Are Crocodiles Eating North Korean Refugees? Myths and Misconceptions (Part 3)

Casey Lartigue, third on the right, meets with North Korean refugees during their escape through Thailand, June 2023. Photo courtesy of Freedom Speakers International

The first two parts in this series focused on myths and misconceptions spread primarily by Westerners. Part 3 addresses a myth spread mainly by North Korean refugees and their sympathizers — those who often accept every testimonial without question.

North Koreans typically must first slip across the border into China while evading armed guards. In China, they face constant danger from human traffickers, police, and North Korean agents. In Laos, they must cross treacherous mountain terrain, and finally — on the brink of freedom — they must brave the crocodile-infested waters of the Mekong River to reach Thailand.

Most of this narrative is accurate for refugees who escaped before COVID-19 and the closure of North Korea’s border. But crocodiles (or alligators) in the Mekong River eating North Koreans on the run?

Many North Korean refugees refuse to believe me when I say there’s no evidence of crocodiles in parts of the Mekong River typically used by escapees. The fear is so palpable that one refugee insisted she had seen another escapee eaten by a crocodile — yet when she later checked with others who had crossed with her, they all said it had been her fear and imagination.

The belief in crocodiles eating refugees reveals how deeply fear can shape memory. Several refugees I’ve spoken with still express doubt when I question the crocodile narrative. It isn’t only the North Korean refugees I know.

A 2023 article from Daily NK recounts at least one refugee’s story about crocodiles: “According to defectors, man-eating crocodiles live in the Mekong River basin, so they cannot walk or swim across it even if it has become shallow. “According to defector Lee Youmi’s YouTube videos, people in defector groups have lost their lives crossing the Mekong when their boat capsized after an attack by crocodiles. One woman was dragged underwater when the boat capsized, and the local guide explained the crocodiles followed the smell of blood because she was probably menstruating. This defector, however, lost her life to the Mekong crocodiles just before her final step to freedom.”

One refugee, an intern at the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), recalled fearing alligators while crossing the Mekong. In a published account with the Association for Asian Studies, she described wading barefoot through neck-deep water in a part of the river she believed was inhabited by alligators. Though exhausted and terrified, her main concern was protecting a photograph of her beloved brother, holding it high to keep it dry.

Refugee Shin Eun-ha also recalled her father risking his life during their Mekong crossing to free their boat from entangling brush. She said he had to enter the water, which they believed was infested with alligators.

I’ve heard stories like these many times over the years. While preparing for our recent “I Am From North Korea” English speech contest, I observed numerous sessions where volunteers worked with North Korean refugees. Two contestants mentioned fearing crocodiles. Both were surprised when I told them it was a myth spread by brokers.

This isn't meant as criticism of refugees. It’s a myth often perpetuated by unscrupulous brokers. While not supported by evidence, the belief reflects the intense psychological stress and trauma many refugees carry during and after their escape.

As Han Song-mi recounts in "Greenlight to Freedom," the memoir she co-authored with me, a broker warned her group as they reached the Mekong River:

“Don’t put your hands in the water. Don’t talk. If the alligators hear anyone, you could all die. A few months ago, an alligator ate a North Korean refugee who was trying to escape.”

As we worked on the book, Songmi was incredulous when I told her brokers had likely fabricated such dangers. But at the time, the fear was paralyzing.

Not all refugees still believe this myth. For instance, Pak Yu-sung, winner of Freedom Speakers International’s 13th English Speech Contest, visited the Mekong River with two skeptical South Koreans and a colleague. The South Koreans had doubted his story about crocodiles. Together, they retraced his escape route, interviewed locals, and found no evidence of crocodiles or alligators.

Likewise, during my own visit to Thailand in mid-2023, I traveled by boat along a former escape route via the Mekong River used by refugees and did not encounter any crocodiles.

Why would brokers spread this myth? One refugee told me that during his escape, several in the group were quarreling among themselves and not listening to the brokers. The quarreling ceased when they reached Thailand and heard about crocodiles. He believes the brokers used crocodile stories for two reasons: first, to justify higher smuggling fees and solicit tips; second, to calm down increasingly nervous or argumentative refugees near the end of their journey. “Nothing shuts up a panicking refugee like the thought of crocodiles in the water,” he said.

Historically, the Mekong was home to species such as the Siamese crocodile and the saltwater crocodile. However, due to habitat loss and overhunting, they’ve become either extremely rare or locally extinct. The Siamese crocodile is now critically endangered, found only in remote pockets of northern Cambodia and Laos. The saltwater crocodile is considered extinct in the Mekong and Vietnam.

How could North Korean refugees be expected to know this? In some ways, crocodiles ready to eat them might seem like an appropriate barrier, after they slipped past human crocodiles. As Songmi later reflected, “After evading North Korean border guards, hiding from Chinese police, fighting through the brush in Thailand, fearing crocodiles in the Mekong River, and being in a daily war in a Thai jail, couldn’t something be easy as they were about to go to South Korea?”

This is a reminder that for many North Korean refugees escaping to freedom, danger is expected at every turn — even if one part of their journey turns out to be a myth about crocodiles eating North Korean refugees as they get closer to freedom.

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