Interviews with Kim Seong Min

My father was a renowned writer in North Korea. I even saw several scholars write their doctoral thesis on my father’s literary works. As the only son of the family, as a child, I also thought that I might become a writer and publish what I wanted.

In 1967 and 1968, there was an incident in North Korea where the regime selected 100 foreign literary works and destroyed them all. But we kept several of those books on our shelves in our house.

As a child, I secretly peeked into books like Les Miserables, The Iliad, and War and Peace. As I peeked into these books, I thought to myself: “Is there any place in this world where I am free to read these books?”

By coincidence, I was able to listen to a South Korean radio program. It said that some 20,000 books are published each year in the South. I thought to myself, “Could this really be true? If there was a country in this world where I could write and publish as freely as I want, then it would be worth risking my life [to get there].”

So on a very personal note, freedom to me is the freedom of being able to write.

Kim Seong Min was born in 1962. He grew up and received his education in Pyongyang, North Korea. Kim is the son of a poet and was trained as a writer. After serving ten years in the military, he worked in one of the regime’s propaganda offices. Troubled by the society in which he lived, Kim escaped to China in 1997. He eventually arrived in Seoul, South Korea in 1999, and ever since has fought for the liberation and democratization of his homeland.

In 2004, Kim established Free North Korea Radio (FNKR) to broadcast messages about freedom to those being oppressed and exploited by the regime in Pyongyang. These tireless efforts have been recognized by several international awards, including the “Prize for Press Freedom” from Reporters Without Borders and the “Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award” from the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. Recently, Kim was elected as a Representative of the Coalition to Promote the Democratization of North Korea, an alliance of North Korean defector organizations based in South Korea.

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