"Dictator Kim Jong-un, Starving Residents Die from Eating Seaweed"

Young Defector Kim Ilhyuk Testifies to Human Rights Abuses He Experienced
"Forced Labor Since Childhood... Starvation Was Common"
Directly Targets 'Kim Jong Un Dictator' at UN Security Council North Korea Human Rights Meeting

#. When I was fourteen, my father was caught by the bowibu (security agency) while communicating with a friend who had crossed into South Korea using a Chinese-made mobile phone. The story my father told me after being taken to a detention camp was utterly harrowing. One day, he woke up from sleep because his whole body was itching, only to find that the person next to him had died. When a person dies, parasites move to another person's body to survive, which caused the itching severe enough to wake him up.

Recently, a North Korean defector youth made a surprise appearance at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) open meeting on North Korean human rights and testified about the harsh realities he personally experienced in North Korea. Under the dictatorship of the Kim Jong-un regime, which is obsessed with nuclear development, he witnessed starvation (asa, death by hunger) from a young age and described horrific incidents where residents filled their stomachs with dried seaweed only to die from their stomachs bursting.

North Korean defector Kim Il-hyeok is testifying about the reality of human rights in North Korea at the '2023 Korea Peninsula International Forum' held on the 30th at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jang Hee-jun junh@

The defector youth, Kim Il-hyeok, testified on the reality of human rights under the theme "The North Korea I Knew" at the '2023 Korea Peninsula International Forum' held on the 30th at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. After defecting in 2011 and coming to South Korea, he majored in political science and diplomacy at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. On the 17th (local time), at the UNSC open meeting on North Korean human rights, he directly confronted Kim Jong-un, saying, "Dictatorship cannot last forever. Act humanely, even now."

Born in a small rural village in North Korea, he testified that he suffered from forced labor without compensation from an early age. Although he wanted to study freely, if he did not go to the labor site, all his classmates would be sent home to bring him forcibly. Kim recalled, "When called to school like that, the drunken homeroom teacher would strike heads with a chair or mercilessly beat with feet and fists."

Kim and his family escaped North Korea in 2011. The trigger was his father's use of a mobile phone being discovered. His father, taken to a re-education camp, had to witness people around him dying almost daily under harsh conditions. In particular, there were horrific incidents where starving people tried to fill their stomachs by picking up dried seaweed, but the seaweed swelled inside their stomachs, causing their bellies to burst and die.

Thus, Kim and his family risked their lives crossing the Tumen River, relying on a single rope. Kim said, "It was so painful it felt like my hands would be cut off, but I endured it believing that a better world awaited beyond this river," adding, "To avoid being caught by the public security after crossing the Chinese border, I even had to pretend to be mute, acting as if I could not speak." If caught by the public security, they would be repatriated, and survival afterward could not be guaranteed.

North Korean defector Kim Il-hyeok is denouncing human rights violations by the North Korean regime at the United Nations Security Council open meeting held at the UN Headquarters in New York on the 17th (local time). [Image source=UN Web TV capture]

He also shared a story about his aunt who was tortured and beaten for months in a detention camp simply because she did not report the family's defection to the authorities, pausing briefly and choking up with tears. Kim appealed, "When my aunt was taken away, her nephews were only three and five years old," and said, "I cannot understand why my actions (defection) forced my aunt and her two young nephews to endure such a fate."

Kim criticized, "Life for North Korean residents has become even harder after the pandemic, but the North Korean regime blocks external contact and maintains a strong reign of terror," adding, "They suck the blood of the people to launch missiles." He emphasized, "Instead of engaging in dialogue with the North Korean power elite, external governments should be introduced to the residents so that they themselves realize and develop resentment against the regime."

Furthermore, he said, "I sincerely hope that North Korean people can enjoy the freedom we are enjoying at this very moment," and stressed, "If those of us who enjoy freedom work hard for them, we will be able to proudly say so when we look back in time." He urged, "The future of North Korea and the Korean Peninsula depends on you and me. Please pay attention to the North Korean residents who long for freedom."

Meanwhile, the Korea Peninsula International Forum is a 1.5-track international conference hosted by the Ministry of Unification since 2010. Its purpose is to gather opinions from government officials and scholars from various countries and reflect them in policies for peace, prosperity, and unification of the Korean Peninsula. This year's event is held under the theme "North Korean Nuclear Issue, Human Rights, and Unification," with sessions on ▲International cooperation for North Korean denuclearization ▲Effective measures for improving North Korean human rights ▲International cooperation for Korean Peninsula unification.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.