and not a second later, you're on your feet. As you run past a supermarket, you stop when a man catches your eye. As you begin to walk towards him, he turns to look at you, then rushes towards you. Startled, you jump back before realizing that the man is your father. From the market, he brings you to his home and explains that he could have never come back to North Korea, so instead, he waited just across the border in China, hoping you would one day find him (cycling-link:"*", "Lucky but not unheard of, people were occasionally reunited with their family or friends after escaping North Korea").
The two of you live together for many years, constantly sending brokers to North Korea to try and get your mother and sister into China. Though you haven't been able to yet, you never give up hope.
[[The End.]]Anxious for money and the opportunity to leave North Korea, even if for a few days, you accept the job. When the man comes, he inspects you. After approving of you, he decides to take you back to China with him. Once you reach China, you never look back. You live with him for about a year until one day when he goes out to get groceries. While you're home alone, an old neighbor knocks on the door in need of help carrying something from their garden. When you answer the door with broken Mandarin, they notice that you are not Chinese. Later that day, police officers swarm your house, demanding to see you. When you meet the officers, they take you away without a word and send you to North Korea (cycling-link: "*", "If a North Korean is discovered in China, they are immediately returned to North Korea where they will await a prision sentence. Almost always, their crime will be found politically motivated, calling for the death penalty (Source 4)"). There, you await a sentence from the government.
After a day, they decide that since you were living with a Chinese man, your crime was an act of treason, politically motivated. You are sentenced to a public execution in Pyongyang.
[[The End.]]You are too frightened to accept the job, so you say goodbye to the woman and wish her well. Deflated, you realize that you are not ready for this journey. You do not have enough money to escape without taking a job such as one with the Nightflowers, but you are also too afraid to take a job. Though you imagine a better life for yourself outside North Korea, you decide to return home with the newfound acknowledgement that escaping a country such as this is much too hard for everyone to do (cycling-link:"*", "Many people who have the desire to escape North Korea end up not acting on that desire. For one reason or another, whether it be not enough money, or a previous experience gone wrong, it is important to note that not everyone who sets out to escape ends up doing so (Source 8)").
[[The End.]]You decide walking towards Uliju is always the better option than stopping to waste time. Sure enough, as the sun begins to rise, you see the Yalu River, marking the border between China and North Korea. Feeling the adrenaline now, you stay clear of the guards, and jump in the river. In just minutes, you climb onto the shore, now in China. You sprint for the final time past Chinese border control and stop once you feel you have reached a safe place (cycling-link: "*", "The description of how you escaped in this passage is not considered historical. While it could happen, it is unlikely to be such a simple escape, and would probably involve much more"). As you collapse on the ground, more exhausted than you've ever been before, you acknowledge that you escaped Joseon. You feel sorry for your country, which used to be a great power. One day, you think, you will return to Joseon, only this time as its great leader, and save your people from the regime.
[[The End.]]You stop about 10 miles out from Uliju. You find a hotel that is fairly cheap and not crawling with military officials. When you check in, you present your travel license showing that you are from Pyongyang. The lady working there gives you a funny look, but without another word hands you keys to your room. You get a good nights rest and awake in the morning to continue your journey.
When you walk downstairs the next day, you quickly gather that something is wrong. You try to rush past a few men gathered by the door, but they stop you. They ask if you are alone, and you reply yes. It's then, when they grab you by the arms and take you to their car, that you realize your fatal mistake. Boys from the capital do not travel this far north by themselves. The men take you back to Pyongyang and throw you in the city jail. You wait a few hours for your father to come pick you up. Suddenly, a few hours becomes days. Then weeks, then months. Your father still hasn't come for you, and all the guards ever say is, "how unfortunate for your father." (cycling-link: "*", "When people are arrested, often times their family members are punished as well. In this case, we don't know what happened to the boy's father, but it would not be an uncommon punishment for him to be kicked out of his home in Pyongyang, or sentanced to a few weeks of labor in a camp of some sort (Sources 4, 6, and 8)")
[[The End.]]Thinking it is your best option, you decide to not try and outrun the gang. You agree to work for them, thinking that eventually, you could find an opportunity to escape.
