Over 20 years ago, a North Korean defector left his home country. Today, he’s the president of a Canadian construction company employing several employees. This is the story of how he overcame numerous difficulties to become a successful business owner.
Nam Jin-hyuk was a mere 16 years old when he witnessed a public execution in North Korea.
Nam Jin-hyuk: “A woman in her 30s was shot in a marketplace. Her crime? She had stolen dried squid after assaulting an elderly woman.”
The first public execution that a teenage Jin-hyuk witnessed was horrific.
Nam Jin-hyuk: “Do you know how many there were? Fifteen people, three shots each. This woman must not have known she was about to be executed. When she realized, she broke down. The smell of blood was something I’ll never forget.”
Before he even reached his twenties, Jin-hyuk witnessed and heard about countless deaths: public executions at the Cheongjin airfield, deaths at the Cheongjin train station, bodies washed up along the border river.
Jin-hyuk’s situation was not much different from those who met such tragic ends.
A bright student excelling in mathematics, Jin-hyuk dreamt of joining the military, specifically the navy. However, his dreams were shattered when his father was taken to a political prison camp due to a complaint filed by his stepmother.
For Jin-hyuk, who had been living on the streets since his stepmother moved in, North Korea became a place void of hope.
Knowing all too well that a father’s sins become the sins of his children, Jin-hyuk decided he could no longer live in North Korea.
After leaving home and spending two years shuttling between China and North Korea, he decided to stay in China permanently.
He found employment in Heilongjiang through a Korean church situated on the North-China border.
In China
Working diligently at a farm, Jin-hyuk earned the owner’s trust and became the adopted son of a family with only a daughter. Four years after settling in China, where he lived a relatively stable life thanks to his adoptive parents, Jin-hyuk left China in 2006.
Aware that if reported, he could be sent back to North Korea at any time, Jin-hyuk connected with a broker and made his way to South Korea via Mongolia.In South Korea, Jin-hyuk met a fellow North Korean defector. They started a family and had a baby.
However, the North Korean shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in 2010 caused him to reconsider his future in South Korea. Nam Jin-hyuk: “I was heading to work when people said, ‘Hey, they’re firing from your side.’ I responded, ‘What do you mean, my side?’ I’m a South Korean citizen. Then they said North Korea had fired on Yeonpyeong Island. That’s when I realized I was seen as North Korean.”
Eventually, Jin-hyuk understood that, no matter his efforts, he would never be treated as a fellow Korean in South Korea. Part of his decision to leave South Korea was his concern for the future of his unborn child.
Seeing the children of North Korean defector families ostracized due to their parents’ origins made him decide to leave.
“I left because I didn’t want my child to endure this humiliation.”
In the end, Jin Hyuk boarded a plane leaving South Korea for Canada.
We’ll continue to tell you how Jin Hyuk carved out a life for himself in Canada, a country where he didn’t know a soul.
This story is relayed to North Korea via the broadcaster, Free Radio Asia Broadcasting.