How the Only People to Escape North Korea in 2023 Made it Out

Famine. The brainwashing of your friends, family,  and children. Unreasonable laws that can land you and everyone you love in a labor camp or, worse,  publicly executed for infractions as minor as listening to foreign music. It’s simply too much for some North Koreans to bear. Desperate to escape, a select few take their lives into their own hands,  risking it all to escape Kim Jong Un’s grasp so they can start new lives in other countries.  But, unfortunately, the numbers that make it out alive

have been falling since 2005. According to  Statista, 1,384 North Koreans managed to defect in that year. The numbers generally increased  from there, reaching a peak of 2,914 in 2009. Then, it all started going downhill. For the next ten years, the number of people who successfully escaped kept declining,  with 2019 seeing the lowest number of defectors since 2005 – just 1,047 people. Then, the pandemic hit. And with it, North Korea panicked to the  point where it closed its borders completely

, even shutting down trade into the country. Just  229 people escaped in 2020, with 2021 seeing only 63 people make it away from North Korea.  The following year wasn’t much better – just 67 escaped in 2022 – but Statista says that  2023 has seen an uptick. Up to September 2023, 319 North Koreans had successfully fled. We don’t know all of their stories. Many have escaped and then disappeared into new  lives in the hope that Kim Jong Un will never find them. However, a select few have stories to

  share that reveal how the only people to escape North Korea managed the feat in 2023. It all starts with a man named Mr. Kim. At the beginning of 2023, he pulled off a daring  escape, fleeing North Korea by sea along with his mother, his brother’s family, and his heavily  pregnant wife. In an interview with the BBC, Mr. Kim – accompanied by a plainclothes  police officer – recounted his story. “There has been a lot of suffering,” he said as  he explained how North Korea responded to the corona

virus pandemic. Kim says that life in North  Korea became even harder once the pandemic hit, with the state broadcasting images of people  dying from the virus all over the world while instituting hard rules about what North  Koreans had to do to avoid death themselves. Propaganda ramped up. Kim – and his countrypeople – were told that failing to follow the new  pandemic rules would lead to all of North Korea being wiped out. Whenever a case of  COVID-19 was suspected, armed guards would arrive

to quarantine an entire town or village.  The people left inside couldn’t get out, meaning they had no access to food outside of what was  already in the town when it went into lockdown. Kim says that North Korean forces used  these quarantines to exert their control. After locking a town down for several days  – starving its people in the process – the government would arrive in trucks to deliver  food supplies. They claimed to be selling that food cheaply. But the reality was that the state  w

as using the pandemic to break people’s spirits. Kim says they’d make these claims to receive  praise, “Like starving your baby, then giving them a small amount, so it would thank you.” Questions started to arise in Kim’s mind. He began to question the state, believing that  it was using the pandemic to make a profit rather than instituting quarantines to help North Korea’s  people. And, as more people he knew caught and survived COVID-19, he began to question whether  the state had exaggerated

the dangers. He started to believe that North Korea’s harsh lockdowns  – which involved closing its own borders – were simply an excuse to suppress people. Worse yet, he began to hear about people starving. By closing its borders, North Korea had shut  out food supplies from other countries. Food prices rocketed, and families were left with very  little to eat. As Kim says, “You’d wake up one morning and hear: ‘Oh, someone in this district  starved to death.” Those reports kept rolling in, with

Kim pointing out that even North Korea’s  farmers were not immune from dwindling food supplies. The state would force those with  a poor harvest to deliver their own food, leaving them with precious little to eat. Perhaps it’s for these reasons that North Korea applied to the World Food  Program for help in March 2023. Regardless, Kim managed to survive in these  difficult conditions for years. He set himself up as a “grasshopper seller” – a peddler of  black-market goods – making enough money t

o afford stew for his family. As Kim pointed out,  “That counts as eating very well in North Korea.” Still, Kim was far from comfortable. Being a  black-market seller in North Korea means that people are constantly willing to report you for  your activities. After all, by reporting Kim, another North Korean could get their hands on  some much-needed food or financial aid. Kim says that he often had to make quick escapes when he  sensed that state authorities were on their way, packing up his mer

