The harrowing, riveting documentary Beyond Utopia, captures what life is like for refugees after escaping North Korea. What happens to the family you left behind? How hard is it to adjust to life in a modern, alien land?
Emmy Award-nominated filmmaker Madeline Gavin, working with a team of intrepid producers, made the film fighting through multiple hardships of long distance, security threats, the logistics of smuggled cell phone footage, and then the COVID pandemic. It all happened because of perseverance, bravery, some fortune, and a lot of patience.
And unlike most documentaries about North Korea which exclusively explore the geopolitical angle, Gavin wanted to make a film that focused on the raw human stories, and Beyond Utopia does just that. The film shares two stories: the Roh family—a mother, father, their two young daughters, and grandmother—and their incredible journey from North Korea through unforgiving terrain and several countries to find freedom in the south; and Soyeon Lee’s heartbreaking attempts to find freedom for the son she left behind. Guiding both stories is Pastor Kim, a minister in South Korea whose wife fled the North many years ago and who now leads an underground railroad for North Koreans risking it all to escape an oppressive life.
Both Soyeon and Pastor Kim spoke to us, through translator Sunny Parker. We discussed how people escape North Korea and survive, the power and importance of sharing their stories with the Western world, and the security concerns which come with that.
Pastor Kim, can you tell American audiences what it is typically like for North Korean people when they first adjust to life in an “alien land” (South Korea)?
Pastor Kim: The most difficult part for North Korean defectors when adapting to South Korea is the language, even though both countries use the same language. During the period of [North/South] division, the word for the same meaning has changed, and new words were created.
Also, North Koreans who come to South Korea after watching Korean movies and fantasizing about Korea have a hard time adjusting to the real life of South Korea.
Through experience, North Korean people do not trust the government and have no expectations to get any help or protection from it. For North Koreans to make a living, escape from North Korea, find freedom, and survive, [these] are possible only [by going] against the state law. Therefore, when they come to [an] “alien land,” there are cases where people do not want to follow the law, or do not trust or rely on the benefits provided by the state.
Not long ago, a North Korean defector was found dead of starvation alone in South Korea. The South Korean government provides subsidies to low-income people with a simple application. It was heartbreaking to think that the North Korean defector did not try to get this benefit, and died.
What are some ways that you help them adjust to the modern world?
Pastor Kim: Caleb Mission (the organization my wife and I founded) established a “North Korean Defectors’ Community Center” to help North Korean refugees adapt to the Republic of Korea, where they and South Koreans worship and farm together, share information, share food, and learn to live together. Caleb Mission is helping North Korean defectors become self-reliant.
Soyeon, when you first adjusted to living in South Korea, what was the most shocking thing to you, both positive and negative?
Soyeon Lee: One of the most shocking things about coming to Korea was seeing protests in the middle of Seoul while riding a bus.
It was unfamiliar and shocking to see everyone freely shouting out whatever they wanted to say. This is because in North Korea, the state is the leader, and to challenge it was to be executed by firing squad.
Meanwhile, I was surprised at how diverse the topics of the protests were. As I looked at topics [of protests], such as against importing American beef, traffic accidents, and protests by people criticizing the chairman of a company, I questioned whether capitalism and democracy were really good things at that time.
However, after living in South Korea for a year or two, one day I stood in Gwanghwamun [Square in Seoul] telling the truth about North Korean human rights, and since then, I have been working for North Korean human rights for a long time.
Also, when I entered a rental apartment for the first time, I was surprised that hot and cold water kept running out of the faucets whenever I turned it on. I thought that South Korea was very developed because the water never stopped flowing. In North Korea, you had to go to the river every day to get water to drink and use.
Right after I got to South Korea, I got a part-time job at a restaurant. I worked for three hours, carrying dishes and cleaning, and the payment [just from that] was enough to buy rice for a month.
I thought capitalism was where you make money if you work, [but] I was afraid of how I would survive in this land that was so different from North Korea, as I was not good at capitalist economic methods.
