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Three North Korean defectors are serving time in a Chinese prison for helping their fellow countrymen escape their poverty-stricken country. North Korean escapees Hong Jin-hee(38), Kim Hong-kyun(50) and Lee Soo-cheol(44) were arrested by Chinese police while helping other North Koreans defect to South Korea through foreign embassies in Beijing.
¡ß Fugitives from a bleak reality
Born in Hamheung in South Hamkyung Province, Hong Jin-hee served in the North Korean military for 10 years. After his discharge, Hong got a job at a state-run company to earn foreign currencies, the most sought-after workplace in North Korea. At the time, North Korea was suffering from a famine. As a growing number of people starved to death, Hong complained, "Why is it so hard to live these days?"
Someone reported Hong's "disloyal" remarks to the military intelligence service and Hong became a fugitive. Hong escaped alone across the North Korea-China border and came to South Korea. He succeeded in bringing his family members over after they had been expelled to a rural area following Hong's defection.
After graduating from an agricultural school, Kim Hong-kyun worked for the North Korean Workers' Party. He volunteered to work in Russia as a laborer. After concluding that the future was grim in his motherland, he defected to South Korea.
Lee Soo-cheol was a former guard with the security unit for North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. After being discharged from the military, Lee became disillusioned by the bleak reality of North Korea. He fled the country with his in-laws in 1997.
¡ß Arrested while helping others defect
After settling in South Korea between 1996 and 2000, the three began helping North Koreans escape at the request of other defectors. They set up an organization to bring North Koreans to the South through Vietnam and Mongolia. However, Chinese police tightened surveillance after a boat carrying North Korean defectors to South Korea was seized in Dalian, China, in 2003. The three changed strategies and helped defectors break into Japanese and Canadian embassies in Beijing on September 1, 2004.
But at 3 a.m. on October 25, 2004, Chinese police raided an apartment in Tongzhou in Beijing to arrest Lee and Kim along with 60 North Korean escapees. Hong fled the scene but was arrested in Shenyang. Chinese authorities imprisoned the three for two years before trying them. At a belated trial in 2006, the Chinese government sentenced Hong to seven years in prison, Kim to five years and Lee to two years.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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