Two young North Korean women resettled in the United States after a dangerous decade asrefugees in China say they’vefound peace here but fear for the many other North Korean defectors who writeto them from China.
Cho Jin-Hye, 21, and Cho Eun-Hye, 16, settled earlier this year in Seattle, Washington, andvisited Washington, D.C. April 26-May 3 to take part in NorthKorea Freedom Week.
The Cho sisters lived clandestinely in China for 10 years, during whichthey were forcibly repatriated four times. Under a new U.S. law, 53 North Korean refugees have now beenadmitted to the United States as refugees—including the Cho sistersand their mother.
“I never felt at peacein China. If somebody looked at us, we thought it was because we seemed strange, and sowe lived on and on, in perpetual tension,” Cho Eun-Hye said. “In America, allthat tension is gone, I have found peace, and I am deeply thankful to all thepeople who surround us with their friendship and warmth."
Her sister, Cho Jin-Hye, agreed. “Words can hardly express how happy andcomfortable I feel. I had always lived in tension, but now that I’m here,there is nothing to be tense about, and I’m so relaxed,” she said.
“I lived in tremendous fear, I was afraid my life would be threatened if Italked to the press or had my picture taken, I always feared for my life, andeven worried that Kim Jong Il might send his spies to kill me,” Cho Jin-Hyesaid, referring to the secretive North Korean leader.
Future plans, friends left behind
Once they arrived in Seattle, the women beganstudying English at a community college and plan to attend divinity school.Already native speakers of Korean and Chinese, they say they want to work astranslators.
Cho Jin-Hye said shekeeps in touch with some 80 North Korean defectors who are still in China. They askher to rescue them, she says.
“We are of the same blood, we all suffered together in North Korea,and I think it is only natural for me to help other North Korean defectors andfor them to expect my help,” she said.
“In North Korea we werealways told that Americans were evil thugs, and now I feel deeply moved to knowthat so many people in Americatruly care about us and do their best to help us,” Cho Jin-Hye said.
A Korean-Americanminister active in North Koreasince 1994, Phillip Buck, helped the girls and their mother obtain refugeeprotection from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Beijing and asylum in the United States.
Buck said nine other North Koreans have obtained the same protection in Beijing and will soon immigrate to the United Statesas well.
Original reporting by Wonhee Lee for RFA’sKorean service. Edited by Sooil Chun. Korean service director: Kwang-Chool Lee.Translated by Grigore Scarlatoiu. Written and produced in English by SarahJackson-Han.