Speech winner says North-South unification realistic goal

By David Keelaghan

Lee Sung-ju, the winner of the Teach North Korea Refugees program speech contest last month.

The Teach North Korean Refugees (TNKR) project held a speech contest on Feb.28 on the theme of "How can you help North Koreans?" When offering answers to that question, seven speakers outlined their experiences as a refugee and how South Koreans can assist those from the North.

Taking home the top prize of 1m won was Lee Sung-ju, 29, who discussed how unification on the peninsula can be achieved. “Unification is not only the responsibility of the government, it involves all of us,” he said in conversation with The Korea Times.

Lee first came to South Korea on Nov. 1 2002 – a date he says is indelibly etched in his memory. His journey to the South began like many North Korean defectors before him, crossing the Dooman River in the dead of night into China.

“My broker was part of a large group of Chinese and Koreans. I stayed in China for seven days then my broker gave me a fake South Korea passport so I could fly. I remember the woman that checked my passport at the airport was a broker too; she was part of the chain. It is big business; they make a lot of money,” said Lee.

While the vast majority of defectors make their way to the South via South East Asian countries such as Thailand or Laos, Lee took a much more direct route, as he elaborates. “I didn’t actually know I was going to South Korea; my broker had told me I was flying to a different city in China, so I was shocked when I landed in Incheon.”

The fact he was now on South Korean soil, a nation he had been indoctrinated to fear and hate growing up, was worrying to the then teenage Lee.

“If I knew I was going to South Korea I wouldn’t have left. I was brainwashed in North Korea. We are told that any North Korean that goes to China will be captured and sent back, and in South Korea the government will first treat you well with good food and nice clothes, but then kill you.”

After spending three months at the Hanawon Resettlement Center in Anseong, Lee lived in Pyeongtaek with his father, who had defected before him, then attended high school in Busan. In 2013, he graduated from Sogang University in Seoul where he studied political science and journalism. Now he aspires to continue his studies at the London School of Commerce, learning International Relations and specializing in diplomacy for unification.

In preparation for that, he interned for six months last year with the assistant speaker at the Canadian House of Commons in Ottawa. That very building became the center of international media attention on Oct.22, 2014 when it came under a prolonged siege after Michael Zehaf-Bibeau shot Corporal Nathan Cirillo dead. Lee remembers the day clearly.

“I was in the building when it happened. We were all put on lockdown for 10 hours while the SWAT team moved in. We could hear the shots being fired, over 30 shots. It was crazy.”

Now back in Seoul, he welcomes the sentiments expressed by President Park Guen-hye when it comes to unification. However, while many regard the presence of the Kim regime in Pyongyang as an insurmountable obstacle for real progress, Lee disagrees.

“I think North Korea will evolve. Many experts think it will collapse but I don’t think so. Kim Jong-un has his own way. I want to see a normal relationship between the two countries; that’s the first step. We talk about making that first step all the time but never act on it, that’s the problem,” he said.