Now I am very used to it, but the reason why I had to adapt to Korea fast, which was unfamiliar to me, and work hard to earn money was the sense of responsibility that I had to bring my son, which became the driving force that enabled me to overcome everything.
How is South Korea welcoming toward North Korean refugees, and how could it be more welcoming?
Pastor Kim: South Korea is a country that welcomes North Korean defectors warmer than any other country in the world. As soon as they arrive in South Korea, they are given citizenship (according to the Constitution of South Korea, North Koreans are also citizens of South Korea) and are provided with housing and settlement money.
The U.S. and European countries treat North Korean defectors the same as refugees from other countries. South Korea is the only country to give free housing and financial support to them.
In addition, many churches in South Korea have special programs for North Korean defectors to fill in gaps not covered by state support.
If more South Koreans learn about defectors’ reality and [the difficulties] they went through, people will become more welcoming to those no different from us, who suffer because they were born there without their own choice.
Among North Korean defectors who were not provided with educational opportunities in North Korea, many feel a hunger for education after coming to South Korea, and devote themselves to their studies while adapting to society. Mama Roh [the mother from the family of five featured in Beyond Utopia] is also currently studying to be a social worker.
How do you find the brokers who help these families escape?
Pastor Kim: Through the experience accumulated through 24 years of ministry, Caleb Mission members directly carry out rescue operations, unless a local broker who knows the geography is needed, such as crossing the jungle or the Mekong River.
Additionally, [for] the situations where we must work with brokers, we try to only work with people who have built trust through long years of rescue ministry.
Did either of you have any hesitation about appearing in this documentary, given the natural security concerns you must have had?
Pastor Kim: I said “no” to appearing in this documentary without hesitation, the first time the production approached me.
But the director and producer kept contacting me to convince me. Throughout the process, I felt their sincerity and that they cared for North Korean people and respected their security concerns. We built trust, and I was confident in making this film safely with this team, so I finally joined the documentary.
The production team kept in close contact with me during editing, and carefully checked the parts that needed to be blurred and places that could and could not be shown.
Soyeon Lee: [I had] a lot of hesitation, and it took courage to make the final decision.
The film production gave me a choice not to include my story at any time if I didn’t want to, until right before the movie was released.
I had to think if there was any possibility that my son would suffer more after this movie’s release.
I decided that if the voice of a mother trying to save her son became known to the international community, including the United States, and if more people came to my side, learned about North Korea’s human rights violations, and criticized North Korea with one voice, it would have an impact.
This would be an important message to Kim Jong Un, who always longs for the image of a normal country. I also wanted to properly inform people about the human rights situation in North Korea through the story about my son.
I wanted to help prevent other victims like us. Lastly, I hope to meet my son one day and have a warm meal with him, like many people do in their normal daily lives.
At that time, I would like to show my son Beyond Utopia and tell him, “During your difficult time, Mom did the small things for you,” [and] that many people in America have prayed for him and given me hope.
Pastor Kim, what’s something that surprised you about someone you helped to escape North Korea?
Pastor Kim: Caleb Mission used to smuggle CDs of South Korean dramas and Christian music into North Korea. One time, a North Korean woman who just crossed the border from North Korea sang the Christian music I sent to North Korea. It was one of my favorite moments of my mission.
Also, when I see North Korean defectors I rescued [subsequently] go to college or settle down very well, then come back to Caleb Mission to help other North Korean defectors makes me very happy.
What would Americans be most surprised or shocked to learn about North Korea?
Soyeon Lee: [North Korea] is the only place in the world where there is no internet, so you cannot see the outside world at all.
We all have to attend “self-criticism” [meetings] once a week on Saturdays. It is a time when you must self-criticize what kind of feelings you have toward the leader and the party, and must also criticize others.
Three times a year, on the birthdays of Kim IlSung, Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Un, a kilo of candy and snacks are given as a gift. This is how people are educated and brainwashed to idolize their leader from birth in North Korea.
North Korea is a place where there is no such thing as human rights, even though rape and other incidents are rampant by those in power.
There are still political prison camps in North Korea, called “kwanliso“—meaning: “management place,” but in reality, it is a 21st-century, modern-day Nazi concentration camp.
