North Korea, first in love then “defectors”: the story of a love under the dictatorship

Part Sliding Doors, part story of a bond ready to cross borders (in North Korea), the one between Joo Kyung and Jang Hyeok is above all the story of a very strong love that not even there Kim Jong-Un’s dictatorship in North Korea she managed to fold. To tell it is the Financial Times. It all started during a work experience in a photography laboratory: Joo Kyung was there as an assistant, Jang Hyeok was passing through and mistaking her for another person he asked her how she was doing. From that moment on, the young couple let themselves be overwhelmed by love, born suddenly and discovered almost secretly, because in a dictatorship there are no romantic dinners, romantic weekends, walks in the park, rather chance appointments and stolen glances.

The secret between the two was one big one: Joo Kyung was preparing to leave the country with his family but he couldn’t say it because maximum secrecy was necessary to be able to leave the country, those who leave North Korea become “defectors”. Joo Kyung managed to reach North Korea, in 2017. she Al of her loved her, with her heart in tears, she had said that she would go to visit her grandmother but she knew that perhaps she would never see him again .

Several years have passed, until one day while waiting for the subway in Seoul, finally in North Korea, Joo Kyung met the gaze of a man who reminded her of the great love she had given up. She looked up the phone number and after long dreaming about it, thanks to the collaboration of a mediator and a secret phone, she was able to call Jang Hyeok. But at that moment, both were lost for words. Joo Kyung called again, asking him to leave and join her in Seoul. Jang Hyeok first gave way to anger, he should have left his career as a professor and set off on an often impossible journey.

But Joo Kyung doesn’t want to give up that love anymore, offers to pay for the trip for him and his entire family, he doesn’t want to until he starts dreaming of his life outside of North Korea. He dreams of her with her, they are happy, like the first time in that photography laboratory. So he takes courage and organizes the trip. Hellish months follow, locked in a refugee camp in South Korea. Then comes the happy ending: Joo Kyung and Jang Hyeok reunite, they hug again and say yes, this time for good.