The documentary tells the stories of people who escaped from North Korea and how hard it was for them to find safety.
Beyond Utopia: Escape from North Korea tells the stories of people who have gone through difficult experiences like walking through thick forests and being in prison camps.
Some people had to leave their family behind and don’t know if they are still alive or if they will see them again.
One of the people from North Korea in the movie is Soyeon Lee. She got away from North Korea with the help of Pastor Kim Seongeun, who is also in the movie.
Soyeon, who was in the North Korean army, was caught when she tried to escape for the first time and was sent to a prison camp.
Two years later, she escaped, but she couldn’t bring her 17-year-old son Han Jeong-Cheong with her.
She and Pastor Kim work together to try to help the teenager leave. In a phone call on the film, she tells him that the journey will be very hard.
He says: “It’s a journey that brings me to you, so I can handle anything for you, mom. ”
But Pastor Kim says that it’s not always safe to trust people who say they can help you cross the border. They might actually turn you in to the police instead of helping you. So be careful and think about the risks before you try to cross the border.
The Chinese government, which is North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un‘s best friend, is willing to pay the people who help catch the defectors six months’ worth of salary.
For a long time, Pastor Kim’s church in Seoul, South Korea has helped people escape from the country.
Traveling from North Korea to South Korea is not easy, even though South Korea is the safest place for people escaping from the North Korean regime.
People have to go to the north because it’s really hard to get out of the south.
From there, they need to leave China without making the police suspicious and go to Thailand, which can help them move to South Korea.
When they arrive, the Constitution of the country says that North Koreans are also citizens of South Korea. This means they can start getting used to their new home soon.
Director Madeleine Gavin made a film that got nominated for a big award. The film is about the Roh family, who are a family of five.
Their journey when they left was recorded on camera – including the scary part where they walked through the jungle and heard military police dogs barking behind them.
At a place where they are staying to keep safe on their trip, Pastor Kim leads them in a prayer. He asks Jesus Christ to help them hold on to hope until they reach their destination.
Tag: Kim Jong-un
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Terrifying accounts of defectors’ escape from North Korea under Kim Jong-un
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Kim Jong-un cries after telling North Korean women to have more babies
Kim Jong-un was very sad and asked women to have more babies so that North Korea can become stronger.
The leader wiped his eyes with a white handkerchief as he made a request during an event for mothers in Pyongyang over the weekend, saying the challenge is everyone’s responsibility to take care of.
He said: ‘We need to work together with our mothers to stop the decrease in the number of babies being born and to make sure children have good care and education. ‘
The UN says that as of 2023, the average number of children born to a woman in North Korea is 1. 8 This number has been decreasing over the past few decades.
The number is still bigger than in some other countries near North Korea. These countries are also having a problem with numbers going down.
South Korea has very few babies being born. This is because there are a lot of reasons that make people not want to have children, like it being hard to find a good job, schools being very competitive, not much help with taking care of children, and workplaces focusing on men and making it hard for women to have both a career and a family.
Some people believe that even though North Korea is very poor, the way its population is changing is like the changes in wealthy countries.
Ahn Kyung-su, who runs DPRKHEALTH. ORG, a website about health in North Korea, said: ‘In North Korea, many families don’t want to have more than one child because they know it costs a lot of money to raise kids, send them to school, and help them find jobs. ‘
Ahn, who has talked to lots of North Koreans who escaped their country, said that bringing in a lot of South Korean TV shows and movies over the last 20 years has probably made women in North Korea want fewer kids. These shows often show women with higher status, and that could be why.
North Korea is giving support to families with three or more children. They will get free housing, money from the government, free food, medicine and other things for their kids.
South Korea’s official data agency says that about 25. 7 million people live in North Korea.
The Hyundai institute report said that North Korea’s population is expected to get smaller from 2034. They predict that by 2070, the population will decrease to 23. 7
Ahn, the person in charge of the website, said that Kim Jong Un is probably showing up in public with his young daughter, Ju Ae, to encourage families.
Other experts said that the daughter’s public appearances were probably meant to show that she will take over her father’s business.
Pyongyang started birth control programs in the 1970s and 1980s to reduce the number of people being born after the war.
The number of babies being born in the country went down a lot after a famine in the mid-1990s. The famine is believed to have killed hundreds of thousands of people. This information comes from a report by the Hyundai Research Institute in Seoul, released in August.
A report from the institute said that North Korea might have trouble growing its manufacturing industry if it doesn’t have enough workers, because it doesn’t have a lot of resources or modern technology. -
North Korea builds two skyscrapers with phallic shapes that “resemble Kim’s favorite missiles
Missile-mad In Pyongyang, Kim Jong-un had two new towers constructed to replicate his “most powerful” rockets.
The two towers were unveiled last week in the brand-new Hwasong neighborhood, which is named after the Hwasong missile family used by North Korea.
And it appears that the similarities between the towers and the rocket is no accident; the state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun specifically noted it in its columns.
The paper bragged: ‘The two high-rise residential houses rising side by side toward the sky in the Hwasong district seem to resemble Hwasong missiles, the pride of our country, as the name suggests.’
The phallic looking towers are meant to look similar to North Korea’s Hwasong-18 missiles (Picture: Pen News) It also compared the ‘height reached by the Hwasong cannons flying towards the universe’ with that of the ‘grand and splendid scenery of the streets of Pyongyang’.
Regime newsreel footage reveals the inside of one tower, showing party cadres in its well-stocked supermarket and taking in the view from a new apartment.
It comes just days after Kim debuted his new Hwasong-18 missile, which Pyongyang calls its ‘most powerful, pivotal and principal means’ of defence.
The regime says the skyscrapers were built ‘for the people’ but with growing numbers of North Koreans teetering on the edge of starvation, experts aren’t so sure.
Markus Bell, a research fellow at La Trobe University in Australia, said: ‘Lopsided development has unequally benefitted denizens of Pyongyang.
‘The construction of these flashy ‘rocket apartments’ will benefit the most politically connected and the wealthiest of North Korea’s elite.
‘Ordinary people will not be able to afford to live in these apartments, in much the same way as ordinary people can’t afford to live in Kensington and Chelsea, and Islington.
‘Economically and materially, the construction of showcase buildings such as these does little to nothing to help regular North Koreans.’
Dr Bell also claimed the missile-like design was another method of linking the Kims to the Pyongyang skyline.
He said: ‘The missile program is a legacy project, the young leader having inherited it from his father and his grandfather.
‘The construction of these apartment blocks are symbolic in the ideological feedback loop that tells the country and, to a lesser extent, the world that the Kim’s are Korea and Korea is the Kims.’
Earlier this week, Kim launched one of the powerful Hwasong-18 rockets from what appeared to be his private golf course.
‘Basically it’s a threat’ said North Korea expert Jacob Bogle, who said the move was Kim’s way of saying ‘we can do this from anywhere and if you attack our dedicated ballistic missiles bases, we can still drive off to a random golf course or wherever and launch a nuke.’
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Kim Jong-un brings back daughter to work for the space headquarters
After taking his daughter on a trip to the North Korean space station, Kim Jong-un has kept her in the spotlight.
Kim Ju-ae, the dictator’s daughter, accompanied him as he was photographed being toured through various parts of the nation’s space headquarters.
Kim Jong-un was spotted chatting to officials who were taking notes while smoking. While wearing a pinstripe suit, it may not have been as eye-catching as the Tom Cruise in Top Gun appearance he has previously chosen.
Even as his daughter watched, he appeared to have time for a quick laugh and a joke.
It’s not the first time the 11-year-old has been centre stage in recent months, with the pair showing up together more frequently for events and duties.
Father-daughter time has been a regular fixture as they were both spotted watching a special anniversary football match in images released yesterday.
Kim Ju-ae, 11, was by her dad’s side for the space station visit (Picture: Getty Images) Just last week, the whole family came together to watch the test of North Korea’s ‘most powerful missile yet’.
Meanwhile, Kim Ju-ae was pictured sitting next to her dad to observe the army simulating an attack on an unspecified South Korean airfield in March.
Speculation has continued over whether she is being prepared to succeed her father as the country’s next dictator in future.
And this latest stop off at the National Aerospace Development Administration will have done little to quell those theories.
During the visit, Kim Jong-un said North Korea has completed the development of its first military spy satellite, according to state media reports today.
Officials have been ordered to go ahead with the launch as planned by Kim Jong-un, who said developing reconnaissance is part of the nation’s efforts to counter ‘serious security threats’ from the US and South Korea.
He said several satellites would be necessary to establish North Korea’s intelligence-gathering capability and urged the deployments to go ahead but has not yet confirmed a launch date, reports Al Jazeera.
North Korea carried out a ‘final phase’ test for a spy satellite in December 2022 and said it would complete preparations for the launch by the end of this month.
Kim Jong-un said at the time: ‘Securing real-time information about the hostile forces’ military scenario is the most important task.’
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North Korea threatens “offensive action” over US and South Korean military exercises
While the US continues to increase its military exercises with South Korea, North Korea has threatened that it will take unnamed “offensive action.”
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) claimed the exercises were turning the area into a “huge powder magazine, which can be exploded at any moment” amid escalating tensions on the peninsula.
The remarks were made a day after US bombers with nuclear capability crossed the ocean to participate in joint aerial exercises with South Korean jets.
Pyongyang has already reacted angrily to the use of that specific aircraft because it sees the action as a practice invasion.
In recent weeks, North Korea has frequently tested missiles, some of which have been capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
In a commentary attributed to a scholar, KCNA said: ‘The military provocations by the US-led warmongers have gone beyond the tolerance limit.
‘This reality awaits more explicit stand and answer of (North Korea’s) defence capabilities.’
The news agency added: ‘(North Korea’s) war deterrence will continue to show its responsibility for and confidence in its crucial mission through offensive action.’
The warning comes a month after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister cautioned the US about taking action against their frequent missile tests.
Kim Yo-jong said: ‘We keep our eye on the restless military moves by the U.S. forces and the South Korean puppet military and are always on standby to take appropriate, quick and overwhelming action at any time according to our judgment.’
Meanwhile, US president Joe Biden’s special representative for North Korea has flown to Seoul for talks with allies over the nuclear threat.
Sung Kim met with South Korean foreign minister Park Jin and the country’s chief nuclear negotiator Kim Gunn today.
South Korea’s foreign ministry said Mr Kim would be attending a three-way meeting with Mr Gunn and Takehiro Funakoshi, the nuclear envoy for Japan, on Friday.
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Sister of Kim Jong-un criticizes Ukraine over nuclear weapons
Sister of Kim Jong-un claims Ukraine is seeking nuclear weapons.
According to Saturday’s report by the country’s official news agency KCNA, Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of leader Kim Jong-un, charged Ukraine with advocating for nuclear weapons.Her claim was supported by a petition that had garnered less than 1,000 signatures online in that nation.
Kim said that this kind of petition could be a political ploy by the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, but he offered no proof to support his claim.
Following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement last week that Moscow plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, a public petition was filed to the Ukrainian presidential office’s website on Thursday, calling for Ukraine to host nuclear weapons on Ukrainian territory, or for it to be armed with its own nuclear weapons.
Ms Kim is one of the most powerful people in North Korea (Picture: AP) By Saturday afternoon, the petition had gained only 611 signatures, far short of the 25,000 needed for a response from Zelenskiy. Kyiv officials have not commented on the petition so far.
North Korea is forging closer ties with the Kremlin amid shared isolation by the West and it supported Moscow’s position after Russia invaded Ukraine last year, including its later proclaimed annexation of parts of Ukraine that most U.N. members condemned as illegal. It has denied providing arms to Moscow.
The incident is not the first time Ms Kim has shared her thoughts on the conflict in Ukraine, having previously warned the West had ‘crossed a line’ with its decision to supply tanks to Ukraine.
Speaking in NK state media, she said: ‘The US is the arch criminal which poses serious threat and challenge to the strategic security of Russia and pushes the regional situation to the present grave phase.
‘I do not doubt that any military hardware the US and the West boast of will be burnt into pieces in the face of the indomitable fighting spirit and might of the heroic Russian army and people.’
She added that North Korea will always ‘stand in the same trench’ with Russia.
North Korea is the only nation other than Russia and Syria to recognise the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, two Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.
The United States previously accused Pyongyang of supplying weapons to the Wagner Group, Russia’s mercenary army.
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North Korea allegedly kills pregnant women and used girls with dwarfism in experiments
A South Korean investigation claims that North Korea murdered a six-month pregnant woman and used people with dwarfism in human tests.
According to the article, persons have been executed for being homosexual and for practicing their faith, and the state has even forcefully sterilized disabled people.
In a lengthy 450-page report that was yesterday made public by the South Korean Ministry of Unification, more than 500 North Koreans who were able to emigrate described the horrifying human rights abuses that occurred between 2017 and 2022.
‘North Korean citizens’ right to life appears to be greatly threatened,’ the ministry said in the report.
‘Executions are widely carried out for acts that do not justify the death penalty, including drug crimes, distribution of South Korean videos, and religious and superstitious activities.’
They also heard testimony of nurses being forced to write up a list people with dwarfism so hysterectomies can be carried out, MailOnline reports.
A six-month pregnant woman was said to have been put to death after a video of her dancing whilst pointing to a portrait of Kim Jong-Un whilst dancing.
And a group of teenagers were allegedly executed by firing squad after they watched a video from South Korea and smoked opium.
The report also details North Korea’s ministry of Social Security blackmailed families into letting their relatives take part in human experiments – with the threat of sending them to prison camps.
Detention facilities saw frequent death and torture.
Female prisoners were also treated particularly harshly as they were were subject to sexual violence and forced labour.
Five out of the 11 camps identified by South Korea are still in operation.
The report came as South Korea seeks to highlight its isolated neighbour’s failure to improve living conditions while racing to boost its nuclear and missile arsenals.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said the report should better inform the international community of the North’s ‘gruesome’ abuses, saying North Korea deserved ‘not a single penny’ of economic aid while it pursues its nuclear ambitions.
The Unification Ministry is required by law to make an annual assessment of the North’s rights situation.
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The daughter of Kim Jong-un “wore a £1,950 Christian Dior jacket to unveiling missile site
What to wear to a ballistic missile launch has been a problem for the 10-year-old daughters of dictators for decades.
The oldest daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un put on a £1,950 velvet hoodie by Christian Dior while spending time with her father at yet another missile launch.
According to video published the next day by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency, Kim Ju-ae, who is thought to be around 10 years old, was pictured with her father at the location on March 16.
She could be seen wearing the plush patterned hoodie as she watched the launch of the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile at Pyongyang International Airport.
Ju-ae, one of Kim’s three known children, only appeared in public for the first time last November – at a massive ballistic missile launch, of course.
She was, for a time, simply known as Kim’s ‘beloved daughter’, though some see her sudden presence in the public eye as a sign she’s his heir-apparent.
The ruling family have for years been spotted wearing high-end clothing (Picture: Reuters) The South Korean news outlet The Choson Ilbo reported that Ju-ae appeared to be wearing the four-digit priced hoodie by the French fashion house. Though, it’s unclear whether or not it’s a fake.
If it’s real Dior, though, Ju-ae would be wearing a jacket that costs more than double the per capita income in North Korea – estimated to be just £800 a year.
‘The hooded down jacket honours House heritage with the iconic Cannage motif,’ Dior says on the jacket’s product page.
The Cannage print is a staple of Dior designs, consisting of crisscrossing squares and diagonals inspired by the Napoleon III rattan chairs at Christian Dior’s first haute couture show in 1947.
Though, wondering about the history of geometric Dior prints isn’t exactly on the mind of most North Koreans.
Around six in 10 North Koreans live in absolute poverty, a 2020 study by researchers from the Vienna University of Economics and Business found.