Hundreds of thousands of people’s lives there are worse than dying, because they are treated worse than animals.
Not a single one of them has ever received a normal trial. This is a place where you are taken without a lawyer or trial. The people imprisoned there think it would be better to die by public execution.
Soyeon, what you have gone through with your family seems so unimaginable, so painful. Would you be able to give the PBS audience in America any updates about your son and his situation?
Soyeon Lee: My son Han Jeong-cheong was repatriated to North Korea, and detained at the North Hamgyong Provincial Security Agency. After receiving various tortures and interrogations, he forcibly disappeared.
In the case of punishment in a re-education camp or labor training camp after repatriation to North Korea, the family is informed of the fate and punishment. But the principle is not to inform the family if the person was sent to a political prison camp or was shot while detained.
I found out more about my son through North Korean brokers, and was informed that he was not shot to death at the detention center but was sent to a political prison camp.
As a result of confirming his fate through many information lines, brokers, and high-ranking North Korean officials, I received news that he is imprisoned in North Korea’s Camp No. 14.
For [a few] years, he has been living in a political prison camp where they are not given food, forced to work, and subjected to all kinds of beatings and assaults.
Until I found this news, I had been scammed by various brokers and even heard that my son was dead and that I should not look for him, but I searched with hope and will continue to find updated news about my son.
Because I am a mother.
Can you explain what happens to families left behind when someone escapes North Korea? What dangers are they under, and what protections can they get?
Soyeon Lee: North Korea turns the families of North Korean defectors into hostile forces and prevents them from living in society.
North Korea calls those who escaped “traitors to the country.” In other words, the family left behind becomes a traitor family.
They are forcibly dismissed from responsible positions in society and become socially hostile forces that prevent their children, and in extreme cases, even their cousins, from entering college or the military.
In my family, my father was a university professor, but he was dismissed.
In North Korea, which is a hierarchical society, they become the lowest class and become the target of criticism from the state and society.
Therefore, they are always under surveillance by the National Security Agency and security agents, and their every move is followed. The phone at the home of the North Korean defectors’ family is also bugged, so they can’t even use it.
After I defected from North Korea, my family’s home phone was bugged, so they had to borrow a neighbor’s phone and ended up getting rid of it.
Even worse, families of North Korean defectors are imprisoned in political prison camps, deported, or relocated to mines or rural areas. Monitored 24 hours a day. They are unable to engage in economic activities there and end up dying of hunger.
“I thought that it would be better to die.”
Pastor Kim, are you still trying to actively help reunite any Korean families who are separated?
Pastor Kim: Last month, Caleb Mission rescued three North Korean female defectors who had been sold for forced marriage as teenagers in China.
Caleb Mission’s rescue of North Korean defectors began 23 years ago when I rescued my North Korean defector wife. Afterward, Caleb Mission rescued my wife’s acquaintances and family members, and the rescued people then requested the rescue of family they left behind in North Korea, or family members or acquaintances hiding in China, leading to a ministry that has helped save 1,015 people to date.
We are still actively trying to help reunite Korean families who are separated. However, my wish is that true freedom will come to North Korea, that I will no longer have to do rescue work, and that all separated families will be able to reunite freely.
If you had to do it all over again, what would you make sure to include in an escapee’s survivor “kit”?
Soyeon Lee: What to include in a survival kit? People escaping from North Korea don’t need money or nice clothes. The only thing they need is normal protection after escaping from North Korea. The first place North Korean defectors go after escaping from North Korea is China, but China does not recognize them as refugees and repatriates them to North Korea if they are caught.
Every day, several times, I think about my son who was repatriated to North Korea. If I knew there would be a risk of being repatriated to North Korea, would there be any point in living if I lived day after day, as worse than a bug in a concentration camp?
I thought that it would be better to die.
So, I would like to tell North Korean defectors to take ‘poison’ in a survival kit.
Further Listening
KCRW Public Radio/Los Angeles’ “Press Play”: Interview with Director Madeleine Gavin
Hammer Museum with KCRW: Interview with Madeleine Gavin
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