Interviews with Han Nam-su

I came to South Korea and attended college at Sogang University. There I majored in diplomacy and political science.

While I was attending the university, I founded an NGO because I was burdened, emotionally and psychologically, by a desire to help North Korean society change and guarantee human rights for its people.

I needed to speak for the human rights situation and work for North Korea’s societal change from South Korea. My life started to get really busy.

If a defector comes to South Korea, then under the Refugee Protection Law, the South Korean government provides assistance in terms of housing and settlement.

You can attend college free of charge if you are defector. This is why I was able to continue on with my studies.
The assistance provided by the South Korean government combined with a strong will and survival instinct are ways for defectors to start new lives.

The South Korea that I learned about [in North Korea] and the South Korea that I experienced for myself were polar opposites. While in North Korea, I was taught that South Korea was an American colony and many people were starving to death because it was so poor. For this reason, North Korea said we needed to achieve unification and liberate South Korea from being a United States colony.

When I saw South Korea for myself, it was totally different from what I was told. South Korea was a country that respected human rights based on values like freedom and democracy.

Han Nam-su was destined for a life among North Korea’s elite. The son of a military officer, Han and his family were afforded privileges that ordinary North Koreans didn’t have.

Things changed after Han’s father commented on the country’s need for economic reform; he was instantly branded a traitor, tried in a military court, and executed. Han was subsequently expelled from his university and exiled to a remote corner of the country with his family.

On Christmas Eve, 1998, Han decided to leave North Korea and pursue a better life elsewhere. He crossed the frozen Tumen River into China and remained there for the next six years working various odd jobs. In 2004, Han escaped to South Korea where he started a new life in a free society.

Attending Sogang University, Han majored in Diplomacy and Political Science. While there, he decided to raise awareness of the human rights abuses happening in North Korea and founded the Young Defectors’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights. As the organization’s leader, Han works to empower North Korean defectors through trainings, seminars, forums, and various campaigns on democratic governance.