Interviews with Han Nam-su

Once you escape North Korea and enter China, you face various risks because the Chinese police are always searching and on alert to find and arrest North Korean refugees. North Koreans are considered illegal residents of China. Once you are arrested by the Chinese police, you are sent back to North Korea.

This is why North Koreans who escape to China will probably stay out of the public eye and often live in rural areas or take up difficult jobs.

They must hide their origins; they are always on alert, and always distrustful of people.
So even if a North Korean decides to go to China, it doesn’t mean a good life is ahead of them. They enter the country with a shred of hope that things will be slightly better than in North Korea.

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.