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A NORTH Korean dissident made a terrifying escape from Kim Jong-un’s regime on the age of simply 15 after goons arrested her mom and beat her till she signed a false confession.
Evelyn Jeong, 24, additionally spent 10 months in a hellhole jail as an adolescent earlier than she and her mom had been ultimately reunited.
Talking to The Solar On-line, Evelyn gave an enchanting perception into life rising up in tyrannical Kim’s secretive communist dictatorship.
“We had been moderately well-off, by North Korean requirements,” she mentioned.
“I used to be born in a city near the Chinese language border to a middle-class household. Our home was fairly good.
“My mom was a businesswoman who travelled backwards and forwards between China and North Korea for commerce.”
Even after her dad and mom break up up, her mom was in a position to elevate her alone, bringing the fashion-mad Evelyn garments again from China.
Photos from Evelyn’s childhood present her at main faculty in North Korea in 2003, and her with two girls who labored for her mom.
Nonetheless, every thing modified when recent restrictions on the promoting of products from overseas in North Korea had been introduced in, and Evelyn’s mom was now successfully an outlaw.
Needing to assist her daughter as a single mom, she continued to make the unlawful border crossings, till in the future, Kim’s police caught her – delivery her away to a hellhole jail.
“A authorities van pulled up and males jumped out, grabbed her by the arms, and dragged her away,” Evelyn mentioned.
“She by no means got here residence that day. We had no thought what had occurred. We did not hear something for a month.”
In complete, Evelyn’s mom spent 4 years contained in the horrific jail.
“She does not like to speak an excessive amount of about jail,” she mentioned.
“My mom could be very petite. After I visited her, I used to be shocked to see her physique was swollen and overwhelmed.”
In jail, Evelyn’s mom was overwhelmed by Kim’s secret service and compelled to signal false confessions, beneath risk of additional torture.
When she was lastly launched, she wished her and Evelyn to get out of North Korea at any value.
On the finish of 2013, aged solely 15, Evelyn made her escape from the Hermit Kingdom to China.
Coming from North Korea, China appeared like one other world. She was shocked by the neon lights within the cities – “it appeared like heaven!” – and amazed to have working sizzling water.
She was in a position to indulge her love of vogue, and go on journeys to spas.
In China, she discovered that individuals ate white rice, whereas in North Korea, they had been pressured to subsist on cheaper corn noodles.
She was additionally uncovered to movies from China, South Korea, and the US for the primary time.
Nonetheless, her troubles had been removed from over.
A authorities van pulled up and males jumped out, grabbed her by the arms, and dragged her away
Evelyn Jeong
With China not secure for North Korean exiles, she continued her harmful journey alone by means of Laos and Thailand.
She walked by means of mountains and travelled by boat and bus.
On the age of 16, in Thailand, she utilized for a journey visa to america.
She was pressured to spend 10 months in a horror Bangkok jail whereas her visa software was being dealt with.
“Between 200 to 300 folks” had been crowded into one giant dormitory-type room, she mentioned.
She made a fence round her tiny sleeping space utilizing bottles to attempt to preserve some privateness.
“I missed my household and I cried so much,” she went on. “This was additionally the primary time I had met so many foreigners. The jail was filled with worldwide vacationers, together with some from the UK.”
As unhealthy because it was, she famous, at the least she had working water, which was higher than in North Korea.
Finally, aged 17, she was in a position to transfer to the US alone, the place she was arrange with a foster household in Colorado.
There, she went to an American highschool, and tried plenty of meals for the primary time, together with apple pie with cinnamon.
“My foster household had been very strict,” she mentioned. “They had been additionally vegetarian, which I discovered unusual.
“The primary 12 months within the US, I cried so much. However I used to be in a position to name my mum. I discovered plenty of the know-how complicated, similar to merchandising machines.”
Evelyn says she will by no means return to North Korea till Kim’s regime falls.
Now lastly reunited along with her mom in South Korea, she is ready to stay a free life, recurrently posting updates on her Instagram web page.
“In North Korea, there are such a lot of restrictions on on a regular basis life,” she defined.
“You may’t dye your hair. Vogue could be very formal. Everybody wears black and white or beige.
“There are not any denims or vivid colors.”
She additionally had no thought in regards to the exterior world rising up.
“I did not even know the place the UK was,” she mentioned.
Evelyn wonders how a lot her residence city has modified and needs that “Kim’s regime will fall quickly”.
“I nonetheless have a psychological map of North Korea in my head,” she mentioned. “I miss my home and my mates, however I do know that I am unable to go residence once more.”
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