On February 10 (local time), Jeon Hyo-bin (17, photo, taken in Geneve, Switzerland) testified at the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child about the poor conditions of young students in North Korea. At her young age, it took great courage for her to give this testimony. The hardships she had to bear in North Korea were the foundation of her courage.
After Kukmin Daily’s earlier report (February 10, 2017, link below) on the situation of forced labor by children and young students in North Korea, Uriminzokkiri, North Korea’s self-promotional media, threatened to kill Jeon. Nevertheless, at the U.N. Jeon ignored the threats and reported her experience. She exposed the fact that she was systematically forced to labor from the age of seven (first grade of elementary school) in her hometown in North Hamgyeong-do.
In a telephone conversation with Kukmin Daily on February 13, Jeon described her experience in a small but clear voice: “We went to school in the morning and studied, and we labored in the afternoon. That was every day. Also, from time to time we would be mobilized for railroad or road construction or repairs.”
“Once when I was in the second year of middle school, I went to a cooperative farm. It was a so-called ‘rice planting battle’ (photo above), working for a full month while living communally there. Usually such labor is for fourth-year students and older, but this time second- and third-year students were also mobilized due to a shortage of workers. We were allowed to go to bed only after we had finished planting a whole 330 m2 field with rice seedlings.”
The young students worked for three hours early in the morning. After breakfast, they would return to work. All they had to eat was a bowl of rice mixed with corn, salt-marinated radish, and salt water soup. They were not provided with blankets, so they often slept in their winter jackets.
During the winter, the students had to gather firewood. A group of 50 students and three teachers would go into the mountains, build a cabin, and collect wood for a week. They would walk 10 hours a day in the snow. Some students were physically punished, when they cried or got caught running away. In the evening they were so exhausted they would fall asleep before dinner.
Jeon said, “It was so hard. I remember how we all sobbed together. We all wished that we could go home and rest for just one day.”
Manual work was not their only burden. They had “economic tasks” as well. Every year, elementary school students had to turn in three rabbit skins, and for middle school students the requirement was five rabbit skins. The students were also ordered to bring in used nails, metal pieces and copper scraps. If they could not fulfill these economic tasks, they had to pay in money. Jeon said that she could not complete the economic task and could not afford the money, and ended up quitting school because of the burden she felt.
A source related to the U.N. reportedly said, “Based on the testimonies of Jeon and others, we will pursue a process to investigate North Korea for violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
Jeon escaped from North Korea in October 2015, and now lives in South Korea with her mother, who left the North earlier. Jeon said, “I’m happy and enjoy my life in the South. Differently from the North, I play when I want to, study, and go to church freely.”
She wants to be a doctor. “In North Korea many persons have been injured while working. I’ll study hard and become a doctor. I’ll heal suffering North Korean residents when the division ends.”
Rev. Kim Seong-eun (Caleb Mission Society), who helped Jeon during her defection, said, “Up till now, Miss Jeon has gone through tremendous hardships. Once, she was caught and forced back to the North, resulting in more hardship. At her young age, she survived in North Korea by herself. That gave her the strength to stand up and testify to the U.N. about her experience.”
Reporter Yeong Dae Yoo (ydyoo@kmib.co.kr), with Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)
Photos provided by Caleb Mission Society
Original Article in Korean:
탈북 전효빈양, 北 살해 위협에도 유엔서 강제노동 증언 “죽도록 일한 기억밖에 없어요”
Related Article in Korean:
[단독] “가난하면 10년 무보수 노동” 北 아동·청소년 실태: 北 아동 노동착취 실태 유엔 실무회의서 논의
