Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
China is a heaven compared to North Korea.
History has proved that dictators can't last forever.
Keeping families and friends divided is unforgivable.
Family is the most important thing: you can't buy them with money.
In North Korea, we learnt all Americans are the enemy; they are not human.
Due to hate, fear, and oppression, the North Koreans cannot help themselves.
When I was 14, during Kim Il-sung's funeral, I wondered, 'How could a god die?'
North Korean defectors can usually tell when other defectors are lying about their past.
It was really tiring always pretending to be someone else. Not my life, not my real name, nothing.
Leaving North Korea is not like leaving any other country. It is more like leaving another universe.
The North Korean regime really can control people. I think they are the best dictator in the whole planet.
We refugees, we become always a punchbag. A political punchbag between China and South Korea and North Korea.
My life is not only mine. I am telling the story of all North Korean people; it is my responsibility to tell it.
People who live in North Korea, they die for food, but living in the free world, the cat even eats expensive sushi.
The kindness of strangers and the support of the international community are truly the rays of hope we North Korean people need.
I don't hate the Chinese. We're brothers, and we share a border. I just hate the government, politicians, policies, not the people.
I defected to South Korea in search of freedom of speech and movement. I had longed to put my feet on this soil, even in my dreams.
I can't be sure of exactly when and how North Korea will change. But I do believe it will happen, hopefully in my mother's lifetime.
When many Chinese escaped to North Korea during the Cultural Revolution, we embraced them. People in China have forgotten about this.
Kindness towards strangers is rare in North Korea. There is a risk to helping others. The state made accusers and informers of us all.
Hyeon means sunshine. Seo means good fortune. I chose it so that I would live my life in light and warmth and not return to the shadow.
We were taught North Korea is a heaven. They told us how people in western countries die in hospital or have no money to study in school.
My mom told me many times how I need to be careful living inside the regime. We didn't say 'the regime.' We didn't even say 'North Korea.'
Certainly in North Korea, man is always superior to woman. Even the government treats women horribly. What is the slogan? Woman is a flower.
I want to see reunified Korean peninsula, and I believe that the majority of Koreans in both countries want to see Korea become whole again.
Freedom means everything to me. It is the most essential right that every person deserves. Most people take it for granted, but not North Koreans.
I know North Korea is the most ridiculous country in the world, but for me, my mum, my brother, and my families and old memories are so important.
My mom told me many times that when you are outside, you have to be careful what you are saying, and don't repeat the words of what you hear at home.
I don't think the North Korean leadership is interested in a genuine deal to end their WMD programs or their stranglehold on the North Korean people.
Inside North Korea, we have many informants and spies watching everyone; they're paid by the government. Even a husband and wife can't trust each other.
From the moment I was born, I was fed propaganda. I viewed the Kim dynasty not only as our fearless protectors from the imperialist forces, but also as gods.
In communism, we never had any freedom - of movement, of speech, of press. We didn't even make own decisions for our lives, our future. We were human robots.
Even after arriving in South Korea, it's dangerous. As a North Korean defector, I need to be careful from the spies to protect my relatives inside North Korea.
I've been so lucky, received so much help and inspiration in my life, so I want to help give aspiring North Koreans a chance to prosper with international support.
We can have reunification if another power replaces Kim Jong Un. I don't know who it could be, but I hope and I believe another power, another person will be better.
My family lived under communism their entire lives. When they arrived in South Korea, they didn't even know how to use the bank system and ATM or the subway, nothing.
Even though some heartless North Korean, Korean-Chinese, and Chinese citizens have exploited vulnerable defectors for money, I witnessed many acts of kindness by the Chinese.
We considered the Dear Leader our god. That's huge. He's more than our parents. I thought all of the world respected Kim Il Sung. That's why we were bowing to their pictures.
Because North Korea was so totally cut off, we didn't hear anything of the outside world. We had only one TV channel, which showed only propaganda, and we believed everything.
This is a divisive issue, but I really hope for unification. Even though we have been divided for a long time, we are all Koreans, so we should live together in a united Korea.
A huge famine hit North Korea in the mid-1990s. Ultimately, more than a million North Koreans died during the famine, and many only survived by eating grass, bugs, and tree bark.
North Koreans are tragically oppressed. Despite the risks to my personal safety, I feel a strong obligation to tell the world about the Orwellian nightmare that North Koreans face.
My favourite place in South Korea is Jeju Island: it's a tropical paradise with sandy beaches, turquoise waters, and the magnificent Geomunoreum lava tube system of underground caves.
The border crossing is the most dangerous moment for anyone attempting to escape. But my brother and mother had been waved off by every armed border guard along that stretch of the river.
Many people - when they think about North Korea and the dictatorship, or the military or nuclear weapons, nuclear missiles, those things - tend to forget ordinary citizens are living there.
North Korea is still my homeland, my country. I suffered on the outside because I was alien, without identity. I was nobody. I was in the worst situation, fighting for everything, to survive.
My favourite Korean food is delicious black five-layered pork belly, cooked over a charcoal grill. And Jeju chocolate, in citrus fruits and green tea flavour, which is famous throughout Korea.
I did my best to hide by changing my name many times. But I was captured by the Chinese police. But because my Chinese was so good, they thought I was Chinese and released me. That was a miracle.
Among the difficulties I encountered, economic problems were the worst. I found that financial hardships could limit one's ability to realize one's dream, no matter how desperate and earnest you are.
North Koreans are forced to work at state jobs in a moribund economy. Countless parents watch their children go to bed hungry. Many North Korean families feel they have no option but to try to escape.