You stay with the gang for three weeks, hiding out in abandoned sheds, stealing food from marketplaces, and drinking any soju you can get your hands on. They teach you skills like how to fight and how to make a sword with a tree branch. Though this is very different from your life in Pyongyang, as you get used to it, you decide it is not bad at all (cycling-link: "*", "Historically, gangs have been a smart way to live in North Korea. As a new member of a gang, you learn from the older members, and then when you become older, you teach the younger members. This results in a passing down of life skills. Recently, though, there have been reports of the police targeting gangs more than ever, which doesn't allow for the cycle of learning-teaching-learning (Sources 6, 9, and 10)"). The five other boys in the gang become your brothers, even though you are only with them for a short time.
You begin to realize that being gone so long is dangerous. People will be looking for you and that will make your escape more difficult. Even so, you love your brothers. Will you stay with them, or escape with them (cycling-link: "*", "In many defectors' accounts of life in North Korea, they mention people that they met by chance who became important to them. These people would later become huge factors in their decision to escape or not (Source 9)")?
[[Escape and offer for your gang to come with you.]]
[[Stay and live with your gang in T'aech'on.]]You see an opening and take it. You run through the boys as fast as you can, not thinking twice about where you are headed. After a few minutes, you look back, thinking you've lost them. When you turn back around you see two of the boys standing in front of you. They tell you that the others went to tip off the police about you (cycling-link: "*", "Some gangs are known to have agreements with the local police that involve them turning in other people in return for their lives outside of a jail cell (Sources 8 and 9)").
A few minutes later, two men in uniform come and pick you up by the arms. "Sorry," the boys say. "We need to be sure you won't be competition for us around here." With that, you're taken off to the Gushoo, hopefully being allowed to return to Pyongyang one day.
[[The End.]]You decide leaving is too dangerous and you don't want to be separated from your brothers. Though staying in T'aech'on was not the outcome you intended, you are more happy with your gang than you were with your father at home. Even so, life is different from Pyongyang, and now, you never know if you will have a next meal.
You and your brothers spend your days robbing marketplaces the same as you always have and drinking (cycling-link:"<em>soju</em>","an alcoholic beverage") by the lake. For months, everything is fine, until one day, when authorities storm the shed that you have been sleeping in. The men take you and your brothers to the (cycling-link:"<em>gushoo</em>", "labor camp for children") where you spend the rest of your life. You and your brothers are starved, beaten, and forced to work in the fields for the government of Joseon. One by one, your brothers begin to die of disease and starvation and you realize that you will soon follow them (cycling-link: "*", "The gushoo is a forced labor camp for children, often children without parents. The conditions at these camps are so poor that most people either die while there, or die shortly after being released (Source 4)").
When you finally pass, you were proud to have died, not as a boy from Pyongyang, groomed to be a military official punishing the innocent citizens of Joseon, but as a boy who fought alongside his brothers and defied his abusive homeland.
[[The End.]]You know that staying at the station for a long time could make the guards suspicious of you, and since you have no idea when your train will arrive, it's better to walk.
You walk for hours, realizing that you have to make up for the lost time without the train. As the sun begins to set, you realize just how tired you are. You are approaching a small town where you might be able to find a place to stay the night and rest. Otherwise, you will have to continue on for hours until you reach China (cycling-link: "*", "It is important to note that the option for rest was not usually an option for people trying to escape on foot. Walking long distances such as this was not unheard of, and even considered common, but the luxury to rest was uncommon. The reason this character has this choice is because it makes a bigger point that being from Pyongyang does give you a financial advantage (Source 9)").
[[Keep walking towards Uliju. You can rest in China.]]
[[Stop and find a hotel. Continue your trip in the morning.]]You decide that you want to move towards your original goal: Escaping Joseon. You still don't want to leave your brothers behind though, so you ask them if they will join you on your journey. Many of them say no. They are afraid of the danger and still have hope that one day, their families may come back to T'aech'on looking for them. Raehyan, on the other hand, also has hopes to get out of North Korea. The two of you waste no time, and sadly say goodbye to the rest of your gang while you pack up.
Before you get too far away from your former home, you realize you left with less won than you thought. You and Raehyan head back to the shed for some more money. When you reach the shed, you see an odd figuration of stones outside and pause for a second. You are confused by the stones since they look as if a person has moved them into that formation, and your brothers do not like to draw attention to their hideout (cycling-link: "*", "Though this is a slightly strange way of including this point, stones were a common way for people to communicate with others. With these stones, people could warn their friends or family if a house had been searched or if they shouldn't return to a place (Source 9)"). You still need the won and Raehyan asks what you should do.
[[Ignore the rocks and go inside to grab the won.]]