chandise and going into hiding  before resuming his illicit career the next day. He says that he’d fantasized about escaping  hundreds of times before he actually made his attempt. But it was the tragic death of one of his  friends that forced him over the edge. That friend wanted something simple to achieve in most other  countries – a divorce from his wife. But the state told him that divorce wasn’t possible unless  he submitted to being sent to a labor camp. Kim’s friend was devastated. He ac

cumulated more  and more debt, trying to find a way out of his marriage until it all became too much. Kim’s friend took his own life. He says that a visit to that friend’s bedroom was  one of the sparks that ignited his escape plan. According to Kim, his friend has clawed the walls  of his bedroom to the point where his nails came out. That’s how he knew that he needed to escape.  But Kim also knew that it wouldn’t be easy. He had a family in North Korea that he didn’t want  to leave behind, mea

ning that any escape plan he formulated would have to involve them. So, Kim started talking to his brother. It was an easy task to convince him. Along with  his wife, Kim’s brother had made his living by selling illicit seafood. The state cracked down,  making it impossible for him to fish even though he had his own boat. When Kim came calling,  he found a brother who was more than willing to plan an escape with him. That was in mid-2022. The brothers spent seven months plotting their  escape fr

om there, though they soon ran into challenges. Many of the traditional escape  routes – such as those along North Korea’s northern border with China – had been cut  off during the pandemic, meaning crossing over on foot wasn’t an option. Thankfully, it  wouldn’t have to be. Both Kim and his brother lived in the southwest of the country, giving them  another choice for escape – by sea to South Korea. But they couldn’t simply jump into  Kim’s brother’s boat and set sail. Permission to access the

waters they’d use  in their escape was needed, leading to Kim’s brother enrolling in a military scheme. He  would have permission to enter the waters, the military said, as long as he caught fish that  the soldiers could sell to fund their equipment. As Kim’s brother set to work in an “official”  capacity, Kim himself started speaking to the security guards and coastguards who patrolled  the coast. He made friends with several, learning about their shift patterns  and protocols until he realized

that, with the right timing, he and his brother could  take their boat out at night without being caught. The plan had started to take shape. But Kim still had another important task to complete – convincing his wife and elderly mother  to make the trip with him. Neither wanted to go. The risks were simply too great. Eventually,  through a lot of shouting and cajoling, Kim convinced his mother to make the trip by telling  her that he wouldn’t leave without her and that she’d be responsible for

his misery if she stayed. Some may see that as an underhanded tactic. But to Kim, it was necessary to ensure  his family stayed together. Unfortunately, his wife proved a tougher nut to crack.  She was steadfast in her refusal to leave until she discovered that she was pregnant. Kim  successfully argued that he and his wife were now going to be responsible for another life, and  they shouldn’t raise their child in a “hellhole.” There was still more to do before Kim could  execute his plan. Fearf

ul of how the state may treat his father’s grave when he left  – desecration of the graves of defectors’ relatives is apparently common in North Korea –  Kim boldly dug up his father’s remains. Taking the body into the nearby wilderness, Kim says that he  burned it to ashes, packing the cremated remains into an urn to take them with him. For the first time in a long, long time, his family was united. However, before they could make the trip, Kim would need to navigate a minefield in the  dark to

reach his brother’s boat. Pretending to pick herbs, Kim slowly mapped out a route  through the mines, which had been recently planted to stop people from leaving. It was a  risky gambit. But Kim knew this area wasn’t well patrolled because the mines were supposed to be  enough to stop people from running. He took his time. Worked out his route. And with the minefield  successfully mapped, he had one thing left to do: Wait. Kim needed both the weather and the tide to be in his favor if his  esca

pe was to be successful. So, he waited until a day when the low tide and rainy weather could be  used to obscure his escape. He didn’t need clear weather. That would make his boat easier to spot.  Kim needed a day when a sea warning was in place, which would usually only come when a storm was  brewing. He’d then have a chance to use it to obscure himself from North Korea’s radar systems,  gaining enough ground without being spotted that he could make his final push successfully. The big day came

