Jihyun Park - The Hard Road Out: One Woman’s Escape From North Korea

JIHYUN PARK was born in Chongjin, North Korea, in 1968. She experienced acute poverty, famine, illness, and intimidation. She first escaped at the age of 29. After her second escape from North Korea, with the help of the UN, she was granted asylum seeker status in 2008 and moved to Bury, Greater Manchester, where she lives with her husband Kwang and three children. She has been outreach and project officer at the European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea and is an online language tutor and human rights activist.

SEH-LYNN CHAI is South Korean. She divides her time between London, where she lives with her family, and Seoul, where her parents reside. She has a Bachelors and a Masters degree in French Literature from LUniversit Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV) and an MBA from Columbia Business School. After a career in Finance at JP Morgan, she is now an active campaigner for peace on the Korean Peninsula and for human rights and has served on the Korean governments Peaceful Unification Advisory Council (PUAC).

Australia

HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.

Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street

Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

www.harpercollins.com.au

Canada

HarperCollins Canada

Bay Adelaide Centre, East Tower

22 Adelaide Street West, 41st Floor

Toronto, Ontario, M5H 4E3

www.harpercollins.ca

India

HarperCollins India

A75, Sector 57

Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201 301, India

www.harpercollins.co.in

New Zealand

HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand

Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive

Rosedale 0632

Auckland, New Zealand

www.harpercollins.co.nz

United Kingdom

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF, UK

www.harpercollins.co.uk

United States

HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

195 Broadway

New York, NY 10007

www.harpercollins.com

Jihyun Park

Writing this book has been a search for complete contentment. I have looked back on the events that drove me to the threshold of death and realised that my life is precious. Every moment is a basket of happiness for me.

I would like to thank Seh-lynn, who wrote this book with me. We cant see the dark shadows in the minds of others, and sometimes we dont even try. However, Seh-lynn is a true free spirit. She approached me first, comforted my heart, and brought me a smile once again.

Michael Glendining and James Burt became my first friends and colleagues when I arrived in an unfamiliar place, in England, and did not know the language or culture. They are my role models and are still my friends.

I would also like to thank my neighbours who welcomed the unknown refugee family into their community and always greet me with a sincere smile, as well as the local residents of Bury, Greater Manchester; the local Conservative Party of Bury; and the staff of Bury Town Hall.

Among the people who made me who I am today, there is my father, who is my eternal role model. Had it not been for his courageous decision, I would not have been able to get out of the dark cave of hell forever, and I would not have known what freedom and happiness were now.

And because of my children, Yong-joon, Yoo-jang and Yoo-jin, who have always been a source of love and support, I can always walk proudly today.

Finally, my greatest gift is my true companion and husband, Kwang-Hyun Joo. Without him, I might still live with regret at having been born a woman. He was the first person to let me know that being a woman was something to be proud of and to let me know that my pain is someone elses. He told me that I deserve to be loved. He taught me that happiness is not subtracted, but added, and that we not only have the right to be happy, but that we also have a duty to make others happy.

Im not religious, but every day I ask, Why did you save me and why did you send me here?

I hope this book begins to answer those questions.

Seh-lynn Chai

I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to my parents, my brother and my sister for giving me their blessing to write and publish this book.

I am particularly grateful to my father, a career diplomat par excellence, who served his country for fifty years and embodied the love of our country with an extraordinary sense of duty and devotion; I would like to show my profound admiration for my mother, who raised her three children in Africa, and who gave us a taste for kimchi made of cabbage from her garden. Their sense of diligence and dedication made me who I am today.

I would like to express my appreciation to Vera Michalski, who had faith in me and agreed to publish the original book in French; I would also like to thank Mikyung Lee and Sangmi Jang for their hard work in making the Korean version possible.

I would like to show my gratitude to my friends Alexandra and Daniel Pinto, who supported my work faithfully over the years and introduced me to our translator, Sarah Baldwin-Beneich, as well as our literary agent, Caroline Michel.

This book also immensely benefited from the support of Fleur Pellerin, Isabelle Autissier, Jean-Paul Paddack, Ambassador Enna Park, Rosie Whitehouse, Dominique Pourtau-Darriet and the members of Atelier Ecriture, Laure Capel-Dunn, Claudia Lahaie, Diane Frost, Florence de Haut de Sigy, Isabelle Haynes, Sandra Arditti, Corinne Lejeune and Christelle Flinois, whose encouragement and input were indispensable in the making of the book.

Finally, I would like to thank Jihyun Park, who, by sharing her story, helped me find my place in this world.

HarperNorth would like to thank the following staff and contributors for their involvement in making this book a reality:

Hannah Avery

Fionnuala Barrett

Claire Boal

Peter Borcsok

Charlotte Brown

Sarah Burke

Alan Cracknell

Aya Daghem

Jonathan de Peyer

Anna Derkacz

Jane Donovan

Tom Dunstan

Kate Elton

Mick Fawcett

Simon Gerratt

Monica Green

Lauren Harris

Megan Jones

Jean-Marie Kelly

Oliver Malcolm

Dan Mogford

Alice Murphy-Pyle

Adam Murray

Genevieve Pegg

Agnes Rigou

James Ryan

Florence Shepherd

Eleanor Slater

Emma Sullivan

Katrina Troy

Phillipa Walker

Mummy, why did you abandon me?

One afternoon in 2012, sitting beside me on a bench in a Manchester park, Chul asks me the question. I search for an answer but cant find one. Where to begin? What does he remember? Chul was very young when I left him in China to save him from going to prison in North Korea. But I did go back to get him a year later, and since then I have obtained asylum for him in England. Today, here we are, safe and sound. And happy.

We are happy, arent we?

While these questions swirl in my head like leaves in a gale, the word abandon sparks fear inside me: my heart races, Im flooded with guilt. I realise that this question has just breached a world Ive created out of things unsaid, a world whose apparent calm was merely a faade, a precarious world in which Id overcome the pain of the past by covering it up. My heart aches at the thought that Chul hasnt dared to ask this question since 2004, the moment of our separation. My eyes fill with tears. To think that he has endured eight years of silence, eight years during which he has preferred to keep everything to himself, crushes me with pain. I cant keep covering up the past. I must tell my son why I cant simply say, I didnt abandon you. I must tell him why I cant find the words, why no sound will come from my throat.