34,537 escapes, countless stories

This year, Freedom Speakers International (FSI) has scheduled 198 events featuring North Korean refugees speaking to tourists visiting South Korea. Almost every time I moderate a session and mention that fewer North Koreans are escaping to the South, someone in the audience asks: “So is FSI shutting down soon?” The short answer is no.

To be clear, the declining numbers of North Korean refugees escaping does have a real impact. Hanawon, the government-run resettlement center that processes most North Korean refugees arriving in South Korea, has seen its caseload shrink so dramatically that the Ministry of Unification is consolidating its two facilities into one. One North Korean refugee who went through Hanawon in 2006 told me there were about 500 North Korean refugees there at the time. When she returned years later as a mentor and speaker, she said there was only one North Korean refugee left in one of the facilities.

When travelers ask if it has an impact on FSI, I say, not at all, although I sense many believe I am putting on a brave face. Of course, I want more North Koreans to live in freedom. But our work at FSI centers on three main factors. One, the pool of North Korean refugees already in South Korea is large enough to sustain FSI's work for years. Two, 700 North Korean refugees have already studied in FSI. Three, there is ongoing demand from tourists, schools and businesses for North Korean refugee voices.

First, 34,537 North Korean refugees have escaped to South Korea, according to the Ministry of Unification. The Koreas have been separated for more than seven decades, but 91 percent of North Korean refugees escaped to South Korea between 2002 and 2019. During that period, 31,533 North Korean refugees escaped to South Korea at an average of 1,752 per year. That means more than 30,000 North Korean refugees have been living in South Korea for at least six years. In the other five plus decades, only 3,305 North Koreans have escaped to South Korea.

We prefer not to deal with newcomers, although we do welcome them. While reporters and researchers want to connect with them, newcomers from North Korea have been isolated, haven’t experienced freedom, have nothing to compare their experiences with. Also, because of the regime’s control over their movements within North Korea, they typically haven’t even stepped foot in neighboring towns. Most North Koreans supposedly grow up and die in their hometowns. But living in freedom, they can read newspapers, check the internet, watch documentaries and movies, travel, form opinions, and accumulate experiences. For our organization, we need North Korean refugees to marinate in freedom.

Our four North Korean refugee authors made it out in 2002, 2010, while two escaped from North Korea in 2011. On average, it takes North Korean refugee authors 11 years of living in freedom before they publish their memoirs, and that’s despite often having many people encouraging them to write a book.

Second, the pool we draw from is deep. According to FSI co-founder Lee Eun-koo, more than 700 North Korean refugees have studied English, public speaking and career development with us since 2013. Many of them told us years ago that they weren’t interested in public speaking, and that was fine with us. Some of those same people have been coming back in recent years. They were once newcomers who could only discuss their neighborhoods, but after living in freedom, they have something to compare their experience in North Korea with. North Korean refugee Han Song-mi didn’t give an interview or speech the first 11 years she lived in freedom. But after joining us, we wrote a book together.

Third, audiences from around the world come to South Korea wanting to hear directly from North Korean refugees about their lives, escapes and experiences adjusting to freedom. People want to hear about their lives and the world keeps wanting to understand a country that remains one of the most closed and least understood on earth.

A total of 34,537 North Korean refugees have escaped to South Korea, where more than 700 have studied with us and many more are aware of us, and we have more than enough work to do.

Casey Lartigue Jr. (CJL@alumni.harvard.edu) is the co-founder of Freedom Speakers International with Lee Eun-koo and the co-author, with Han Song-mi, of her memoir "Greenlight to Freedom: A North Korean Daughter’s Search for Her Mother and Herself."