. On May 6, a sea warning was issued, and the tide was coming in. Kim and his  family sneaked through the minefield and got to his brother’s boat. By 10 p.m., they were in the  water, sailing as far as they were permitted under his brother’s agreement with the military. And then they kept going. The low tide worked in Kim’s favor. It exposed  rocks, boulders, and reefs, all of which Kim and his family used to disguise their small vessel  from radar systems designed to catch unapproved boats in t

he water. That, combined with the  rain, allowed Kim to camouflage his vessel as floating rubbish. Slowly but surely, Kim’s boat  edged toward the maritime border until he felt it was safe to pick up speed. He activated the throttle. According to Kim, he looked back to see a  large ship following. The state knew that he was escaping. But the vessel it had sent simply  wasn’t fast enough to keep up, with Kim and his family managing to ride the currents until they  crossed the maritime border into

South Korea. “In that moment, all my tension released,”  says Kim. “I felt like I was collapsing.” Free for the first time of North Korea’s  oppression, Kim sailed his brother’s boat towards the island of Yeonpyeong, flashing  his lights as he did until the South Korean Navy spotted and rescued him and his family. However, he wasn’t yet free to start his new life. Ever wary of North Korean spies, the South Korean  National Intelligence Service detained Kim and his family for interviews to deter

mine if they were  truly defectors. Satisfied with Kim’s answers, the service then placed him and his family  into a resettlement facility, where they were taught about life in South Korea. The transition would be tough. In October 2024, the family moved into an  apartment together, just in time for Kim’s wife to give birth. Small things that seem so  common to most – such as riding the subway – were alien to Kim and his family. But they are  adapting. And, with time, they will fully ingratiate

themselves into their new society. “It feels like I was born a second time,” Kim says when talking about his new life. Speaking  to The Japan Times, he says that he’d never seen a plane flying through the sky when he lived  in North Korea. Now, he sees them regularly. And thanks to a special job fair held for  North Korean defectors, he has a chance of landing his dream role as a ship’s navigator. Mr. Kim’s escape set the blueprint for how North Korean defectors escape the country in 2023. In th

e days when several thousand people left North Korea every year, the country’s border  with China used to be the default choice. As Pastor Stephen Kim, who works for JM Missionary  to help North Koreans to escape via China, points out, about 1,000 people used to make  their way over the Chinese border annually. Since the pandemic, that number has dropped to  just 20, with Kim saying that he only knows of four of those escapees who managed to  make their way to South Korea. Others, he suspects, w

ere detained in China  and possibly sent back to North Korea. That leaves only the sea as an option for  escape in 2023, as Sokeel Park of Liberty in North Korea points out. He says that the  types of escapes conducted by people like Mr. Kim have always been rare – unsurprising  given what we know of Kim’s story – and that many likely don’t succeed. “These sea escapes take  meticulous planning, incredible bravery, and for everything to go miraculously well,” he says. “There must be many more Nor

th Koreans who have tried but not made it.” Mr. Kim was one of the lucky ones. Though not all of the details of his daring  escape have been independently corroborated, it’s clear that he placed himself (and his  family) in immense danger to build a new life. And he’s not the only one. Though Kim’s account is the most detailed story we have from a North Korean defector in 2023, he’s  not the only one who’s braved the harsh waters. In October 2023, several news outlets, including  Al Jazeera and

the BBC, reported on a small group of suspected defectors who were discovered by  the South Korean coastguard. The group of four had made their crossing in a small wooden boat,  with all claiming to want to defect to South Korea. They were found on the coast near Sokcho  – a city just 32 miles away from Seoul – though few details are known about this group. They were likely treated in the same way as Kim and his family, meaning they would have been  detained and questioned before being sent to a

resettlement facility. But in this case, the South  Korean authorities are remaining tight-lipped, perhaps to protect the anonymity of these  new defectors. Still, it appears that they followed the blueprint created by Mr. Kim.  Their small wooden boat was agile enough to evade the larger ships patrolling North Korea’s  waters. The craft was also inconspicuous enough to blend in with the boulders and reefs that  appear on the country’s coast during low tide. Like Kim, these four  defectors took

