My mother was tortured by North Korean authorities

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Lee Yul-seong is a North Korean refugee who graduated from high school in South Korea earlier this month. He delivered the speech at the first Freedom Speakers International/Teach North Korean Refugees English speech contest on Feb. 19, 2021, in Seoul. To get prepared for the contest, he was mentored by Jiwon Hyung, a student at Mercersburg Academy and a member of the TNKR Global High School Union. ― Ed.

By Lee Yul-seong

I defected from North Korea in May of 2017 and arrived in South Korea in October of the same year.

When I was younger, I learned about the childhoods of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jung-Il from school and from my parents. When I received snacks on Kim Il-sung's and Kim Jung-Il's birthdays, I thought I was the happiest child in the world as I paid my respects to their portraits.

That's how brainwashed I was.

At school, the teachers told us that our father, a general, sacrificed sleep and barely staved off his hunger with tiny, unsatisfying rice balls in order to serve us. Every time I heard this story, I swore to myself that I would study so hard that I could be a worker that lifts him up.

Despite such loyalty, the North Korean authorities committed unforgivable brutality against my family. I stand before you today to talk about the atrocities the North Korean government has committed against my mother.

By sharing my mom's story, I want to help people who are suffering from similar pain and to make it stop.

My mother first went to China in 2008. According to her, the first American missionary she saw in the unfamiliar land of China was kind and gentle. My mother had learned in North Korea that American missionaries would write "thief" on children's faces and extract their blood and organs to sell them.

Contrary to what she had heard, the American pastor she met sincerely prayed for the people of North Korea and shed tears as he cried for Korea's reunification. She said she got to know God for the first time through that pastor. She wondered why we should not believe in God, and moreover, reject him, when Kim Il-sung's maternal family members were Christian. She tried to learn more about God. After my mother met the American pastor, she thought, "I want to be a child of God like he is."

I can recall those times she would look up at floating clouds in the clear, blue sky when I was young. She would say, "God is watching over us from the clouds."

Not long after, on April 10th, 2011, my mother was taken to the North Korea State Security Department under the accusation of being part of a group of 40 spies. When I returned from school, my older sister told me that six men had dragged off our mother. I burst into tears at the news.

She is my mother, not a spy.

The North Korea State Security Department found out that my mother had met a Christian in China. The security guards planned to round up my mother and other innocent people to get them to "confess" to crimes, so that they could receive commendations from their superiors and get promoted.

Later, when I found out about their true intentions, those pathetic security guards no longer counted as human beings to me. My mother told me that the head of the Security Department had blown cigarette smoke in her face and slapped her with all his strength. He kicked a delicate woman into a pitch-black cell and yelled, "Hey you! Sit up properly. This is a place where even the mute talk," demanding that she give them the information they wanted.

The guards placed a piece of wood on my mother's knees and forced her to have her hands behind her back and laughed at the sight. They then pressed the wood down with all their strength and chuckled as they asked, "How does this feel? Does it hurt?"

My mother, instead of worrying about her legs getting broken, thought about me and my sister, waiting for her at home.

They giggled as they ruthlessly hit my mother's head with a pistol. They yelled at her to plead guilty to the accusations against her, saying, "You claim to be innocent and ended up in this shape. You can either leave this place dead or frankly confess to everything and be sent away to a political reform camp. Choose wisely. No one will believe you no matter how much you deny these accusations, and you cannot escape your fate. So just confess everything."

When my mother cried and begged for mercy because she was innocent, they would force her to hang on steel bars while beating her relentlessly. She said that place was literally hell infused with the scent of blood.

My mother fought through the pain by thinking of us and was released from prison, acquitted of all charges.

The North Korean authorities are sacrificing innocent people for their own personal gain and amusement.

My mother cried as she said, "I am deeply suffering right now. The things that happened to me are so horrifying that I don't even want to think about them. But if speaking about those horrors will contribute at least a little to exposing the truth to the world and help those currently suffering, I can recall hundreds and thousands more details."

My whole family cried endless tears of suffering because of what happened. I shed many tears as I prepared this speech.

The North Korean authorities, who harm diligent and innocent citizens for their personal gain, got away with all the atrocities they committed against my mother.

What is the goal of the North Korean authorities? Do they seek to eat well and live well, at the expense of others? Is it to derive pleasure from torturing millions of people? Does Kim Jong-un enjoy enslaving almost 26 million people?

This is a shameful and grim reality.

Millions of people are fighting against Kim Jong-un today. But I tell you, that is not enough. I want to appeal to the world. If one person hears my speech and shares it with just one other person, I can always make time to share this story for that person. I believe in the power of standing on this podium and sharing this story, because this is a path that can save North Koreans and purge Kim Jong-un from the country.

The speech was edited by Casey Lartigue Jr., co-president of Freedom Speakers International and the editor of "Voices from the North."