Woman, age 37. Her daughter, age 15. Her son, age 13.

Place of origin: Onsong, North Korea.

First arrival in China: 1997

An entire family, mother, father and children, come to China in 1997. Five years later husband, wife, and son are arrested. Daughter happens to be out and is not caught.

Of course they are deported to North Korea and sent to a county "labor-training center." The bigger prison is full. In the camp they do construction, and work on paving roads. Their food is some bad-quality corn porridge.

After a 2 month sentence, all three go back to China. Son goes one way and Mom and Dad another. To be sure they will have money they swallow some cash and "retrieve" it three days later. (You heard right.) All this time Daughter is in China.

The family now enters into the life of farming. But only for three months. In September, 2002, the police get wind of the situation, come and arrest the family, and once more they are deported! Four days in a general "training center" then 20 days in a "local" training center in time to help harvest. Here they meet the same guard they had had before, and life is not too sweet.

Released by October, this time only Mother and Daughter try to get to China, believing they will be less detectable if they do not travel as a family. Back to the same house in the same rural area. Now the police know they are there, because they keep coming to the same place. But the police won't bother them unless they get an order to do so.

February, ‘03. Husband and Son attempt to join them. They are caught. Son is sent to an orphanage, husband to another "local training center." A neighbor tells Mom that her husband gets sick and dies only three days after being released from the center.

Son is arrested four times trying to get back into China. Back to the orphanage each time. Not until March is he successful in his bid to flee his home land.

April, 2003, Mom and daughter arrested again. Son is free and lives alone in China. Taken care of by the Church! Mom and daughter have only a short stay at the LTC. Why? A new guard. He is sypathetic to the fact that Mom has lost her husband so when she begs to be able to go see his grave, the guard lets them go. They go directly to China!

At the time of this interview, she is wanting to get to South Korea and stop this tortured nomadic living. Will she be able to handle more arrests?

America used to say, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me..."

Unfortunately, you won't find too many tired, poor, bound, homeless North Koreans in our prosperous land. The politicians can tell you why. I haven't figured it out.