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Escape from North Korea

For those fleeing their brutal homeland, the 2,000 perilous miles across China are just the beginning. Then comes the challenge of making a new life.

/2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-01-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-01.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang China In the border city of Yanji a missionary cautiously looks for North Koreans needing help on their long journey to freedom.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-02-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-02.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang Borderlands Barbed wire marks the high-security zone where the frontiers of Russia, China, and North Korea meet at the Tumen River. Elsewhere the border is more porous.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-03-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-03.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang North Korea Peering from a bunker on the Tumen River, soldiers have orders to shoot anyone trying to sneak into or out of North Korea. Cross-shaped posts possibly support electrical wires. Many guards take bribes to let defectors cross to China.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-04-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-04.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang North Korea On a frigid December day, workers gather at a dilapidated collective farm in North Hamgyong Province, near the Chinese border. The North Korean government is believed to station only loyal citizens along its northern frontier, depending on them to report suspicious activity. This is the poorest, most famine-prone region of North Korea, and it's the area from which most defectors come.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-05-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-05.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang China The defector called Black in the story stole across the frozen Tumen at night. In China he hid in a church shelter, fearing arrest and deportation.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-06-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-06.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang China Identifying herself only as "Mrs. Lee," a defector in Yanji was unwilling to have her full face shown, concerned that if North Korean officials recognized her they would punish family members still living across the border. The 28-year-old has been hiding in China for five years, waiting for the day to make her escape. She said she'd been working in the sex trade, based at a karaoke bar, a job forced on many young North Korean women refugees. Though she secretly returned to North Korea several times to give money to her family, she has saved enough cash to start planning her departure: On average the cost for guides and transportation is roughly the equivalent of $3,000. Several weeks after the photograph was taken, Mrs. Lee successfully fled to Thailand.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-07-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-07.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang China Under all-seeing eyes on an advertisement in a Beijing rail station, Chinese police often hunt for North Koreans attempting to escape cross-country by train.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-08-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-08.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang China Police crackdowns can net hundreds of victims. Lacking legal documents, Black eluded official questioning during his harrowing 40-hour rail journey by pretending to be asleep or intoxicated.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-09-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-09.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang China Defectors braced themselves against car sickness as their guide drove them along back roads, dodging police checkpoints near the Laos border. Women currently account for 80 percent of North Korean refugees fleeing through China.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-10-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-10.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang Laos Too exhausted to celebrate their exit from China, escapees rested briefly after 16 hours of hiking over mountains and through jungle. Still vulnerable to arrest in Laos, the defectors changed into clean clothes, camouflaging themselves as tourists.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-11-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-11.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang Mekong River Darkness settles over the river, providing cover for North Koreans who slip over in boats from Laos to Thailand.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-12-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-12.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang Thailand After an anxious crossing, the defectors known in the story as White (at left) and Red (at right) huddled in the back of a vehicle that met them on the Thai shore. Later that day both women reached Bangkok, where they requested asylum.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-13-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-13.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang Bangkok Giving thanks, North Korean refugees waiting for papers that will allow them to immigrate to the U.S. gather for a holiday meal at a shelter run by the Durihana Mission. Durihana, a Seoul-based Christian organization, has arranged safe passage for more than 700 defectors in the past ten years, including individuals whose stories are told in this article.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-14-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-14.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang Bangkok A busload of illegal workers from Cambodia and Myanmar enters an immigrant detention center. At times hundreds of North Koreans are also confined inside, waiting to be sent to South Korea. Seoul takes 40 or more a week.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-15-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-15.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang South Korea Before moving to an apartment, Black spent eight weeks at the Hanawon resettlement facility, where aid workers and loved ones wait to greet refugees on release days.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-16-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-16.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang Seoul A bare apartment feels almost like a palace to Black on his first day as a free, independent citizen of South Korea. Released from the Hanawon resettlement facility, Black, a Christian convert, moved in with little more than the bag of rice he'd been given by an aid agency and the wooden cross he has carried since his days of hiding in China. Though he doubts that North Korea will change its harsh policies forbidding religious worship, Black vows to return home someday, taking a Bible with him. "I will go to my village and bring God's message," he said. "I am willing to die if I can bring my family faith."]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-17-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-17.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang Seoul Now Black works a construction job during the day, saving money to rescue his family from North Korea. At night he savors the bright lights and high spirits of Seoul.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-18-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-18.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang Seoul Five years after reaching South Korea, defector Kim Yoon-hui, 27, looks totally up-to-date as she walks between classes on the campus of Hanyang University, where she's majoring in Chinese. Appearances are deceiving. Knowing almost nothing about the outside world until she escaped North Korea in 2001, Kim says that she often feels awkward and ill informed in her new world. "At parties people talk about movie stars and music and politics, and I usually don't know what they're talking about," she admits. "I smile and pretend I know everything, but I come home exhausted."]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-19-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-19.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang Seoul The gun is fake, but the message of outrage is real. Impersonating a Chinese soldier, pastor Peter Jung leads a street protest against China's forced repatriation of North Korean defectors. China arrests and deports as many as 300 defectors a week, refusing to treat North Korean border crossers as refugees, even though they face punishment if returned home. Jung himself was arrested in China, spending 18 months in prison for helping North Korean asylum seekers storm the South Korean consulate in Beijing.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-20-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-20.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang South Korea Days after reaching South Korea, White (center) had surgery for thyroid cancer. Outside her hospital room, overcome with gratitude, she prays with refugee Hana Kim and Chun Ki-won (right), the Seoul pastor who arranged her escape.]]> /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-21-714.jpg /2009/02/asian-migration/img/asian-60-21.jpg Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang Seoul Still fearful of revealing his name or face, a defector takes a break from studying for a medical exam in a home as unsettled as his prospects. A doctor in North Korea, the new South Korean citizen is finding that much of his training doesn't translate. But every day reminds him of why he came so far: "Here I'm free to talk, to look, and to never worry about food again."]]>