The country is also reportedly on the brink of a food famine where ‘common people’ among the country’s 26 million residents struggle to eat three meals a day.
Anonymous sources told Radio Free Asia how North Koreans feel Ju-ae is ‘so different’ from regular children ‘whose cheekbones stick out from their faces’.
‘It makes me angry that my situation is so hard to bear, and Kim Ju-ae, who we all know is eating and living well, is showing up on TV in her fancy clothes so often,’ one source said.
North Korea has long struggled with food insecurity. A wrenching famine in the 1990s gutted food supplies, killing between 240,000 to 3.5 million people.
The Washington DC-based think tank 38 North said in a January report that natural disaster and the coronavirus pandemic has deepened the country’s longstanding food shortage, creating a ‘complex humanitarian emergency’.
‘Food availability has likely fallen below the bare minimum with regard to human needs, and on one metric, is at its worst since the country’s famine in the 1990s,’ it added.
The lavish tastes of North Korea’s ruling family, in contrast, are well-documented.
The Choson Ilbo note that Kim, during an October 2020 military parade, appeared to wear an IWC ‘Portofino’ watch with a price tag of around £10,000.
Ju-ae’s ‘beloved’ white horse was presented alongside a cavalry unit at a military parade in the North Korean capital last month.
She, according to South Korean intelligence, enjoys horse riding, skiing and swimming.
Her mother, Ri Sol-ju, has been sighted holding purses that appeared to be by other high-end brands such as Chanel and Dior.
The report by 38 North adds that the ruling family, even amid the pandemic and the apparent food crisis, has kept its eyes on missile-making and nuclear arms.
‘North Korea appears to be committed to its nuclear posture, and the lack of accountability allows the regime to prioritize its narrow militaristic goals to the detriment of its citizens’ living standards,’ 38 North said.
‘This style of governance is in keeping with what Kim Jong Il, who presided over the country’s famine in the 1990s, once said: “One can live without candy, but one cannot live without bullets.”‘
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Kim Jong-un trains his daughter to be a dictator
Kim Jong-un is joined by his daughter for a second public visit, this time to attend a military drill in North Korea.
The two were seen sitting close to one another on Thursday as the army practiced an attack on an unnamed South Korean base.
Kim Ju-ae, who is thought to be around 10 years old, abruptly entered the public eye in November and has since seen frequently by her father’s side.
There is currently speculation the dictator is setting the youngster up to be his successor.
The state denied Ju-ae existed for a while, but now she is often referred to as the ‘most beloved daughter’.
Both wore black matching overcoats for the exercise while Kim clutched a cigarette.
They were later pictured in arm chairs behind a large table while uniformed military figures watched over.
Kim told troops to be prepared at any time to ‘overwhelmingly respond to and contain’ the country’s enemies which he accused of making ‘frantic war preparation moves’, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
The state media organisation did not specify what types of weapons were used in Thursday’s exercise.
A fire attack by the Hwasong Artillery unit, responsible for important operational missions. But some of the North’s newer short-range weapons, which would be used to target South Korea, includes multiple rocket launchers that experts say blur the boundaries between artillery and ballistic missile systems.
South Korea and the United States are currently preparing to kick off their biggest combined military training exercise in years.
They are working together to counter the growing threat of Kim’s nuclear arsenal, which he has aggressively expanded in recent years.
Kim changed North Korea’s nuclear warfare laws last year, when he made it legal for the country to authorise pre-emptive nuclear strikes where it may perceive its leadership as under threat.
It is not clear what weapons were used during Thursday’s exercise . On Thursday, he told his military they need do more simulated drills so they are ready to carry out their two main ‘strategic missions, that is first to deter war and second to take the initiative in war’.
Kim has ruled for 11 years now – and both his predecessors, his father and grandfather, ruled until they died.
Yo-yong, a top official at the Propaganda and Agitation Department, was even cropped out of footage of Jong-Un and his daughter at a recent football match.
Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute said Kim’s daughter suggests a ‘power struggle’ between the leader’s sister and the First Lady, Ri Sol-ju.