[Politricks]

So I just came across this on the internet:


And it made me wonder if North Korean athletes really do have a chance to escape now that they're out of the country, but what's stopping them? Are there agents hired by North Korea ensuring that they don't escape? Are their families being threatened with torture or death if the athletes run away?

This makes me feel so grateful that I wasn't born in a suppressed country like North Korea; it's so sad that North Koreans don't know what freedom is like, I just love being free.

[Genocidal]

I imagine their families would be threatened. That's why more Koreans don't try and escape because then they just take it out on your family.

[ConnorB]

Copied from Wikipedia

North Korean citizens usually cannot freely travel around the country, much less travel abroad.[4][5] Only the political elite may own or lease vehicles, and the government limits access to fuel and other forms of transportation due to frequent shortages of gasoline, diesel fuel, crude oil, coal and other fossil fuels (satellite photos of North Korea show an almost complete absence of vehicles on all of its roads throughout the country, even in its cities). Forced resettlement of citizens and whole families, especially as punishment for political reasons, is said to be routine.[37]
North Korean refugees who flee to China are often later forcibly repatriated back to North Korea by Chinese authorities, and are routinely beaten and sent to prison camps.[38] This is because the North Korean government treats emigrants from the country as defectors.[38] This treatment is more severe in cases where North Korean refugees have come into contact with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are associated with South Korea or with religions, especially Christianity.[38] In cases where the North Korean government discovers that contact has occurred between refugees and these NGOs, the punishments for these refugees are torture and execution upon their repatriation back to North Korea.

In short, it's a terrible idea.

[im so academic]

(Original post by Genocidal)
I imagine their families would be threatened. That's why more Koreans don't try and escape because then they just take it out on your family.

What if you don't have any family back home in North Korea?

To be honest, if you're living in North Korea, some way or another your family will inevitably be tortured. You might as well run for your lives. Stupid NK government.

[Scoobiedoobiedo]

(Original post by im so academic)
What if you don't have any family back home in North Korea?

To be honest, if you're living in North Korea, some way or another your family will inevitably be tortured. You might as well run for your lives. Stupid NK government.

For once I agree with you ISA.

[sugar-n-spice]

Their family would be punished for them

[MangoFreak]

Disregarding the threats towards the athletes' families, it could be that they've simply been indocrinated so thoroughly that they believe everything they see when they come here is evil or wrong. Although I can't imagine how that would be the case while they still compete in the Olympics.

[cl_steele]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that when theyve tryed it before the government does horrific things to their families; torture, re-education camps etc. if theyre single though make a runner apparently a Somalian has already done it :L

[Minotauro]

I know Cubans in the past have attempted (some successful) have defected during the olympics, who knows, they might attempt to do so.

*Gamboa, a Cuban Gold medallist at the Athens 2004 managed to do so, and he managed to get by by selling his Olympic medal :O

[im so academic]

(Original post by sugar-n-spice)
Their family would be punished for them

They're going to be punished anyway. Everyone gets punished there (unless you're a member of the super elite). I use the word "punished" in a very loose way; by being born and living in NK, you are punished for life as your existence is, at best, a mediocre one. What really is the difference between being tortured in NK or being starved in NK? (Starvation is a major cause of death there).

In fact, if I were born in NK, I would want to die as soon as possible. I'm genuinely surprised suicide isn't a major cause of death there. So if the escaped athlete's family gets tortured, heck, it's a blessing for them.

[Darth Stewie]

They can claim asylum and i would imagine they would get it as someone with inside knowledge of North Korea would be pretty valuable to our intelligence agencies. There is always the possibility they don't want to run away, we have no idea how Olympic athletes are treated and it might be a pretty good life for them.

Highly dubious their families being tortured would be enough of a reason to go back if they were living really poorly, guess other people have a lot more faith in human morality than i do.

[The Epicurean]

If they are successful here, they can help portray a more positive image that the North korean government want the world to see. This will most likely improve the circumstances for themselves and their family back in North Korea. Whereas if they choose to defect, they will forever be haunted by what would happen to their family. I would therefore think that for them, winning would be their number one priority rather than defecting.

[Toppy]

Once, some South Korean film makers were kidnapped by North Korea to make movies there (I **** you not. They made a knock-off Godzilla and everything.)

They managed to escape after eight years when they went to a film festival


"Finally, in 1986, the couple were given permission to travel abroad together for the first time since their arrival in North Korea eight years earlier.
They went to a film festival in Vienna heavily chaperoned by a team of North Korean minders, but managed to persuade their guards to travel in a taxi behind as they headed for the festival hall.
"We got to a crossroads where we were supposed to turn left fo the festival. Our minders' car was following us about 30 metres behind, but several other cars had got in between them and us. So we told our driver to turn right instead, towards the United States Embassy," said Choe Eun-hui.
Seconds later the car behind realised that something was wrong and radioed the taxi that the Shins were in and asked their driver to tell them which way he had gone.
The couple quickly handed him a sizeable tip and lied that they had gone in the opposite direction.
Soon they arrived at the US embassy but could not find anywhere to stop outside, and the couple had to get out down the road.
"We tried to run as fast as we could, but it felt like we were in some sort of slow motion movie," Mr Shin said.
"Finally we burst through the embassy's doors and asked for asylum."
On hearing the news, Kim Jong-il became convinced that the couple had been kidnapped by the Americans, and sent them a message offering to help them get them back to Pyongyang.
It was an offer they could happily refuse."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/2821221.stm

Here is some of the Godzilla knock-off, pulgasari:

[*Waldpoesie*]

Theoretically, they do. Like one of the above posts suggested, they may claim asylum, though this may be dangerous to them, or they may try to escape by their own means, which relatively more people attempt.

Nevertheless, it sounds like a terrible idea to me.

I saw a sports journalist on the national television, by chance, arguing that North Korean Olympians struggle not only for victory in terms of medals, but also for a sort of privilege back in their country that they cannot obtain otherwise. To be fair, I am not sure how accurate this is - at all - but it might be another point to consider.

That put aside, although a handful of North Koreans do manage to escape successfully, the ratio of those successful to those unsuccessful is infinitesimally small. And the great majority, that is those who fail, face brutal circumstances. On the other side, there is mental and physical suppression (you are not allowed to leave Pyongyang to visit another city, and vice versa, etc), starvation and so forth.

In a nutshell, despite the possibility of "freedom" in the end (especially given the family factor), personally, I would most definitely prefer to do my best rather than to defect. I assume this is most would do, as opposed to the very courageous minority.

[Beebumble]

No North Korean's but on the same lines of athletes using the Olympics to escape and claim asylum:
http://gawker.com/5935138/african-ol...ylum-in-london

[TimHuak]

Why would you want to escape? Everybody knows north korea is best korea

[Like_A_G6]

Aren't North Korean citizens already brainwashed into loving their country and the leaders? I mean they cried a ridiculous amount when Kim Jong Il died.

[im so academic]

(Original post by Like_A_G6)
Aren't North Korean citizens already brainwashed into loving their country and the leaders? I mean they cried a ridiculous amount when Kim Jong Il died.

I've heard that it was a choice between crying or dying.


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[mugshot]

(Original post by im so academic)
I've heard that it was a choice between crying or dying.


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Dont want to sound bad...but I heard similar!

[ThatPerson]

Almost certainly the NK would send relatives to forced labour camps if they did escape, but freedom is priceless and I'm sure some athletes who have lived under the brutal NK regime will try [I hope for their sakes]; we don't appreciate what freedom is until we no longer have it.