US Must Help North Koreans Find The Truth That Kim Jong Un Fears

Soon, my parents disappeared as well, and my life was consumed by hunger and fear. At 12 years old, I was living on the streets alongside other boys who became my brothers. We begged, stole food, fought and climbed onto cargo trains in search of places where we might find something to eat. Every day was a struggle to survive. Every night brought the possibility that one of us might not wake up.

Those years of hardship stripped away any love I still felt for the regime that ruled my homeland.

But only after I escaped did I fully understand how powerful it can be for North Koreans to encounter the truths the government has worked so hard to conceal. A single piece of information can create doubt. Doubt can become judgment. Judgment can become courage. Information gains its greatest power when people can make sense of it, share it and act on what they learn.

That is why the democratic world must pair efforts to reach people inside North Korea with sustained investment in young North Korean escapees. Information alone is not enough. North Koreans also need people who can interpret it, give it meaning and transform it into a vision for change. Escapees can turn information into understanding, understanding into agency and agency into leadership.

The regime understands the danger of that process. In footage released in 2022, two North Korean teenagers were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for watching and sharing South Korean films and music videos. Their public trial took place before roughly 1,000 students– a calculated warning to an entire generation. Amnesty International has documented severe punishments for North Koreans who consume South Korean television and K-pop, including imprisonment in labor camps and, in some cases, execution. No government secure in its legitimacy would fear a television drama or a song, but Kim Jong Un knows where outside ideas can lead.

For decades, international partners have supported North Korean voices and fostered emerging leaders in the North Korean escapee community. Chief among them has been the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). This work rarely produces immediate headlines or appears on the evening news. It lacks the spectacle of a missile launch or a summit between world leaders. But it is vital. It helps North Koreans question government narratives, form independent judgments and discover that other futures are possible.