[[Run from the shed. Something isn't right.]] Although you find the stone configuration strange, you assume it's only your brothers playing around. You and Raehyan enter the shed for the won.
As you look around the home that you left only half an hour ago, you see the few belongings your brothers own scattered around the place. Where your brothers should be stand two men you don't know in their place. Before you know it, Raehyan bolts out the door and one of the men follows. Before you can make a move, the second man grabs your arms and says, "I'll take you to where your friends are." Hours later, you and Raehyan end up in the (cycling-link:"<em>gushoo,</em>", "labor camp for children,") but not the same one they took your brothers to.
Raehyan doesn't live for very long in the gushoo and dies after a few months due to malnutrition (cycling-link: "*", "The gushoo is a forced labor camp for children, often children without parents. The conditions at these camps are so poor that most people either die while there, or die shortly after being released (Source 4)"). You try to bribe the guards a few times, saying that you are a boy from the capital, but they don't let you go. Finally, after a year, they set you free. You are severly malnourished and struggle to walk very far. Eventually, you find a field of grass to lie down in. You never wake back up.
[[The End.]]On instinct, you tell Raehyan to run. Once he starts running, you follow, neither of you knowing where you are running to. When you feel like you're far enough away from the shed, you slow to a walk and discuss where you plan to go. Raehyan suggests that you continue your attempted escape to China. Thinking that seems like the best option, you agree, and the two of you begin the three day trek to Uliju.
You start to see China as the sun begins to rise above the horizion. Your plan is to bribe the guards with nearly all the money you have left, money you saved by starving yourselves the past few days. You've heard that if you give them enough won, the guards will let you swim right across. You only pray this myth is true.
Sure enough, (cycling-link:"<em>13,000,000 won</em>", "10,000 USD") was enough, and the guard let you and Raehyan past (cycling-link: "*", "It is a commonly known fact among most North Koreans and many people in China that guards at the border take bribes on the daily to let people through. It is important to note, though, that the amount of money the boys had to give the guard (13,000,000 won) is only because 'you', in this story, were from Pyongyang. Most street boys trying to escape would not even have this kind of money to bribe the guards if it was their whole life savings (Sources 8 and 9)"). Not knowing how to swim made crossing the Yalu River quite nerve-wracking. The two of you held onto each other as you doggy-paddled across the river.
Once you pull yourselves onto land, you take a deep breath. You are not completely safe in China, but then again, you have not felt safe in a long time. For now, you and Raehyang are free.
[[The End.]]Eventually, the trunk is opened. You take a look around and see a handful of soldiers circled around the car. "Oh no," you think. "The government got us." Before you can make a move, one of the soldiers speaks: "Welcome to South Korea."
One of the men drives you away from the border and into the city. There, you are asked for anything that can identify who you are. You give them your train pass. Because you came directly from North Korea, they tell you that you have to be held in a detention center for a few days to complete a hearing. They will interview you to make sure you are not a government spy while they work on the paperwork that allows you to have legally emmigrated from Joseon (cycling-link: "*", "Every North Korean that flees to South Korea must sumbit to a hearing which can take up to 180 days depending on their status and background in North Korea. This is to ensure that they are not North Korean government spies (Source 4)").
A few days unfortunately turns out to be more like three months. You are questioned about everything, even things that you do not understand. Since you are from Pyongyang, they refuse to give you a South Korean citizenship until you are officially cleared by authorities. Eventually, they release you from the detention center with a South Korean passport and citizenship. Finally, you are safe, but this is not the end of your integration into your new country.
You are required to go to (cycling-link:"<em>Hanawon</em>", "a facility designed to help refugees settle into South Korea") for three months where you will attend classes, recieve therapy, and go on field trips into society to learn about everyday situations (cycling-link: "*", "Over the course of twelve weeks, North Koreans take over 400 hours of classes in a Hanawon center in Anseong, just south of Seoul. Hanawon is designed to help ease the transition for North Koreans living in South Korea. The program is divided by 123 hours of instruction on South Korean society, 49 hours of a program to help with emotional stability and health issues, 51 hours of instruction on government, and lessons on how to become more independent, where refugees can find assistance, and field trips to learn how to deal with everyday situations. Hanawon's class topics include democracy, market economy, history, everyday life, emotional stability, and language. Language classes have proved necessary because even though North and South Koreans technically speak the same language, since the Koreas split in two, it is estimated that over 3,000 different terms have emerged in everyday life (Sources 4 and 16)"). After you complete your time at Hanawon, you are given two choices. You may leave Hanawon and try to find a job while you recieve financial aid and a place to stay from the government. If you do not yet feel like you are ready for that, though, you are told that you can complete another course, this time a month long, at a (cycling-link:"<em>Hana center.</em>", "center that helpes refugees find jobs and learn about other opportunities.") Both options will throw you further into South Korean society.
