Thae Yong-ho was Kim Jong-un’s deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom until he defected in 2016.
Have you ever wondered what life was like for top officials in the North Korean government?
Thae Yong-ho was the country’s deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom until he defected in 2016. He tells firsthand how and why he risked everything to escape the North Korean embassy in London for a new life in South Korea. There, he was elected deputy in April 2020.
Here is the story of how she managed to escape in search of freedom and a future for her children:
I chose freedom, but at great risk to myself. I will tell my story, a story of hope.
I was born into a family where my father was a university professor and my mother a school teacher. I have an older sister and a brother.
When I was 12, my mother enrolled me in a foreign language school in Pyongyang. I wanted to be an astronaut, but it was very difficult.
He said that diplomats could visit foreign countries and even travel by plane, and that changed my mind.
At that moment, I felt a sense of privilege. North Korea is a class society, and the population is divided into three categories.
In North Korea, your class is very important because it defines where you live and what kind of education and job you can get.
I was born in the top class in North Korea, which is maybe 20% of the population. If you were born in the first grade, you can live in Pyongyang, where there is a good infrastructure, good schools, universities, subways, shops or whatever.
But if you were born in a lower class, most people’s lives revolve around coal mines in far-flung rural areas. They have to work hard.
North Korea is a slave system in the 21st century because there is no freedom of movement or choice.
brainwashing
The entire population of North Korea, including me and my family, has been brainwashed as if the members of the ruling Kim family were God and the great saviors of the nation.
Who inherited the privileges of family members. Leadership is passed from generation to generation. Thus, national assets and resources are under the complete control of the Kim family.
North Koreans have been trained and brainwashed to cry when they see Kim’s family members. This is the product of a long education.
It was a very difficult time when I joined the diplomatic service in 1988. HE establishment North Korea was shaken somewhat by the Seoul Olympics that year and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
The Soviet Union, a longtime ally of Pyongyang, collapsed in 1991.
North Korea suddenly lost its trading partners. Three or four years of chaos.
First time outside of North Korea
My first assignment abroad as a diplomat was in Denmark in 1996, when I was 34.
When I arrived in Copenhagen, I was surprised because I expected to see beggars on the streets. The novels we were allowed to read in North Korea were as follows: Oliver Twist It’s by Charles Dickens, so our image of the Western world is from the 1920s or 1930s.
But no, Denmark was a new world. Everyone lived on equal terms, education was free, medical care was also available.
From time to time I sent money to my family and relatives in North Korea. There was a lot of famine in our country at that time.
As of January 2009, no one establishment North Korea was aware of Kim Jong-un’s existence.
Will Kim Jong-il’s son take over the leadership? Did that mean we had to wait another 40 or 50 years? What would my children’s future look like if we waited another 40, 50 or maybe 60 years? Or my grandchildren?
So I started thinking about my future.
view
I was on my second assignment in London (the first was between 2004 and 2008) and this kind of disappointment was starting to build up. One of my duties was to defend the North Korean system and its leader, Kim Jong-un.
Although I worked hard to defend North Korea’s leadership and system and always answered with a smile, my heart was actually living a different story back then.
In March 2016, a very shocking event occurred in North Korea. About 12-13 North Korean girls defected to South Korea together.
Therefore, the North Korean system has decided to urge all children of diplomats aged 25 and over to return to the country as soon as possible. And at that time my first child was 25 years old.
So I thought: What kind of legacy can I leave my son? Freedom as a human being is the most important thing. And the legacy I can leave to my children as a parent is freedom. So I decided that my son should be a free man.
In London, people went to bars to watch football games. One day I said to my boss, “Hello Ambassador, I want to go to see this play. My wife, son and I plan to go to the nearest bar and watch it.”
When we got out of the embassy, we started running, but after 100 meters we all stopped. I don’t know why but we stopped. We turned and saw our embassy. Then I thought: Is it okay to run? What could happen to my family or friends in North Korea?
Tears began to flow as I worked so hard to defend that embassy and its flag.
There was a small pause, but I said, “No, let’s take a chance.” We keep running and we get lost.
The more time I spend here in South Korea, the more I appreciate my freedom, and the more I think I should work to give that kind of freedom to North Koreans, including my family.
South Korea is really ready to compromise with North Korea. I think they can make peace and get back together peacefully. Peace is the most important.
source: Noticias
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