Lingerie, secret tunnels, and chickens: a North Korean defector’s tale

Han, a former lieutenant colonel, needed to get underwear for his daughter – kicking off an illicit trade that eventually saw his family escape Pyongyang

He traded military secrets, including the location of previously unknown infiltration tunnels, for a new life in the South

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Former North Korean lieutenant colonel Han at his home in Seosan, South Korea. Photo: Park Chan-kyong

Published: 12:00pm, 16 Dec 2020Updated: 8:58pm, 16 Dec 2020

When Han defected from North Korea, his odyssey began in an unusual way – a thriving trade in illicit South Korean lingerie.

In 2008, underwear was among the necessities in short supply in the North, and Han – then a lieutenant colonel in the North Korean army – was looking to secure some for his daughter, Han Ock, who was in her early 20s.

At the time, Han – who insisted that only his surname be used, to protect his relatives who are still living in the North – was assigned to an army company at the Kaesong Industrial Park, where South Korean firms employ workers from the North. Though the park has been closed and reopened a number of times over the years, as ties between the neighbours wax and wane, it was in full swing while Han worked there, and enforcement of regulations was often lax.

“In the beginning, we stuck to the rules and stayed away from Southerners. But we are all humans and we naturally became close to each other as time passed by,” Han, 63, told This Week in Asia in his first sit-down interview.

The parents of some of the soldiers under Han’s command worked on the famous ginseng patches of Kaesong, and he asked them to bring some ginseng back for him when they returned from holidays at home – which he then traded to South Koreans for daily necessities, including lingerie.

At first, Han limited these illicit transactions to a few pairs that he sent home to Han Ock in Pyongyang, but he soon expanded to entire boxes of underwear.

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