Yahoo Movies North Korean defector Pastor Kim reveals the struggle to help others escape since COVID
The pastor and fellow defector Soyeon Lee speak to Yahoo UK about the dictatorship and their involvement in documentary Beyond Utopia
North Korean defector Pastor Kim, whose story is told in film Beyond Utopia, has been helping his fellow countrymen escape the dictatorship for 24 years, but he tells Yahoo UK that the pandemic has had a hugely detrimental impact on efforts to help those risking their lives to gain freedom.
The pastor, whose full name is Kim Seongeun and who founded the Caleb Mission, explains that since the pandemic hit, his mission has only been able to help a select few because of North Korea closing its borders completely and increased restrictions on travel in countries like China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.
"The situation has changed extremely, pre-COVID to post-COVID, the Caleb Mission has just rescued four people post-COVID," Kim says.
"In the past it used to cost maybe $3000 to rescue one person, but now it has become $20,000 because after COVID the whole underground network has been destroyed."Pastor Kim
Pastor Kim's mission to help defectors
The pastor appears in the documentary film Beyond Utopia, which explores the journey that defectors undertake to escape.
Reflecting on its potential impact, he adds: "Because the situation has become much more difficult I'm now thinking that at least with this film, and having raised awareness with everyone that's watching, there will be more help that we can get to help out the North Korean defectors."
Often likened to Oskar Schindler, Kim first began smuggling people out of North Korea after he himself had escaped from the dictatorship.
In the documentary, the pastor explains that seeing North Korean children begging in China made me feel compelled to help, and he adds to Yahoo UK that his decision to aid others came about by chance.
"When I first began, of course I didn't know I was going to be doing this for 24 years. I thought initially I would just rescue the people I love," Kim explains.
"But [after] I rescued people [the] first [time] they knew people, and then they knew family members, and they kept asking for help and I ended up helping them."
Kim has often gone out of his way to help his fellow defectors, explaining in Beyond Utopia that he once broke his neck whilst helping others to escape and has had multiple surgeries following health issues that have come about as a result of journeying with defectors.
The pastor shares: "During that process of course there were many, many incidences where I hurt my neck, I had many health crises."
But his resolve has remained firm despite the injuries for one reason: "I have a son who unfortunately passed away when he was seven years old while I was doing one of these missions — it was during that time when he died prematurely.
"My wife and I, through our prayers, ended up promising to God and to each other that we now have to save that many more people.
"We lost our son, and it's almost like we needed to rededicate our lives to save more people."Pastor Kim
Soyeon Lee's story
Kim has helped an estimated 1,000 people escape North Korea. One such person he helped is Soyeon Lee, who also features in the documentary to share the story of her son's attempted escape from North Korea.
Speaking with Yahoo UK, Lee admits she "was faced with an extremely difficult choice" when it came to the documentary, because her son was captured in China and repatriated to North Korea.
The documentary reveals how her son was subjected to torture and interrogation, and has since been sent to a political prison camp.
"I had to think very hard about [whether] by telling this story, by being open and honest, and telling the story of my son through this film, whether that's going to ultimately bring him more harm or if this is the right thing to do," she says.
"The initial strength was Sue Mi Terry, the producer, and Madeleine Gavin, the director, they said that 'we are mothers'.
"[They] absolutely understood my situation and said 'let's deliberate on this together, let's struggle through this together. Let's pray about this together to see what we need to do', so they gave me strength."
Lee goes on: "My son is already in a gulag, that doesn't change. Not making the movie would not have necessarily changed that situation, so since it's already [happened] I'm finding a way to see if we can improve the situation.
"And by raising awareness through this film, and [through] the pressure [it brings] to the regime, I'm hoping that the regime will at least keep my son alive."Soyeon Lee
Lee adds that she is "at least aware that [her] son is alive" still thanks to information she has been able to gather from brokers in North Korea, saying: "That's the most important thing at this moment."
The Ro family's risky escape
Beyond Utopia also follows the escape of the Ro family — a group of five consisting of a mother, father, grandmother and two girls — and Kim's quest to get them to South Korea safely.
Kim "thought of them as family", and so went on the journey with them through Vietnam once they were able to get out of China — because of his work helping defectors Kim is a target for the North Korean government and can't step foot in China or he'll be immediately arrested.
"Initially when I was rescuing them the 80-something-old grandmother, throughout that whole time, — even though her life is at risk she's the one who's fleeing North Korea, this regime is after her— she kept saying, 'oh, what's going to happen to our Dear Leader? What's going to happen to Kim Jong-un? Our leaders?'" Kim reflects.
"That shows you the level of ideological indoctrination that goes in North Korea."Pastor Kim
"The mother and father were preoccupied with the survival of the whole family and travelling with their mother and kids," he adds.
"The children did not have a sense of what was happening, like they [didn't] know what this is — so even in the middle of the jungle, they're like 'this is some kind of adventure', they didn't quite have an understanding of what was happening.
"But now looking at the family, having settled in South Korea and watching the children [get] into K-Pop and BTS, and acting like normal South Korean children, it gives me a sense that 'yes, I did the right thing when I got this family out of there."
Chances of North and South Korea reunification?
Kim and Lee went on to speak about the potential for the reunification of North and South Korea, the two countries are technically still at war with an armistice agreement being signed in 1953 which divided them along a line known as the demilitarised zone.
There has long been hope for the two countries to be unified again, though the subject has become a topic of debate in South Korea over the economic impact such an eventuality might have.
When asked for their thoughts on the matter, Lee says, "For unification to really occur, the nature of the North Korean regime has to change otherwise it's not going to occur.
"I believe the Achilles heel of the Kim regime is human rights issues... there is a complete information blockade right now so the North Korean public, the people, are not aware of what's really happening outside their borders."Soyeon Lee
"So one of the priorities is to try to get information, a variety of different information, into North Korea to make them be aware of the world."
Kim reflects: "It's hard to say what's going to happen for reunification but, personally, I think that the US and China have the biggest role to play."
Beyond Utopia is released in UK and Irish cinemas on 27 October.
Watch the trailer for Beyond Utopia:
