Unification Media Group (UMG): Today, we will speak with Park Myung Shim. She was arrested and tortured by the State Security Department for possessing foreign videos, and her parents were eventually imprisoned in a political prison camp.
Hello, Ms. Park. Please introduce yourself.
Park Myung Shim (Park): I was born and raised in North Hamgyong Province, Onsong County, Sambong District. I defected from North Korea when I was 19 years old in 2004 and lived in China for two years before resettling in South Korea in 2006. I have lived here ever since, which amounts to more than 10 years. I was so young and naive when I first arrived in South Korea, and now I am 30 years old. I am married with two children, the eldest being 10 years of age and the youngest is 4.
UMG: I have always heard that getting access to foreign films, especially South Korean films, is very difficult in North Korea. Has the situation changed at all in recent years?
Park: You are right in saying that it’s difficult to get access to foreign films. Despite this, many North Korean citizens are able to get their hands on them somehow. I would say that almost 8 out of every 10 citizens have watched foreign films. When I was living in North Korea, I watched many South Korean soap operas. “What Is Love,” “See You Again and Again,” “Jang Goon’s Son,” “The Tear of a Rose” – I remember watching all of them. While these titles may differ from the originals they were illegally copied from (before being smuggled over to North Korea), the plots and scenes remain the same. I even watched South Korean blockbuster hits like “Shiri” and “Letters.”
UMG: What did you think as you watched the films?
Park: To be honest, at first, I was not even aware that I was watching a pirated South Korean drama because I watched the series through the Yanbian TV channel and not through a DVD. When I later saw a Korean drama after borrowing it on DVD, I still assumed it had been copied from the Yanbian channel. But I slowly realized that the backdrop of the series did not seem like China.
UMG: How were you able to watch foreign TV channels, which are censored heavily by the North Korean government?
Park: In North Korea, after you buy a TV, you must report it to the People’s Unit (neighborhood watch). Afterwards, personnel from the power distribution unit will come and fix your TV channels, censoring certain ones according to government policy. Some people get around this step by merely sticking a notice on their TV, imitating the ones left behind by the People’s Unit, signifying that their devices have already been properly censored. This is what my family did so that we could watch Chinese channels.
UMG: You also watched foreign films on CDs and DVDs, correct?
Park: Yes, we watched CDs and DVDs brought over from China. North Korean smugglers working in China always brought over one or two DVDs. Often times, they wouldn’t even know what films they were carrying back. They would just go to a neighbor’s house who had a DVD player and watch the DVD together. If whatever on the DVD was enjoyable enough, they would then make copies to be sold.
UMG: You were also accused of selling South Korean films.
Yes, but I was not the direct seller. My mother was the person running the operation. We had some family relatives living in China at the time. From the end of 1990 up until the beginning of the North Korean famine (the Arduous March), we received support from them. This support stopped when the North Korean authorities cracked down on North Korea-China exchanges during the famine. During this time, my family sought work within the North Korean market to make ends meet. That’s how we began smuggling goods from China to be sold to North Korean citizens.
Human greed works in such predictable ways. Once you start a business, you sell more and more to receive more and more in return. My mother realized that selling pirated DVDs of foreign movies and dramas brought in a very steady profit. So she began selling North Korean products in China, and, instead of asking for money, would be paid in South Korean DVDs, which she would resell in North Korea.
UMG: So you were caught while helping your mother run this DVD business?
Park: Yes. My mother was careful to sell DVDs only to people she trusted. But, one day, one of her buyers was caught. When interrogated by North Korea’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) about who was selling these DVDs, he disclosed that it was my mother. He never even warned my family after being released.
None the wiser, my mother continued her DVD business as the MSS began to monitor us. Looking back, I think we were all feeling slightly uneasy at this time about the work our family as doing, but we put those feelings aside in order to survive. One day, my mother and I were traveling out of Hoeryong. I had always found these excursions with my mother to be relaxing, just like a vacation, and I liked leaving the house early with her to embark on them. When we arrived at Hoeryong, my mother went to meet some people to pick up the DVDs, while I traveled further alone to visit Chongjin. However, my mother was apprehended by the MSS on her way back home. The department had been waiting for us to reach Hoeryong before making its arrest. It had laid its trap so carefully, so that my mother had nowhere else to turn.
UMG: What happened to you?
Park: I was not imprisoned at the same time as my mother. I was taken in around a week later on my way home from visiting Chongjin. I had initially stopped to take a rest in the same lodgings I had previously stayed in with my mother, but something did not feel right. Right as I was leaving the accommodation, I was caught by the MSS.
UMG: What happened after you were arrested?
Park: I was further investigated by the MSS. While this may be hard to believe, there are standards to be followed during such investigations in North Korea. Jurisdiction over my case would usually be transferred over to the region I lived in. For example, as a citizen of Onsong City, I could not be tried in Hoeryong. However, because of the severity of my crimes (propagating foreign films), I was immediately put under an investigative trial in Hoeryong.
When I was first arrested by the MSS, I was never given a reason for my detainment. All I could suspect was that someone in my family must have caused trouble. The MSS’ interrogation was pretty rough. You would think that they would have gone easier on me because of my young age, but this was not the case. In fact, it seemed to be the opposite. I was never told of the reason for my arrest, but the interrogation did not stop until I incriminated myself of a crime.
UMG: You were detained in the early part of 2000. Were a lot of people still watching many foreign films then?
Park: They didn’t watch as many as they do now. However, many were beginning to grow curious about foreign films then. That’s why propagating such films was considered to be a serious crime that undermines the regime. Their dissemination is a political threat.
UMG: What happened to your mother after she was detained?
Park: My mother was charged with political crimes without a trial. In North Korea, one can either undergo a public trial or be sent to prison or executed without one. To my knowledge, my mother received a maximum sentence of 15 years and was sent to a political prison camp.
She further took responsibility for my crimes as well so that she would be the only one sent to the camp. And I was put in a situation where I had to corroborate her story. Through her sacrifice, I was released. That was in 2004 when I was 19 years old. My mother was about 40 years old.
UMG: Have you heard from your mother or any news about your mother since?
Park: No, I haven’t had direct contact with her since she was sent to the political prison camp. However, after I defected from North Korea, I was able to get back in touch with my father after losing touch for three years. He was able to relay information regarding my mother. After she was imprisoned, my father did everything he could to get my mother out of prison. He gathered together the money I sent to him from abroad and even tried to buy her freedom. However, that attempt at bribery led to his own arrest and imprisonment. You see, the State Security Department had learned of my defection. Given that my mother was already imprisoned for the political crime of propagating foreign media, my defection put a bigger target on my family in North Korea. Adding the fact that evidence of my phone calls from abroad with my father were left on his cell phone, which was later confiscated by the authorities, he was found to be guilty by association.
UMG: How tragic. Nowhere else in the world does one receive such a harsh punishment for watching foreign films. Why do you think the North Korean government considers this crime especially threatening?
Park: North Korea maintains its dictatorship by using a highly organized system of terror. It needs all of its citizens to follow the laws and culture set by the regime. It subsequently works to prevent North Koreans from learning about the outside world, which would threaten the regime’s norms. The government strives to make us blind, deaf, and mute to the world outside of North Korea. Otherwise, the illusion that the regime has worked to create will shatter. The regime knows that even the most loyal of North Korean citizens can be shaken if the truth is revealed.
Article 67 of the North Korean Constitution stipulates freedom of expression of citizens. The freedom of expression includes the freedom to pursue, acquire, and communicate information from a variety of media, regardless of borders. The regime’s attempts to ban foreign media are therefore unconstitutional. The North Korean government should be working towards protecting such fundamental freedoms.