a massive risk. And sadly, any future defectors will likely  have to do the same. After all, crossing over into China isn’t an option anymore. And that’s  not solely because North Korea has shored up its defenses against defection across its border. China appears to be cooperating with North Korea. In December 2023, the South China Morning Post  reported on a visit made by a senior North Korean diplomat to Beijing. These rare talks are  apparently part of China’s efforts to strengthen its relat

ionship with North Korea, with the two  parties agreeing to improve their “strategic communication and coordination.” What that may mean on a geopolitical scale isn’t fully known. But for any who wish to escape from North Korea into China, this increased cooperation spells bad  news. A Reuters report published just days before the South China Morning Post article points out  that North Koreans who were in China have started “disappearing.” Reuters highlights information  from the Transitional Ju

stice Working Group, or TJWG, which claims that China sent 600 North  Koreans back for repatriation in October alone. TJWG says those 600 people have simply vanished. And it warns that they likely face imprisonment – perhaps in North Korea’s labor  camps – as well as sexual violence and execution now that they’re back “home.” TJWG says that the  defectors were loaded into buses and vans to be driven back into North Korea, with the incident  being the largest mass repatriation in many years. Most

of those sent back were women. Their prospects don’t look good, especially given that North Korea’s state  media brands defectors as “human scum.” For its part, China has downplayed its actions,  claiming that the North Koreans they sent back weren’t true defectors. Instead, they  had entered China for economic reasons, with Beijing sending them back being a simple case  of them following the letter of their own law. Many would disagree. From the outside looking in, it would appear as though a

deal has been struck.  In exchange for North Korea’s cooperation, China is sending defectors back to a country that will  treat them as less than human. It’s essentially a death sentence. Escaping into China simply isn’t  an option anymore, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see more groups being sent back to Pyongyang  as ties between China and North Korea strengthen. So, North Korean defectors are faced with  a near-impossible choice. On the one hand, they could try to take advantage of the fact

that  North Korea has recently reopened its borders with China to try to escape in the traditional way. It  won’t be easy. Even with trade routes reopened, Pyongyang has boosted border security  to the point where it’s much harder to cross now than it was before the pandemic. And even if somebody manages to make the crossing, they’ll enter a country that’s just as likely  to send them back as it is to accept them. Or, they do what Mr. Kim, his family, and  the four defectors found huddled in a

small wooden boat did – brave the dangerous waters that  separate North and South Korea. Believe it or not, that may be an even more difficult route out of  North Korea. Minefields near the coast. Patrolling ships. Radar systems. They all combine to stop  most escape attempts, even if the few who are successful at least make it to South Korea and a  new life where they’re accepted and rehabilitated. Alternatively, there’s a third option. According to the NK News, the third quarter of 2023 saw 40

North Korean defectors leave  China to reach South Korea. The outlet says that the threat of repatriation is so high  that the defectors are essentially willing to defect again, leaving the place they’ve  called home for several years to avoid the possibility of being sent back to North Korea. Hanna Song, who works for North Korean Human Rights – one of few organizations allowed to  interview defectors after they leave – says that most of the 40 came from China and that  many had “spent ten yea

rs or more there.” Perhaps two border crossings over  land would be safer than one via sea. By crossing into China before immediately making  their way to South Korea, defectors may have a chance to start their new lives without braving  minefields and the North Korean Navy. But they’ll still face risk. Beyond mass deportations, China  is estimated to be holding 2,000 North Koreans in prison, according to the United Nations. Cross to South Korea by sea, start a covert life in China, or use China

as an opportunity to  cross into South Korea. All are near-impossible routes of escape, and yet over 300 North  Koreans have made it via these routes in 2023. Will 2024 see more escapees manage  to follow in Mr. Kim’s footsteps? Only time will tell. But right now, we want  to hear from you. Let us know what you think about Mr. Kim’s story and his brave escape. Do  you think we’ll see more North Koreans making this perilous journey in 2024, or will  Kim Jong Un crack down even further and, along

with China, prevent more  of his people from getting away?