Ms. Lee Hana's talk 1/3 Leave North Korea.

Host:
Today, I have a guest, Ms. Lee Hana, who left North Korea with having difficult experiences and now lives in Kansai.
Nice to meet you.
Ms. Lee Hana, who sits right in front of me, is a very charming girl with a black dress.
Is the name Lee Hana a tentative name?
Lee Hana:
Yes, it is.
Host:
Is it difficult to say your real name?
Lee Hana:
Yes
Host:
I read the book “Lee Hana's step by step in Japan,” which is now a topic.
Is this book a compilation of your blog?
Lee Hana:
Yes, It is.
Host:
Did you begin a blog after coming to Japan?
Lee Hana:
Well, On that day, I wrote little by little what I felt and memories in North Korea.
Host:
You wrote about university life and the difficult life in China, but it's a quiet boom.
Lee Hana:
Thank you.
Host:
Here is a brief introduction to Ms. Lee Hana's background.
Ms. Hana was born in what is called North Korea's Sinŭiju?
Lee Hana:
Yes, it is.
Host:
What kind of town is it?
Lee Hana:
It is opposite of Dandong City in China.
Host:
There is a big river, right?
Lee Hana:
That's right, it's a city across The Yalu River.
Host:
There is a big iron bridge over there.
Kim Jong-il used to visit China.
Lee Hana:
It was visible in my town.
Host:
Where were your grandfather and grandmother born?
Lee Hana:
They were born in Jeju Island.
Host:
Your grandfather and grandmother were born in Jeju Island, came to Japan, and your mother was born in Japan.
Lee Hana:
Yes.
Host:
The reason why you were born in North Korea is the return home business.
From 1958 to 1984, 93,000 people returned to North Korea for "the paradise on earth".
Your family was one of the returnees.
I heard that Ms. Lee Hana didn't have a hard time until the age of fifteen.
Lee Hana:
It was corn rice, but I ate three meals a day.
It was a peaceful town until 1992 or 1993.
Host:
The worries began around 1994.
Lee Hana:
It was hard because there was a food shortage.
Host:
Normal life has changed dramatically.
Why?
Lee Hana:
My relatives sinned when I was a child.
Host:
What sin?
Lee Hana:
I don't know.
My family was also expelled from urban areas to rural areas.
Host:
It's a guilt-by-association.
Lee Hana
If we come to rural areas, we cannot return to urban areas.
To my remotest descendants can only do agriculture as farmers in rural areas.
There is no choice of profession.
Host:
Is there no family register from 15 to 18 years old?
Lee Hana:
That's right, we switched the house of relatives without a family register.
Host:
Is it hiding?
If you are found by the police, will you be taken to rural areas?
Lee Hana:
We were in a place they didn't permit, so if they found us we would have been taken to a rural area.
Host:
Such a life was mentally painful.
Lee Hana:
It was considerably overwhelmed.
Host:
Did your family fall apart?
Lee Hana:
We fell apart sometimes, then we got together again.
It was hard for me to have no family register at school or in life.
My mother said, "Recover our family register," but every day I was mentally painful.
Host:
You lived such a life for three years.
Because In this state was not good, who decided to leave North Korea?
Lee Hana:
My mother decided.
Even after three years, we persisted, it was impossible to recover the family register.
Host:
But if you fail, you die.
Lee Hana:
That's right.
My mother said, "It is the same to die in rural areas or in China. If we live in rural areas, prepare for death and go to China".
Host:
It's do-or-die, let's flee to China for freedom.
Lee Hana:
My mother said that she wanted to choose that way.
Host:
18-year-old December, December is cold.
Lee Hana:
It was cold.
Host:
How did you escape from North Korea?
Lee Hana:
I thought it was a reckless plan now.
Host:
"Escape from North Korea" is usually reckless.
Lee Hana:
Because the plan that my mother made was downstream, it was a plan that "If the water on the Uriho river ebb tide, we will run and cross a river."
My mother listens to local people.
The water of the river disappears at the ebb tide from what time of night to what time.
It would freeze soon because it was winter.
However, we did not know how long the river was at that place and how long it would take.
Because there was a border guard, we could not get close.
We do not know the situation, but we wanted to escape from North Korea anyway.
From the morning, we went to the site and hid in the bush and waited for the night.
Host:
Was it cold?
Lee Hana:
I did not feel cold.
"Will I alive or dead a few hours later?"
Anxiety, fear, and hope were mixed.
We watched the guards went furthest and when the water was ebb tide.
"We will see something beyond the river bank.
Let's run towards China when we will see China."
However, when we crossed the river bank, we could not see anything in really dark.
After a while, my eyes got used to seeing and we found the light on the Chinese side.
We run toward the light.
We ran desperately in the middle of the river, thinking about we might be shot from the guards.
At that time, I thought that I would be shot absolutely so I could not look back.
Host:
How long was it?
Lee Hana:
I was in a panic condition so it is uncertain, I think it was about 30 to 40 minutes.
Host:
It's a horrible story of "alive or dead", but it will continue after this.