Vote With Your Feet

There’s a simple metric in judging a state of a country. Are people coming in or leaving. In some places in North Korea, it’s emptying

“I want to go to South Chosun(Korea) too…”

As the entry of defectors surge, presently North Koreans envious of going to South Korea is growing.

Defector Kim Young Sik (37) residing in Seoul, recently had a phone conversation with family living in Chongjin, North Korea, relayed on the 22nd that “North Koreans no longer really fear going to South Korea. Many people say that they will go to South Korea.”

Kim said “When missing persons arise in the village, word spreads that they have gone to South Chosun, and when people gather in twos and threes they talk casually about going to South Chosun.”

It is a surprising occurrence compared to the past, where if rumors of ‘Gone to South Chosun’ spread, people would be afraid of being pursued with ‘National Treason.’

As of June, there are currently 8,500 names of defector entry to South Korea and the time is coming when this figure will rise to 10,000. As rumors of defectors entering South Korea spread throughout North Korea, the minds of North Koreans are changing from ‘Something that is utterly impossible’ to ‘Something that is fairly achievable.’

Let’s hope this comes in handy one day.