A Korean news magazine (Sisa Journal) recently published an interview (in Korean) with a “broker” specializing in helping North Koreans defect to the South. The broker in the interview is identified as the head of a new organization dedicated to helping rescue North Korean defectors and refugees. I’ll put a brief translation of the interview below. The questions are from the reporter for Sisa Journal.
Why have you come out of the shadows to establish this new organization?
Brokers face a lot of difficulties, which in turn hurts North Koreans. Last year alone 10-15 people suffered incidents, including problems with Chinese police that led to their arrest and forced return to North Korea. Once they’re back in the North, we have no way of knowing if they’re dead or alive. If we [brokers] work together, we can hopefully avoid some of these problems.
How many brokers are there in the South?
There are about 200 people working either overtly or covertly helping defectors, but only about 10 are really specialists in the field, helping defectors from the moment they leave the North until they arrive in the South.
I’m curious how many North Koreans you helped defect last year.
Our team helped approximately 1800 people escape North Korea. Of them, we helped about 400 come to the South. There’s no limit to the number of people we can help escape to China – it’s easy to buy-off North Korean police, border guards, even high-level military officers, and get them to directly or indirectly work with us.
Continue reading Helping Defectors Escape the North – Interview with a ‘Broker’