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Eom Yeong-nam was a featured speaker at the May 15 Asia Regional Forum organized by Freedom Speakers International and sponsored by UniKorea. Below is an excerpt of his remarks. ― Ed.
By Eom Yeong-nam
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In an oppressive country like North Korea, when you suffer, you don't have the opportunity to solve your problems. In a free country like South Korea, you may suffer, but you have the opportunity to overcome your problems.
I hope after you hear my speech today that you will have a greater appreciation that you were born into freedom and have opportunities to enjoy a better life.
Today I will discuss my own experience with suffering in both North and South Korea, and demonstrate the difference between suffering in oppression and suffering in freedom.
I was born in North Korea ― I would like to use that as my example. As far as I know, North Korea has the worst human rights situation in the world. The result is that many people there suffer every day, but they have no way to overcome it as long as they stay there.
In 2008, when I was in the North Korean military, doing construction work as a soldier, I witnessed a tragic accident. One morning in the middle of November, we had just started working when, suddenly, I heard screaming. Around 20 soldiers had become trapped under a huge beam. We rushed to them. We all tried to lift the beam, but it was too heavy. We didn't have an emergency number to call like 911, and we didn't even have cell phones. We had to help them ourselves. Everyone was either screaming in pain or shouting. It was like a scene from a horror movie. There was a crane, but it was not working. An hour later, another crane arrived, and finally the beam was lifted. But it was too late for some of them.
We had to block the highway so we could take the injured soldiers to a hospital. There were no ambulances available. We took them in cars, vans, and trucks. The situation was like a battlefield. I still remember it like it was yesterday.
I later heard that 3 of them had died, several had lost their legs, and others had suffered other serious injuries. They did not receive any compensation from the regime.
This all happened because Kim Jong-il had ordered our brigade to dismantle three large bridges near Sunaen Airport in Pyongyang. We dismantled all of the bridges using sledge hammers. We used dynamite to drop huge beams and columns.
In fact, the bridges were built to reduce traffic jams for foreigner visitors who had participated in the 13th World Youth Student Festival in 1989. But after that event, due to the death of Kim Il-Sung and the collapsing economy, foreigners stopped coming to North Korea through Sunaen Airport. As a result, Kim Jong-il was angry and ordered us to dismantle the bridges due to a shortage of building materials.
At the tragic accident moment, my fellow soldiers and I hoped such an accident would never happen again, but the situation grew worse. Around 2 months later, one of the soldiers in our brigade was killed when a crane produced in the 1970s collapsed.
In another case, one of the soldiers in our unit was killed instantly while he was digging a well. Such accidents are common on army construction sites in North Korea.
Moreover, North Korean soldiers are dying from hunger and malnutrition. In North Korea, we don't have the ability to overcome suffering. That is what life is like in an oppressive society.
Luckily, I escaped from North Korea in 2010 and I now live in South Korea. I have a master's degree in public administration from Korea University. I work at a good company now.
It might seem that things are easy, that I am enjoying freedom without problems. However, until now, things were not easy and I have had to overcome many challenges.
In the Bible, the Israelites complained at and even cursed Moses, even though he had rescued their people after they and their ancestors had endured 400 years of slavery in Egypt. They felt that their new level of freedom was worse than slavery because they were struggling with managing their lives by themselves. Getting freedom is difficult, but living in freedom can be challenging ― another kind of suffering, as I will discuss in part two of my speech.
Eom's remarks were edited by Casey Lartigue Jr., editor of Voices from the North.
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