Unperson

© Tim Franco - Image from the Unperson photography project

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In 2001, Kim Cheol-woong was in love. Born in the North Korean capital, he enjoyed a privileged life. His parents had government positions and his talent for music was recognized from an early age. In 1995 he was even sent to the Moscow Tchaikovsky Music Institute to study. When he got back to North Korea he became the youngest musician to join the National Symphony Orchestra... But Kim Cheol-woong was in love. One day he was rehearsing a piece by one of his favorite composers, Richard Clayderman, that he planned to use to propose to his girlfriend. But playing foreign music in North Korea is completely forbidden as only the official propaganda music is allowed. It did not take long before somebody reported him. He got arrested by the state security department and was forced to write a self-criticism letter. This episode opened his mind; a few weeks later, he crossed the Tumen river into China in search of freedom. It took him a long year of guard bribing, beating, hard work and a multitude of fake documents before finally landing in Seoul. In one episode, he remembers escaping Chinese police by jumping from a moving train that was supposed to send him back to North Korea. As he was being processed through national security in South Korea, he slowly realized that he had had a lucky life in the North and that after this event he would never be able to go back. Part of him felt sad, he missed his North Korean life. On top of that, his privileged life in the North was downgraded in the South. He had to start everything from scratch. “Happiness is relative,” he says still thinking about his past life. But at least he feels his identity is now complete, he has the experience of the North and the free life from the South. He is really Korean.

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1997 was probably the worst year of the North Korean famine with an estimated number of deaths due to starvation or hunger-related illness from 240000 to 3.5 million for a population of 22 million. The famine stemmed from a variety of factors; Economic mismanagement and the loss of Soviet support caused food production and imports to decline rapidly while a series of floods and droughts exacerbated the crisis. It is also in 1997 that Lee So-yeon took part in the military parade in Pyongyang. 20 years after this event supposed to be the proudest moment of a military career in the DPRK all she remembers is the hellish training that still causes her knees crippling pain to this day. Lee so-yeon had joined the army voluntarily, hoping for a better future, regular meals and a chance to join the Worker's party. But she faced a much different reality. The famine had reached deep into the military and recruits were fed only half-rations mixed with wild grass. On top of this, sexual harassment and abuse was a daily matter. After 6 months of service, most women wouldn't menstruate anymore because of malnutrition and stressful environment. After 10 years in the military, Lee So-yeon heard about South Korean defectors through an illegal radio channel back in her home village. The stories she heard immediately convinced her to leave. Her first attempt to cross the Tumen river, in her underwear, holding her only set of dry clothes above her head, her legs bleeding from stumpling on the jagged rocks ended in disaster as she was greeted on the chinese side by human traffickers. Refusing to collaborate, she was thrown back into the river and captured again on the North Korean side. After a year in prison, she managed to gather enough tips from fellow inmates to finally make a second, successful attempt. Now living in South, Lee Yo-seon still struggle to identify herself to her South Korean neighbors. The prejudice in society, her strong accent and the fear of North Korean spies still makes her feel that she has not completely found her place.

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Choi Seong-Guk wanted to be part of the North Korean elite to date the girl of his dreams. But he was neither rich nor well connected. When South Korean dramas became very popular on the North Korean black market he saw an opportunity. After 8 years working at Pyongyang’s premier animation studio, he decided to become an entrepreneur. At first, he smuggled South Korean dvd’s and computer parts but quickly he started putting his computer skills to use on a much more creative business idea. He set up a small portrait studio where customers could replace the actors’ faces on popular forbidden tv drama screen-grabs with their own. This idea proved successful and very lucrative. He soon managed to make enough money to open one of Pyongyang’s first computer rooms. The process of registering a business in North Korea is quite intense; he had to write a business plan promoting the Juche and the Party and donate 2 million won to the Government, gesture for which he even received the Kim Il Sung North Korean youth honor award. While officially promoting the Party, the computer room was in fact a place to play online games and watch Korean dramas. In 2006, he was arrested for smuggling movies. The offense was very serious but as some of his customers were influential government officials he was let off lightly. However, he had to be sent away from the capital and suddenly, his whole work had been for nothing. He would not get the girl of his dreams. Disillusioned, this is the moment Choi Seong-Guk decided to defect to the South. Since his defection, Choi Seong-Guk has gone back to his early studio days and started to draw cartoons describing the struggles of the North Korean life. Although he left North Korea and the dictatorial rules of the North Korean regime behind, the dating rules in South Korea proved not so different after all. Even here, you will still have better chance if you are part of the elite, and you are better off making more money to be part of it!

