Interviews with Kang Chol-hwan

There are a group of brokers that bring North Korean refugees into South Korea just like in East Germany. But you need to have money to do this. As of now, in South Korea there are about 20,000 North Korean defectors who are living in South Korea. They are paying these brokers to bring their relatives and friends from North Korea into South Korea.

If you have a lot of money, they would take a plane from China, if you pay less you take a ship, and if you have even less you have to travel by land all the way to Vietnam. The amount of money you have determines which of the different methods the brokers use to bring them from North Korea all the way down to South Korea.

Nowadays, since these brokers have been doing this for about 10 years, these brokers have refined and improved their skills and methods. So once you pay for a broker to bring someone from North Korea to come into South Korea, it is understood that they will bring that person.

Kang Chol-Hwan escaped from North Korea in 1992 and has dedicated his life to bringing attention to the horrifying conditions in North Korea.

When Kang was 9 years old, the North Korean government accused his grandfather of treason and sent the family to one of its most notorious concentration camps, Yodok. Kang lived in the camp for 10 years, surviving on meager corn rations along with rats and earthworms. He and his family were forced to work in fields and mines and to witness public executions of their fellow prisoners.

Following his release from the camp, Kang bought an illegal radio receiver and began listening secretly to broadcasts from South Korea. These broadcasts allowed Kang to understand the differences between totalitarian societies, like North Korea, and free societies. Kang and a friend escaped North Korea by sneaking across the border to China and went from there to South Korea, where he lives today.

Kang described his experiences in his powerful memoir, “The Aquariums of Pyongyang.” President Bush welcomed Kang to the White House in 2005 .