Interviews with Kim Kwang-jin

North Korea is a place where individual existence, individual values, individual dignity are ignored all together. North Korea has a slogan, “One exists for the whole and the whole for the individual.”

But here, the individual means the regime’s great leader.

So this is the only philosophy in North Korea that applies to its people. In this sense, the North Korean people’s human dignity is entirely ignored.

I think the biggest fault with North Korea is the fact that it proclaims to implement communism and socialism but it’s not even doing that.

In that sense, North Korea’s regime is very hypocritical and I would like to see North Korea become a country where ordinary people have freedom,
a country where human dignity is respected, a country where people can develop the self and make decisions for themselves.

In September 2003, Kim Kwang-jin and his family rushed to an airport in Southeast Asia to fly to freedom in Seoul, South Korea. Months earlier, Kim lived a privileged life working for the government’s overseas banking operations in Singapore. Then Kim fell out of favor after he was suspected of leaking information about the regime to foreign nationals. Before being summoned back to North Korea face severe punishment, Kim made the decision to defect with his family.

During his banking career, Kim helped earn millions of dollars for what he calls North Korea’s “Royal Court Economy,” i.e., the enterprises and often illegal schemes that financially supported the country’s totalitarian dictatorship.

Since defecting, Kim Kwang-jin helped expose the North Korean government’s underhanded financial practices. He has also become an advocate for North Korean freedom and human rights. Kim currently works at the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul and is a columnist for Radio Free Asia.