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Park Sang Hak’s father was part of the Elite - a spy for the North Korean Workers’ party. Part of his mission regularly brought him to South Korea and Japan where he was in charge of selling rare Korean antiquities and fossils in order to bring back foreign currencies into North Korea. As part of the upper class, Park Sang Hak’s family was never directly faced with the harsh realities that applied to most North Koreans. But as his father watched news on the Japanese NHK television channel during his numerous trip to Japan, he slowly realized just how bad the conditions were in his own home country. Furthermore, when he learned that Hwang Jang-yop, the creator of the Juche (North Korea’s official state ideology) had himself defected in 1997 his beliefs were deeply shaken. He decided to use his international connections to organize the defection of his entire family to China and to South Korea. When Park Sang-hak landed in South Korea from Japan, he realized he and his family were not the only defectors. Most of the others had gone through a much more difficult escape. He decided that more people in the North needed to be aware of what was happening. When the winds are favorable, Park Sang-hak travels North towards the DMZ to launch balloons full of information about South Korea and the outside world. Sending anything from leaflets to USB thumb drives filled with South Korean movies, dramas and news clippings, he hopes to help North Koreans learn about the reality of their situation and the world beyond. After 18 years in the South he still feels a foreigner in his own country. His hope is that his South Korean counterparts can better understand the struggle of North Koreans and one day free them from this tragic dictatorship.

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At the time Lee Ga-yeon took the decision to leave North Korea she was completely desperate. Since the death of her father when she was five years old, she and her mother had lived in the most miserable conditions. As she could not afford any education she started farming from a young age, picking mushrooms or vegetables and making barely enough to survive. Despite all of this misery she still believed that this suffering was temporary and that - as everyone knew - North Korea was the best place in the world. But her mother fell ill and Lee Ga-yeon’s hunger became so unbearable that she had to go look for help to her aunt who was living near the border. Out of desperation, between the lack of food and the need to purchase medication for her ill mother, Lee Ga-yeon decided to defect. The long road taking her to South Korea was the same one taken by most defectors: The South East Asian route. In many cases, North Korean defectors call on the services of so-called Brokers who organize every step of the trip; from guard bribing at the river crossing to China to bus tickets and fake Chinese passport to travel down to South East Asia. But the price is expensive and most defectors spend all of their savings plus whatever money they can scramble from relatives to be able to get even one pass with no guarantee of safely making it to their destination. The Chinese part of the trip is often the most dangerous as defectors can be ID-checked and reported at any moment, risking being sent back to North Korea to a certain prison sentence in an internment camp. But dangers await at every part of the trip. When Lee Ga-yeon approached the border with Laos on a full bus, police started to check IDs. Her heart started beating fast and her legs shaking out of fear. Luckily, the Korean Chinese woman sitting next to her firmly told her to stop and slapped her leg so hard that she momentarily regained her composure. She believes those few seconds probably saved her life. After getting into Laos, the trip was far from over; she still had to cross the dangerous Mekong river to Thailand where she would be detained for a certain time before she was eventually be sent to South Korea through diplomatic channels. Lee Gao-yeon grew up firmly believing that South Korea was a poor country with no freedom or education. Upon her arrival in the South, she was shocked to find the complete opposite. Now she finally feels free to get the education she dreamed about as child.

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One night of 1994, Ahn Myeong-Cheol's entire world was flipped upside down. Armed with an AK47 and a few pistols, wearing his prison guard uniform, he escaped in a jeep with two convicts, two brothers who had spent the most of their lives in prison. As the jeep was driving towards the Tumen river that marks the border with China, the brothers got cold feet and decided to bail - but Ahn Myeong-cheol had to continue. He swam across the river, getting rid of the weapons that were pulling him down and half an hour later, he finally reached the Chinese side of the river, he climbed and hid in a mountain facing the border. From his hiding place he could see about a hundred guards looking for him. It was 8 years before that night that Ahn Myeong-cheol had gotten his first job as guard in a political prison camp. From the first day, he had been told to leave his humanity behind. All the convicts were traitors or spies for the enemy and even communicating with them was considered a serious offense. Beatings and killings were routine and soon enough, he used a few of the convicts to train his taekwondo skills. After a few years in this position, he got upgraded to driver - bringing convicts in and out of camps. As this new job brought him closer to them he started to interrogate them on the reasons of their conviction but quickly realized that more than 80% of then had no idea why they were even convicted. After 8 years of service, An Myeong-cheol got his first holiday break. He took this opportunity to visit his family. He discovered his father had committed suicide. After a night of drinking, Ahn's father had started to talk negatively about the regime and then chosen to take his life instead of facing the consequences. Subsequently, his entire family was taken away to a detainment camp. It is at this point that Anh Myeong-cheol finally understood why so many families were amongst the convicts. As he got back to work, he realized that he would probably be next. That night Anh Myeong-cheol knew that this night would be his last in North Korea. Anh Myeong-cheol is one of the first defectors to bring information about the North Korean Political Prison Camps to the outside world. His sharing of all the specific pieces of information helped the world understand the gravity of the situation but personally, his conscience is far from clear. After more than 20 years in the South, Anh still has nightmares about the darkest moments of his life.

