Escaping North Korea

The year was 2029, approximately 2 years before the event that would change millions of lives forever. A-Yeoung was just like any other 14 year old North Korean girl; trapped and unaware of the world around her. Obviously she was more than that, but to everyone else across the world, that was who she was; a young female brainwashed by dictatorship and social propaganda. She had one small and  powerful fact about her that nobody knew. She could see through some of the propaganda and the lies. She knew that unlike how her teachers taught, that America, South Korea, and Japan were not poor and savage countries; in fact quite the opposite. She knew that the outside world was very different, and she knew that her beloved supreme leader was not the most truthful person. How did she know this you might ask? Books. Actually only one giant book. The Book of International World History. This book had been illegally smuggled in, and if a guard found it in her possession, public execution and labour camp for her family were only a few things that could happen to her. In her country, the true foe was not the people or the history, but the truth.

Life was extremely strict, but generally she was quite a content girl. She personally had never experienced extreme starvation unlike many of her friends and family, and she enjoyed playing card games. According to the regime, she had nothing to envy about what was happening outside her country, for the outside world was suffering from strife, disease, corruption, and capitalism. She, no matter how much she questioned the regime, she did somewhat believe these things. That’s why when there was no electricity or food, she didn’t question it; she had nothing to envy. 

‘Besides, that old history book was written years ago. Who knows if it’s still accurate?’ she thought. 

‘But, if capitalism is so bad then how come capitalist countries have better movies, clothes, and books than us?’ she pondered. 

Even though it wasn’t allowed, a lot of people saw and watched Korean and Chinese movies, including her. That was one of the reasons why she questioned the regime. All the North Korean movies were full of propaganda and commemoration to the dear leader. It was all so predictable and even annoying at times. But foreign movies were so touching, inspiring, and even funny. Of course she never told anybody about these thoughts because A-Yeoung was a smart and pretty girl, two things that might just guarantee a next meal for your family, and she couldn’t put all that to risk for a couple creeping suspicions.

As previously mentioned, A-Yeoung was extremely beautiful. That alone could guarantee her a spot with the supreme leader as one of their maids, which was highly thought of. Why might she want to be a maid? She wanted to feed her family that’s why. Also she desperately wanted to escape military service, which was also thought highly of but you would most likely starve to death before doing anything honorable for your country. Also the military was known for raping women, and that’s not even the worst part. If you were impregnated, your family would abandon you and you would be considered a shameful person. For most citizens becoming a soldier was compulsory, but not for a maid. Little did she know that by the time she made it to maid service, everything would change.

Since the 2000’s, North Korea’s population started to significantly decrease as thousands of people escaped, and thousands of people starved to death. Unknown to North Korea, people world wide donated millions of dollars each year to help the people of the regime escape. In 2027, four years before the Americans and the U.N would completely free North Korea, Officials all over the world were coming up with plans to free the country. By this time North Korea's military was quite weak due to the neglect of the soldiers, and the bribery of the guard officers to let people free. With Kim Jong Un dead, Pyongyang was in a poisonous political snake pit due to the fact that Kim didn’t assign an heir, and the cupboard of possible candidates is completely empty. Currently to keep the regime still standing, Kim Jong un’s wife, and a couple of NK officials were currently keeping the dictatorship afloat while they searched for a proper candidate. Even though Mrs. Kim was mostly in power, she still loved to hire beautiful maids. She claimed that it’t what Kim would have wanted, but in reality she had a thing for women; lesbian you could say. Not that anyone there knew what that was. You see, NK had an interesting way of suppressing information. Instead of denying or persecuting anyone who was homosexual, they just didn’t acknowledge homosexuality as a whole. Kind of amusing if you ask me. Back to the plan of freedom, the reason why the world wanted to set the people free was to first: make sure that innocent people didn’t need to suffer. Second: if they could completely disarm North Korea by freeing its citizens and military, they could find a way to loot their nuclear weapons and prevent a third world war from happening. North Korea was slowly losing its dominance, who knows what they would do to assert it back.

Two years passed and A-Yeoung was 16. That meant she was old enough to get scouted for being a maid. Before making her way to school, she had the rare luxury to take a shower in the Tumen river beforehand. As some of you may know, the Tumen river is the border between North Korea and China. In fact it was only a 25 meter run to freedom. Even though it’s guarded, most people make it past. The only problem is in China. If Chinese officials find out you’re a North Korean defector, they will deport you back to North Korea where you will serve at least ten years in a labour camp. And all North Koreans know those labour camps are hell. You get tortured, starved, and you have to do an intense amount of labour. Not worth it in most eyes. But sometimes you’ll risk it all just to have a proper meal and a satisfied belly. She gently caressed the blue crystalline water. Her hands playfully danced with the ripples. She loved the river. It was her safe haven in a place where hope was strangled and beaten until it became nothing but pure fear. 

She got fully clothed and made her way to school. She counted her steps by seven, it was her lucky number. She focused on the click clack of her shoes, because in a couple hours it would be determined if her future would be making that 25 meter run, or if she would be polishing silverware with a piece of gum in her mouth. She met up with her best friend Cho. They were both chewing their nails in excitement for this day. 

“Yoyo I just know you will make it! Don’t forget to leave me some scraps!” said Cho. A-Yeoung took Cho’s hand and quickly skipped to school. Little did they know that while they were taking their seats in class, America sent a missile directly towards the parliament building. It’s not surprising that they did that. In 2020, the US did a similar thing where they attacked and killed the Iranian president almost causing a Third World War. UN troops were setting up rafts for the escape of the people. First, they helped the guards to safety. If they didn’t oblige or were causing a ruckus, the troops simply put a bullet in their heads. Let me tell you, there were a lot of bullet wounded heads that day. 

7 million soldiers combined with guns and bombs equalled freedom. Armed forces all over the planet joined to save the people and the dangerous nuclear weapons that North Korea held. The  country itself was putting world peace in jeopardy. The sound of guns being blasted and bullets ricocheting came closer and closer to A-Yeoung. Finally, 5 black heavily armoured figures stormed into her classroom. Terrible screams that reflected the utter horrific thoughts that were going on through the minds of the students filled the air. Were they being sent to labour camps? Were they being executed? The five figures started to yell in a foreign tongue unknown to any one there. The students and teachers were quickly smuggled into a giant army truck. As soon as A-Yeoung got in the truck, she noticed what was happening. Buildings were on fire, army trucks of Korean citizens polluted the roads, Bloody bodies lay limp on the sidewalks. It was absolute anarchy. While everyone else was screaming, A-Yeoung and Cho tightly held hands. All of them were boarded onto a raft. A terrifying thought entered her head. Where is her family? Her heart rate increased to the point where all she heard was the pounding of her soul. What if she never saw her mother again? What about her dear brother? What was going on? It became all too much for her 16 year old brain to handle and she passed out. 

She woke up with the piercing sound of her mother crying. She was in a hospital. The frantic shouts and shuffling of nurses and North Korean patients was all she could hear from outside her room. Her brother was softly holding her hand with a tear in his eye. It was clear that one member of the family didn’t make the trip. Instead of letting the sadness overwhelm her, she wanted to know where she was. It was clear that America couldn’t take over 23 million refugees so the North Koreans were sent all over the place. A few million to the UK, A few million to Europe, some in America and Australia, lastly a lot of them were sent to Canada. She could tell by the flag above her door, she was free. Free from lies and hunger. She was ready to start all over again in North Korea’s biggest enemy; The United States of America. 

Sorry for any grammatical or spelling errors!

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