[[Leave Hanawon and try to find a job.]]
[[Spend more time at a Hana center to be better prepared for life.]]You decide that you are done with classes and you think you are now able to be an independent person in your new country. You leave Hanawon and rent an appartment with the money you recieve from financial aid. When the next job fair is near by, you go, hoping to find your new life. While there are many jobs open, employers struggle to hire you because you did not attend a prestegious university in South Korea (cycling-link: "*", "Defectors recieve a small financial aid for their first 2.5 years living in South Korea as they attempt to find jobs. Job fairs are very popular near the big cities in South Korea. People can go and talk to employers of multiple different companies. For North Korean defectors, though these job fairs are helpful in condensing dozens of jobs into one place, being hired without having gone to college is difficult. South Korea puts a lot of stock in prestigious colleges, so for North Korean defectors, 'good' jobs are practically off the table (Source 4)"). You end up getting one of the only jobs they will hire you for as the janitor for a company in Seoul. Since it's better than nothing, you take the job.
For the next few years, you go through some hard times. Even though North and South Korea used to be one country, they are now so different that you struggle to smoothly integrate into South Korea. You still require mental health support and all you'd really like to have is a friend, but the stigma around North Korean refugees is so great that it drives most people away (cycling-link: "*", "While South Korea has many systems set up as an attempt to help defectors with life in the South, many of these defectors have mental health issues that cannot be helped by just Hanawon (Source 4)"). Your life is better here than it was in Joseon, but you know that you have the potential to make your life even better in South Korea.
[[The End.]]Although you have gone through some good preparation already, you know that North and South Korea are so different. You decide to take a course at a Hana center to get extra support while you settle in since you are still so young. There, the staff helps you find a job waiting tables at a restaurant (cycling-link: "*", "Hana centers are optional places to go for extra help becoming confortable in South Korea. Rather than making defectors sit through more classes, they help them find a support system as they experience things for the first time. For example, many people that choose not to go to a Hana center say that their first time riding the subway is a very stressful situation for them. On the flip side, those that spend time at Hana feel more prepared for life in South Korea and are only released once they have a place to stay and at least a part-time job. Finding jobs is extremely important for North Korean defectors since their unemployment rate in South Korea is 9.7% compared to the 2.7% unemployment rate for native South Koreans (Source 4)"). Your work colleagues treat you well, always checking on you. Soon, they become like your family and you begin to thrive in your new country alongside your support system. At just fifteen years old, you began a new life for yourself away from the dictatorship of Joseon and in the true democratic Korea.
[[The End.]]I hope you enjoy(ed) your simulated journey escaping North Korea in the 1990s. This topic is one very interesting to me, so I hope I did a good job at making this an interesting game and learning experience for you. I could have made this five times longer than it currently is and added even more footnotes, but I believe this is the right length. One thing I left out that I wanted to mention is the fact that most people have a lot of trouble just making the decision to leave their home. Your character will start with that choice already decided, but for many people, that is an extremely hard choice to make for a number of reasons. I think it's also important to note the fact that there is not an abundance of information known about what North Korea was like for defectors in the years after Kim Il-Sung died. In fact, there is very little known about North Korea at all. I considered doing my project on the Korean War due to the limited amount of information about the current state of North Korea, however; through having active discussions with a primary source and reading many books about the lives of defectors, I feel as though I have just enough information on this topic to accurately present it to you. I do want to make sure it is known that these choices are mainly based off of the lives of four North Korean defectors, although this is an archetype, so of course, there are many other paths that one can take on a journey such as this. I encourage you, please, look beyond this game and learn as much as you can about the lives of people in the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea, which is neither democratic, nor a republic. Though it may take a bit of digging, the information you will find is some of the most interesting information in the world.
I hope this game opens your eyes a little bit on some of the immigration policies in China and South Korea, as well as allows you inside the mind of someone trying to escape their oppresive homeland.
XO -- A.Z.
[[Start]]
[[Begin Your Journey]]