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When Kim Pil-joo was a young boy, his mom was often traveling to China illegally to purchase and sell products. Every time she got back , a smell of candy and sweets was invading their home . He imagined China as a big candy factory . At 12 , during a rough year of famine in the country , he experienced a public execution . The man had stole a copper safety line from a mine and tried to sell it. It took him two attempts to manage to escape North Korea. His mom was already in China and it was a question of survival . When he finally arrived in South Korea , he was first shocked by how welcomed he was by the local government . All his life he was told how evil the South Korean were . Even thou he now lives and studies in the south , he finds it difficult to integrate fully the society and hope for a unique identity , where north and south are just one .

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From a very young age, Han Song-i dreamed of becoming a star. Growing up in the north-east part of North Korea, she could observe China from the other side of the Amnok River. In those regions, North Korean have a greater access to imported goods and Chinese tv channels. This is how Han Song-i discovered the KPop phenomenon. At 17, she made her mind to escape and fulfill her dream. Her family's wealth made it easy for her to prepare the trip. After 10 days spent in different buses, across China, Laos, and Thailand, she finally got to Seoul. Fairly quickly, after going through other connections and meeting different panels, she found her place on a local tv show, where serious interviews are mixed with entertainment to tell the stories and hardships of the life in North Korea. Nowadays, people recognize her in the street and restaurants owners give her free meals. She made it. A lot of North-Korean defectors live by telling their stories. Through TV shows, public talks or books, the financial attraction of telling those stories of a country that very few know about is great. From Han Song-i's point of view, it is a positive opportunity to connect the two Koreas. But often this sudden local and international interest push the defectors to exaggerate and sometimes dramatize their stories. As impenetrable as North Korea is, it is almost impossible to verify them. Han Song-i is still confused about her own identity, her North Korean life is what made her famous, her South Korean passport allowed her to become a star.

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In our popular culture, painting is often considered one of the purest forms of art but when Song Byeok started his career in North Korea, painter was the lowest position that existed inside the Hwanghae-do steel factory. He was assigned to the propaganda unit. His artistic freedom was nonexistent - Every guideline was dictated by the worker's party and the slightest hint of creativity would see you sent to prison immediately. It was the late 90's and North Korea was still going through one of its most destructive famines. On a propaganda poster painter's salary Song Byeok was not even able to get enough to eat so he and his father decided to escape to China in order to survive. But their attempt was ill prepared. the crossing of the Tumen river border to China took a turn for the worst as they underestimated the strength of the current. Song Byeok's father sunk in the river and he himself ended back on the North Korean shore only to fall strait into the arms of the border guards. After 6 months spent in a prison camp he was so weak that he was released to save the guards the hassle of having to deal with his dead body. Against all odds, he managed to survive. His second attempt was successful. He crossed the Tumen river and a full year later made it through China to South Korea. After his arrival in South Korea, Song Byeok finally found the freedom of expression he had so desired. Using his background in North Korean propaganda, he uses a pop art approach to paint a satire of North Korean issues. Despite having left the regime far behind, he still feels defined by his identity as a defector. He dreams that one day his work can also be recognized as art, free as he is of borders and political stigma.

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When the founder of the democratic republic of Korea Kim Il-sung was leading the country, North Korea's level of wealth was much greater than the South's. After the implosion of the USSR and the ensuing fall of the communist states, Kim Jong-il took over his father. Famines began to plague the country. Aware of the value of foreign currencies, he slowly introduced trade with the neighbouring countries. This enabled the rise of a new upper class, mainly located in Pyongyang and well connected to the government, selling legal - and sometimes illegal - goods to China, Japan and Russia. Park Soo-yeon was part of this new elite. Between big banquets halls, private hot springs, and luxury resorts, her lifestyle differed greatly from our preconceptions on North Korea. When the first trades routes were opened into the country, she soon got her hands on a VHS of the South Korean Movie - " The Green Fish". Park was immediately struck by the sensuality and level of intimacy that could exist outside of her country. She also became fascinated with the diversity of makeup used by South Korean women, especially the dark lipstick used by the actresses. There was only one colour allowed in the North. She realized however that by mixing that colour with eyeshadow, she could achieve the same tint as in the movie and the new trend spread quickly amongst the North Korea elite. But the more movies and dramas she discovered, the more her curiosity grew and the more she longed for the love and physical intimacy that she could only glimpse through her television screen. When Park Soo Yeon defected to the South she thought she was the only one. When she found out for the first time about the hardships and difficulty of most North Korean defectors, she felt so ashamed that she would remain vague about her own story for many years. She is now the owner of a matchmaking company, helping North Korean defectors find love in the South.

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