North Koreans who risk everything, including their lives, to flee from their homeland are featured in “Beyond Utopia,” a documentary film directed by Madeleine Gavin.

Kim Sung-eun, a pastor with South Korea’s Caleb Mission, took part in the production of the movie, which will hit theaters in Japan on Jan. 12.

In a recent interview with The Asahi Shimbun, Kim, who has been helping people defect from North Korea for more than two decades, shared some stories about the flight of people from the reclusive nation.

Excerpts from the interview follow:

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Question: What led to your participation in the film?

Kim: Gavin approached me in winter 2019 and asked for my help, saying she wanted to make a movie about defectors from North Korea. She said she had seen YouTube footage acquired by Caleb Mission, including movies filmed in North Korea and scenes of an exodus from there.

I initially declined the request, saying that she and her colleagues wouldn’t be able to do it. That’s because Westerners draw attention if they go to China and Southeast Asia, which serve as routes for defection from the North. Public security authorities would keep an eye on them if they were to roll cameras there.

Despite my refusal, Gavin didn’t give up and kept contacting me over and over.

I was moved by her burning desire to tell the truth about North Korea to the rest of the world.

She and I agreed that officials of Caleb Mission would do the filming in China and work with producers of the movie to shoot footage in Southeast Asia.

FAMILY ‘WORTHLESS’ FOR BROKERS

Q: You received a call for help from a party of five defectors from North Korea--Roh Yong Gil, his wife, an octogenarian mother and two girls--who were in the mountains in China near the North Korean border at the time. Could you elaborate?

A: I know it is cruel to talk like this, but the family was worthless to brokers helping North Korean defectors.

Young women account for 90 percent of defectors from the North. Brokers selling female North Korean defectors to Chinese looking for brides or to prostitution operators can receive 100,000 yuan (2.06 million yen, or $14,570) to 180,000 yuan per person.

A married couple with an old woman and young children bring no profit to brokers. That’s why they contacted me. I decided to pay brokers on their behalf to help them flee.

Caleb Mission takes no money from North Korean defectors. We covered the expenses with assistance money and other resources. By no means is our mission financially well off, but we didn’t have the option of helping, for example, just two of the five.

Q: The family traveled 12,000 kilometers to flee from China via Vietnam and Laos to Thailand. Could you describe the journey?

A: We entrusted brokers to help their flight in China. I joined the party in Vietnam and accompanied them until they were in front of the Mekong River, which flows along the Laos-Thailand border.

China, Vietnam and Laos are communist states on friendly terms with North Korea, and they deport North Korean defectors they have detained. Defectors, therefore, must flee as far as Thailand if they wish to come to South Korea.

As best they could, the party avoided being on the road during the daytime and stopped, for example, at hiding places prepared by the brokers during their exodus.

It was anything but easy for them to move through jungles and across mountains. It took them more than a month to finish their entire journey.

SKYROCKETING DEFECTION COSTS

Q: The novel coronavirus pandemic struck immediately after the family’s defection. Did it affect people’s flights from the North?

A: It became practically impossible for North Korean defectors to move across China during the pandemic because of the large-scale lockdowns the country implemented.

Barbed wire has been installed on both sides of the China-North Korea border. China is also introducing facial recognition systems. Defectors now cannot use public transportation in China, even with the pandemic over.

Brokers provide vehicles instead. So they agree to help North Korean defectors only when there are at least three or four of them together. A lone defector is asked to pay as much as a party of three or four would pay.

In addition, China amended its anti-espionage law in July last year to toughen penalties. Brokers contacting defectors from North Korea, for example, are now treated as spies. Brokers and nongovernmental organizations have backed out from helping defectors from the North.

Traveling from North Korea to Thailand now costs 100 million South Korean won (11 million yen, or $77,740) per head, about 10 times what it would cost in the past.

Q: How many North Korean defectors are there in China?

A: I assume there are about 50,000. Some of them have married Chinese and taken root in the country, where they have stayed for 10 to 20 years.

Caleb Mission makes a point of prioritizing the defections of those who have just fled from North Korea and have yet to build foundations of life in China. These people are at a higher risk of being detained.

In November, we helped a party of three North Korean defectors enter South Korea, the second such case in 2023.

Q: Caleb Mission has also acquired and published footage filmed in North Korea. Could you comment on it?

A: We have been told by North Koreans that they are eking out a bare existence from day to day. At the same time, however, they never speak ill of Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, during the phone calls.

That’s because they never know who else can be listening, and because speaking ill of Kim Jong Un can drive an entire family to ruin.

North Korea is now nervous about an inflow of information from the outside. The presence of defectors means, however, that there are channels for information to flow into North Korea.

The authorities are trying to crack down on defection to sever the channels of human and information traffic.

The Kim Jong Un regime has certainly been strengthened. Kim Jong Un will continue developing nuclear arms and missiles in the years to come. I am afraid that people’s lives there will not improve, and the situation over food will become tougher.

Q: The movie was highly acclaimed, including at the Sundance Film Festival and the Sydney Film Festival. What do you think about the reception?

A: I have been to the United States, Norway, Sweden and elsewhere for an award ceremony and on other occasions. I saw people saying in tears that they didn’t know humans were being forced to live like that. I realized there was a lot of public interest in North Korea.

I have been helping defectors from the North for more than 20 years. As the situation became tougher, I thought I would be unable to further help them, but I received fresh encouragement from those who have watched the film.

I hope to continue helping North Korean defectors in the years to come.

(This article is based on an interview by Senior Staff Writer Yoshihiro Makino.)