catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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 Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2012 7:27 am Post subject: North Korean defectors living with guilt |
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Oh Kil-nam refuses to keep a single photo of his family in his home. He says it's just too painful.
For more than 25 years, Oh has lived with the guilt of knowing his wife and two daughters are being held against their will in North Korea because of a choice he made.
"I made such a foolish decision," Oh says, "which has caused my family to suffer such hardship in the hands of an outrageous criminal organization. It doesn't help even if I repent, my heart is torn with sorrow."
Oh, a native of South Korea, moved his family to Pyongyang in 1985 despite his wife's reservations on the promise of a good job and free medical treatment for his wife's hepatitis, but when they arrived he realized he had been tricked.
He says there was not a job nor medical help for his wife, just three months of what he calls, "lectures from day to night on North Korea ideology, history and brainwashing." He was then forced to work in a radio station broadcasting propaganda.
Oh was sent to Denmark the following year to lure more South Koreans to the communist state. But when he arrived at customs, Oh handed them a piece of paper asking to defect. Held for two months in detention in Germany, he was questioned by different intelligence agencies, including he says the CIA. He was then freed and moved to South Korea.
But his nightmare had only just begun.
Oh learned his wife and daughters, only aged 6 and 9 when they first moved to North Korea, were sent to a concentration camp as punishment for his defection. In 1991, he received the first and last message from them.
Three black and white photos and recorded messages from his family. Oh and the human rights workers believe they were recorded by North Korean officials as a trap to lure him back.
His youngest daughter says, "I miss you dad, I don't know you and I need to grow up fast so I can help mum and I feel regret but now I can lift water buckets and wood very well." Studying the photos, some defectors have told Oh they believe they were taken in the notorious Yodok concentration camp.
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