I am a South Korean citizen, but I am from North Korea. I was arrested along with my husband for helping North Korean refugees.

There were eight of them. Seven adults and one child. Among those eight was a woman who had been sent back to North Korea before, was arrested and imprisoned, but who had escaped the camp and come back to China. Now she will be arrested again.

There was a woman in her twenties and yes, that eight-year-old child. A group desperate for hope and freedom, willing to take a chance for a new life. This is a story often told in North Korea, and I tell you my own version of it.

We started our trek westward in the winter of 2009. We passed through major Chinese cities, and came to a bordering country in a couple of weeks. We traveled through this country via train to go to yet another nation.

Meanwhile, my husband, who like myself has a Korean passport, was supposed to come through customs with no problem from the other side of the border. He was to bring my group on to the next destination. I thought we would meet him within an hour.

Two hours later he was still not there. I called by cell phone to try to contact him. But it was dead. I realized something was not in order. We found later that he had been arrested in customs after the names and passports of all the refugees were found in his bag. One nation's police called the other nation's police, and we too were exposed.

I bought ten tickets to the next destination, and told all the travelers, "Something has gone wrong, take these tickets, get on board, scatter, hide yourself. Don't sit in the assigned seats!"

I decided on a train rather than a taxi, where all might be caught at one time. At least, with a train some would have a chance to run. But though I had told them to spread out, they were so shocked by what was happening that they all sat in their assigned seats!

I myself did not get on the train for the sake of the North Koreans' safety. Later, several police found me.

"Where are those people who were with you?"

" I don't know."

But as soon as I said that, they hurried to the train and caught six of them, forcing them to de-board. Because authorities already had checked our seat assignments at the ticket booth, the two refugees not caught were the ones that did not sit in their own seat. They were hiding in the bathroom.

Those two escaped altogether, and went to a South Korea embassy in a neighboring land. But the other six and I were brought by police back to the first country where we had arrived.

Now, I know that even though I was a foreigner in the land in which I was arrested, if I break a country's law I am supposed to pay the penalty. I was ready for that. But I couldn't comprehend why we were now being made subject to another country's law instead of the one where we were caught.

The two nations were working together to bring this about.

We were all lined up, and escorted by the new police, carrying machine guns , and we were then taken by them into prison.