By Casey Lartigue Jr.
Over the years I have worked with numerous North Korean refugees who have become authors, public speakers, and YouTubers. Despite what appear to be golden opportunities to tell their stories, an alleged "cottage industry," many more North Korean refugees turn down opportunities to publish books or to engage in public speaking.
There have certainly been some success stories. Sungju Lee, author of "Every Falling Star," was the winner of my organization's first English speech contest back in 2015. Eunsun Kim, author of "A Thousand Miles to Freedom," was the winner of our third English speech contest in 2016. Yeonmi Park, author of "In Order to Live," and I were podcast co-hosts back in 2014 and I was her mentor for the speech that supposedly has been seen a few hundred million times.
Since 2015, I have worked directly with Cherie Yang and Eunhee Park, both winners of my organization's English speech contest and I arranged TEDx Talks for them. She never joined my organization, but during 2012, I was one of the main mentors for Hyseonseo Lee, author of "The Girl with Seven Names" and the first North Korean refugee to give a TED Talk.
While I have worked with many of the handful of prominent North Korean refugee speakers and authors, I have also known many more who chose NOT to enter the world of public speaking or book publishing. Some of the reasons are already well-known even to 80-year-old grandmothers in Tennessee. The most prominent known deterrence is threats to family members by a vengeful North Korean regime. A North Korean refugee telling their stories is different from a speaker releasing a self-help book with ramifications beyond getting a good Amazon ranking.
I would like to add a few more reasons that I believe are not as widely known but that I have heard over the years.
One, speaking out about North Korea can get "messy" with other North Korean refugees. There's the usual jealousy and scrutiny that comes from an individual refusing to remain hammered down. I have talked with many North Korean refugees who said they feared speaking out because they would get targeted by disgruntled and ideological North Korean refugees. The ones who have gotten attention are regularly get lambasted as profiteers and opportunists. Rumors quickly spread, with facts and logic sometimes catching up later.
Two, many North Korean refugees refrain from speaking out because Western and South Korean audiences can't comprehend what they are hearing about North Korea. Some audience members seem to view North Korea as any other country in the world, instead of a cult with an oppressive surveillance state (plus, nukes and a million-man army to discourage outsiders from intervening).
Inevitably, someone at events will ask what a North Korean refugee missed about a country led by gangsters who would execute her if she returned. Rivaling it in terms of stupid questions was from a South Korean high school student who asked in all seriousness why, if North Koreans were starving, they didn't just call Pizza Hut to have some food delivered. Is it worth it to engage with such people? Many North Korean refugees apparently take a pass.
Three, the pressure to be experts telling dazzling stories deters some North Korean refugees from speaking out. Many North Korean refugees know very little about what happened in areas outside of their hometowns, thanks to controls by the regime. Many will freely admit that they learned about North Korea as they were being interrogated by South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) or as they went through the Hanawon re-education center.
North Korean refugees still learning about North Korea are asked to address and answer questions that baffle even seasoned CIA analysts. Audience members get disappointed when a refugee can't definitively explain during Q&A or a YouTube chat what should be done about North Korea. From what I have heard, most North Korean refugees are most comfortable with telling their own stories, not talking about a dictator they escaped.
Four, many North Korean refugees adjusting to life in South Korea don't seem to be ready to sit and write a book as they are still trying to stabilize their lives. It is the dream of many Westerners from young ages to write that great novel, but at which point do North Koreans start thinking about writing a book? Probably not in North Korea or while escaping China.
Getting past adjusting to life out of North Korea and thinking about writing a book then brings refugees back to the first three points: They would be entering a messy process, talking to people who don't really understand the context of North Korea, and wondering if their stories are worthy of spending a year or more writing.
Casey Lartigue Jr., is co-author along with Songmi Han of the forthcoming book, "Greenlight to Freedom." He is co-founder of Freedom Speakers International (FSI) and teaches public speaking at Seoul University of Foreign Studies (SUFS).
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There have certainly been some success stories. Sungju Lee, author of "Every Falling Star," was the winner of my organization's first English speech contest back in 2015. Eunsun Kim, author of "A Thousand Miles to Freedom," was the winner of our third English speech contest in 2016. Yeonmi Park, author of "In Order to Live," and I were podcast co-hosts back in 2014 and I was her mentor for the speech that supposedly has been seen a few hundred million times.
Since 2015, I have worked directly with Cherie Yang and Eunhee Park, both winners of my organization's English speech contest and I arranged TEDx Talks for them. She never joined my organization, but during 2012, I was one of the main mentors for Hyseonseo Lee, author of "The Girl with Seven Names" and the first North Korean refugee to give a TED Talk.
While I have worked with many of the handful of prominent North Korean refugee speakers and authors, I have also known many more who chose NOT to enter the world of public speaking or book publishing. Some of the reasons are already well-known even to 80-year-old grandmothers in Tennessee. The most prominent known deterrence is threats to family members by a vengeful North Korean regime. A North Korean refugee telling their stories is different from a speaker releasing a self-help book with ramifications beyond getting a good Amazon ranking.
I would like to add a few more reasons that I believe are not as widely known but that I have heard over the years.
One, speaking out about North Korea can get "messy" with other North Korean refugees. There's the usual jealousy and scrutiny that comes from an individual refusing to remain hammered down. I have talked with many North Korean refugees who said they feared speaking out because they would get targeted by disgruntled and ideological North Korean refugees. The ones who have gotten attention are regularly get lambasted as profiteers and opportunists. Rumors quickly spread, with facts and logic sometimes catching up later.
Two, many North Korean refugees refrain from speaking out because Western and South Korean audiences can't comprehend what they are hearing about North Korea. Some audience members seem to view North Korea as any other country in the world, instead of a cult with an oppressive surveillance state (plus, nukes and a million-man army to discourage outsiders from intervening).
Inevitably, someone at events will ask what a North Korean refugee missed about a country led by gangsters who would execute her if she returned. Rivaling it in terms of stupid questions was from a South Korean high school student who asked in all seriousness why, if North Koreans were starving, they didn't just call Pizza Hut to have some food delivered. Is it worth it to engage with such people? Many North Korean refugees apparently take a pass.
Three, the pressure to be experts telling dazzling stories deters some North Korean refugees from speaking out. Many North Korean refugees know very little about what happened in areas outside of their hometowns, thanks to controls by the regime. Many will freely admit that they learned about North Korea as they were being interrogated by South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) or as they went through the Hanawon re-education center.
North Korean refugees still learning about North Korea are asked to address and answer questions that baffle even seasoned CIA analysts. Audience members get disappointed when a refugee can't definitively explain during Q&A or a YouTube chat what should be done about North Korea. From what I have heard, most North Korean refugees are most comfortable with telling their own stories, not talking about a dictator they escaped.
Four, many North Korean refugees adjusting to life in South Korea don't seem to be ready to sit and write a book as they are still trying to stabilize their lives. It is the dream of many Westerners from young ages to write that great novel, but at which point do North Koreans start thinking about writing a book? Probably not in North Korea or while escaping China.
Getting past adjusting to life out of North Korea and thinking about writing a book then brings refugees back to the first three points: They would be entering a messy process, talking to people who don't really understand the context of North Korea, and wondering if their stories are worthy of spending a year or more writing.
Casey Lartigue Jr., is co-author along with Songmi Han of the forthcoming book, "Greenlight to Freedom." He is co-founder of Freedom Speakers International (FSI) and teaches public speaking at Seoul University of Foreign Studies (SUFS).
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