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Chicago TV station hosts three North Korean refugees, their stories

July 20, 2015

North Korean escapees Lee So-yeon, Han Seo-hee and Lee Mi-kyung sing a North Korean song, “Let’s Meet Again,” at a talk concert in Arlington Heights Thursday.

Three North Korean refugees spoke of their experiences for a talk concert inside a television station in Chicago’s Arlington Heights last Thursday.

The women — Lee So-yeon, Han Seo-hee, Lee Mi-kyung — were brought on the air by WIN-TV, Blue Union, New Korea Women’s Union and the Korean & American Friendship National Council.

Lee So-yeon was a military sergeant in North Korea.

“I was discharged from the military after 10 years of service, but I received 100 won,” she said. “One loaf of bread was 50 won at the time. My 10 years of service were worth two loaves of bread, and, not being able to withstand hunger, I escaped in 2006.”

She said she was caught and tortured before eventually making it out of the country.

Han Seo-hee, a former vocalist with a choir, said she comes from a wealthy family and lived without wants but that her entire family had to leave the country after her older brother escaped.

“At a refugee camp in Mongolia, where we arrived through China, about 100 North Koreans were waiting to go to either Korea or America,” Han said. “We met my brother, who’d escaped a day before there, and together we entered South Korea in 2007.”

Lee Mi-kyung, who was a sergeant major and who escaped in 2006, said the mentality of sacrificing her life for Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il were ingrained into her from an early age. She did eight years in service.

“My father died of a heart attack while crossing the Tumen River in search of food for our starving family,” Lee Mi-kyung said. “North Korea considered the act an escape attempt. I had no future there, so I left.”