North Korea is slave state

North Koreans work at a timber yard in Dzhalingra camp in Russia's Far East, May 16, 2003. AP-Yonhap

By Kim Dong-jae

Until last year, I was one of the modern slaves of Kim Jong-un. I was born and raised in North Korea. I worked in a North Korean building company in Russia for more than 5 years. I came here to tell the story of 21st-century slaves that exist in North Korea.

Have you ever seen slaves with your eyes? If you would like to see one, you should take a look at North Korean workers who are toiling abroad. And, if you talk with one of them for more than five minutes, you'll see the face of a modern slave.

Why are they slaves? There are many reasons, but I can't tell you all the reasons here, so I'll tell you only three.

First, they can't listen to anyone, look at or say anything while working abroad. Second, they can have no money, although they work as hard as a working ox. Third, they can say nothing about the bad treatment they get from Kim Jong-un. After hearing my story, you'll understand why we must end the dictatorship of the Kim family and the system of slavery there.

I'd like to begin my story from the airport of Vladivostok where I was sent in Russia. I arrived with my fellow workers at Vladivostok airport. When we arrived at the airport, the company director said to us workers, "From now on, you must work like ants for Kim Jong-un and yourselves." He said that we even had to make sugar drops from dung if necessary to make money. From the airport of Vladivostok as soon as we arrived in Russia, he always used "little" before our names, like "little Dong-jae," and did not treat us as human beings.

We were very often verbally yelled at and physically abused. But the only thing we could do was comply.

He was a little dictator for us in Russia.

We entered Russia saying we were exchange students. Our company's name wasn't on any legal documents. And in Russia, it is forbidden for students to work. We worked illegally.

So, the police clamped down on us whenever they saw us at construction sites while we were working. And if the police took one of us to jail, it was our problem, not the company's, not the government's. North Korean companies and the government are only observers of the imprisonment of their unhappy members. We had to escape the police's eyes and lay low in order to work in Russia.

The company director led us straight from the airport to the construction site, sealed off by armed guards. All the way to the construction site, the secret policeman of our company repeated the same words like a parrot. "Here is capitalism, and everybody here is our enemy." In every North Korean company, there must be at least one secret policeman, according to the diplomatic policy of Kim Jong-un's regime. So, in our company, one secret policeman stayed with us while we were working in Russia.

His only work was to watch over the members of our company, including the director, so nobody would escape. After arriving at the construction site, the director and the secret police told us not to listen to foreign workers. The director said they were all our enemies because they were on the same side as capitalism and the U.S.

He said, "Don't look at anything on the phone or TV because there is capitalism, and all capitalists lie. Don't say anything about us to foreigners since our enemies will take us to the Russian police."

On my first day in Russia, on my bed at night, I thought about my situation. What do people call a person who can't listen to anyone, look at or say anything?

A slave.

I realized that my identity was that of a slave. Our goal in Russia was to work for money. But, our real identity was as slaves of Kim Jong-un. One day, I heard the words of the director to the secret police, "It's good only when the worker's spirit is suppressed, and to suppress a worker's spirit, it is necessary to organize frequent overtime work until midnight for several nights in a row to sap him of energy. Without the strength of the body, he'll lose his spirit, too, and without spirit he'll think only about eating and sleeping like livestock. He won't think about money or resistance."

Indeed, it was an idea fitting for a little dictator. In fact, most of us in our company would sleep while walking to and from the construction site. And, we looked so pathetic that foreigners would ask us if we were prisoners the government sent for punishment. At that moment, I would answer, "We are normal people."

Surely, both they and I knew that we were not normal.

Every one of us had to pay $500 a month to the North Korean government. We usually worked for more than 18 hours a day, from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. the next day. After 5 years of working 18 hours a day for about $3000 a month, we usually left with only one month's salary. Our director was making much more while we did most of the work. This ridiculous scenario can be explained only by the fact that we were slaves.

I would like to say one final thing that made me realize how we were slaves, not people. After the outbreak of COVID-19, a state of quarantine was declared in Russia and North Korea. One day, the secret police delivered us a directive from the motherland regarding COVID-19. It was really a directive from Kim Jong-un.

But the content was truly absurd. In case of being infected by the epidemic, it was regarded as unfaithfully participating in the COVID-19 quarantine project, and it was considered to be an act of treason. The person infected with COVID-19 was treated as a traitor to the nation instead of a person needing medical treatment. The workers were dumbfounded and couldn't keep this news to themselves. It was an absurd situation that went against all common sense: If you fell ill, you got no sympathy, even when in danger of death at any time. From the mouths of some workers, the words: "We are not even human beings" began to leak out. Perhaps it was starting to dawn on them that they were really just slaves of Kim Jong-un.

I didn't want to live any longer as a slave of the crazy Kim Jong-un. So, last year, I made my plan a reality to escape North Korea, and now I have become a citizen of the Republic of Korea. I had to sacrifice so much to gain the freedom that so many people take for granted, like fresh air or clean water. When I was defecting from North Korea, the thought that motivated me was that my world would never change, and my destiny would not change either without action.

A bad world does not change without action. And such a bad world perhaps might come knocking at your door all of a sudden as it did to me. And maybe then it's already too late. I hope you will add your voices to free the slaves in North Korea from the slave owner Kim Jong Un. I don't believe slave owners or slavery can be justified for any reason.

Kim Dong-jae (not his real name) was the winner of the 18th Freedom Speakers International (FSI) North Korean Refugee English Speech Contest on Aug. 26. His mentors for the contest were Dr. Gregory Gresko and Henry Hoffman. Kim's remarks were edited for publication by Casey Lartigue Jr., co-founder and co-president of FSI with Lee Eun-koo.