How the Other Half Lives: Underground (Literally)

Meanwhile, in China, someone is listening to Radio Free Asia’s message:

[O]n Maban Mountain in the same province, another North Korean couple had also dug a hole to live in, concealing it with leaves.

They hardly expected to remain there for the next seven years, according to another North Korean defector who visited them there. Neither husband nor wife wished to be identified even by a pseudonym.

The defector, who asked to be identified by the pseudonym Kim Myung-chul, said the couple had a radio with them. “So they used some car batteries and listened to South Korean programs, RFA radio programs, and Echo of Hope programs,” Kim said.

They were able to receive shortwave radio, he said, “because they lived on the front side of the mountain, in a relatively high altitude area.”

“I visited them and slept in the hole for a few nights and learned that they did not plan to live in the hole. They thought going to China would guarantee food and survival. But when they came to China, the reality was harsh,” Kim said.

“For North Koreans in China, the word ‘repatriation’ is more dreadful than the word ‘death,'” Kim said.

Sung said he had received full training in survival and camouflage techniques, which along with his skills as a professional builder, he and his wife had put to good use during their two years in the mountains.

Speaking together and finishing each other’s sentences, Sung and Chu described the massive effort required simply to stay alive.

“Due to the humidity in the cave, we built the stone flues on the floor for heating. When we didn’t heat the floor, the moisture came up from the ground and trees. So we had to put many layers of paper on the floor,” they told RFA.