I escaped from North Korea thanks to the foreign media

Ju Chan-yang (front center) speaking at the Freedom Speakers International office on Jan. 29, 2021, at an online conference organized by the Master of Human Rights Students Association at Manitoba University in Winnipeg, Canada. Photo courtesy of Freedom Speakers International

By Ju Chan-yang

There once was a nine-year-old girl who had no idea that she would ever meet you. That's because she was born in North Korea. If not for her father's decisions, she would not be here today talking to you, she would still be a prisoner of North Korea.

I don't know what you were doing at the age of nine, but I know what I was doing. At that time, my father began to prepare me to escape to freedom.

I made it to freedom because of my father and foreign media. Can you imagine, a nine-year old girl getting ready to risk her life to get to freedom? Looking back, I can see how well prepared my father was.

To make sure I grew up as an open-minded person, my father introduced me to foreign radio. In North Korea, that was a criminal act. I was listening to "FEBC Christian Broadcasting," "Sound of America Broadcasting," "Free Asia Broadcasting" and "KBS Seoul Broadcasting." My father wouldn't allow me to be brainwashed by the Kim dictators.

To get me ready physically, he taught me how to swim. Most people around the world learn to swim for fun or for exercise. In my case, my father taught me so I could be ready to swim across the Tumen River from North Korea to China, to get to freedom.

I didn't know it, but my father was preparing me for the day that I could meet you.

At last, it was time for us to escape.

Escaping from North Korea is not easy, especially when an entire family is planning to escape. For a decade, my father prepared his family for this escape. By the time I finally escaped, I had already spent more than half of my life getting prepared to leave North Korea. Sometimes people ask me if I was brainwashed by North Korea. How could I be brainwashed when I had been preparing to leave from the age of 9?

My father was the first to leave, in 2008. My mother and two younger siblings left next. I tried to escape next, but I got caught. As the last of the family, the North Korean police were watching me closely, investigating me. I tried again, three years later. That time, I made it out of North Korea.

I arrived in China, but I was caught almost immediately by Chinese security. I was on the verge of being repatriated to North Korea and it was going to take a miracle for me to get to freedom. My four family members had escaped, so I could be tortured or executed if I was sent back to North Korea. Acquaintances and NGO groups prayed for me and rallied around me, raising money to bribe Chinese officials. It worked. At last, I made it to Seoul.

People often want to hear North Korean refugee escape stories, but it seems they often don't realize there is also the "rest of the story." Our lives don't stop once we escape. I am now living well with my family and so happy to be the mother of a beautiful boy. I learned English, mainly thanks to FSI. Despite these many changes, the media is still with me.

The media opened my eyes to the world when I was still in North Korea. Media changed the perceptions that my family had about the world. It can wake people up from the brainwashing attempts of the Kim regime.

Now in South Korea, I am majoring in media at Korea University in Seoul. We must tell the truth to North Koreans who are still in North Korea. I have been assisting in sending various information via the radio for several years now. If you are interested in learning how you can help, please contact FSI.

I was once a young girl in North Korea who started learning about the world. There are so many young and old people in North Korea who will never get to experience freedom. Even this kind of online meeting is impossible with North Koreans. North Korea is a land of dictators. We need more people to get involved so we can improve the level of human rights.

Some people ask me why I talk about these things. That is like asking me, "Why should I live?"

I'm here with you today because of "freedom."

I'm alive.

So I am free.

I used to live in a place where there was no freedom.

Thanks to my father and media, I risked my life to escape from North Korea. No matter what challenges I face in South Korea, my conscience tells me not to forget about others who are in the situation I was in before.

My conscience tells me to be part of the movement helping North Koreans to learn about freedom and to experience it. North Koreans are victims of religious persecution, human trafficking, propaganda, brainwashing, information restrictions, labor exploitation, concentration camps, and travel restrictions. We have to change all of this.

There once was a nine-year-old girl who had no idea that she would ever meet you. That's because she was born in North Korea. If not for her father's decisions, she would not be here today talking to you, she would still be a prisoner of North Korea. Let's work together so more North Koreans can experience the freedom to watch the media according to their wishes, to talk to anyone around the world, and to enjoy their lives as they see fit. My father and the media prepared me for the day I would meet you, and I hope that I can help free the minds and bodies of North Koreans who want to get to freedom.

Ju Chan-yang is a Member of One-K missions, owner of Seoune water pearl jewelry, and a Keynote Speaker with Freedom Speakers International based in Seoul.

The article was assisted and edited by Casey Lartigue Jr., the editor of "Voices from the North."