A North Korean Refugee in Belgium

Human  Rights Without frontiers sends this refugee’s story, which I thought was interesting enough to pass along to you:

HRWF Int’l  (26.11.2007) – Website: http://www.hrwf.net/ – Email: info@hrwf.net.

Kim M. W., 31 years old,  arrived in Belgium this year.  He is one of the rare North Korean refugees to have requested asylum in Belgium, even though it is open to the repressed  people of North Korea.  Human Rights Without Frontiers met him in Brussels.

HRWF:  What was your life like in North Korea? Kim M.W.:  I lived in a mining village near the Tyumen river.  My parents worked in the coalmines.  I also mined and so did my younger brother.  Security in the mines was completely unsatisfactory and there were numerous fatal accidents.  The only advantage was that we always had coal with which to warm ourselves.  Due to the lack of trucks to deliver us  the coal, we were authorized to extract  it directly from the mines according to our needs.

Like the rest of the country our village experienced famine in the 1990’s.  We suffered constantly from water shortage.  It was during this period that North Koreans began to lose faith in the regime.  Since 2000, we have never been able to satisfy our hunger.  We had ration cards distributed to us by workers’ organizations.  The criteria for distribution were political faithfulness and the type of employment provided.  A deep miner had the right to 1.2 kg of food per day.  This consisted of 300 gr. of rice, some low quality cereal and some corn.  Never vegetables and milk was practically inexistent.  Other workers only had right to 800 gr. per day. Non-active people (retired, handicapped, etc.) did not receive but 300 gr. of food per day.  The distribution was performed twice per month at the local food storage depot.

HRWF: Before arriving in Belgium you had initially escaped to China.  How was that experience?

Kim M.W.: I was 25 when  I decided to flee the country.  The first time I went to China was in 1998.  I bought some food and other small items that I could hide in and under my clothes. After this I regularly crossed the border to conduct small business transactions without ever having to bribe the border guards to let me pass.  This allowed us to survive.  In China I was helped by a shepherd.  I remained with him for four years and helped him with his agricultural work.  He paid for my trip.  I arrived by plane to the Netherlands on the 7 of June of this year.  I then took a train to Brussels and requested political asylum there.  I am now recognized as a refugee.

It’s one more pixel that helps us form a picture of a society in economic, social, and political decay (by which I mean North Korea, not Belgium).

Human Rights Without Frontiers is a human rights organization worthy of its name.  If you live in Europe and are looking for a worthy cause for your Euro, consider them.