North Korean refugee's memoir inspires hope

By Dr. Tony Docan-Morgan

A memoir written by North Korean refugee Sungju Lee

Sungju Lee's "Every Falling Star: The True Story of How I Survived and Escaped North Korea" (2016, Amulet Books) is a unique addition to the growing genre of English language memoirs written by North Korean refugees.

Lee, with Susan McClelland, tells his story about growing up in an elite Pyongyang family and then at the age of 11 losing almost everything. Lee's work is particularly valuable as it traces his experience living as a kotjebi, or homeless street child in North Korea.

After providing a brief history of 20th century Korea, Lee describes childhood ― living in a well-furnished home, idolizing Kim Il-sung, and attending school.

Early on, he recalls the death of Kim Il-sung in 1994, as well as his family's "so-called northern holiday" (p. 22), where they board a train and enter a part of the country they had not seen before. Once they reach their new home in Gyongsong, Lee experiences many firsts ― lack of electricity, vanishing food rations, pervasive starvation, and a public execution.

For Lee and his family, survival in Gyongsong becomes grueling. He quits school and his parents stop showing up at their assigned work duties, as they must scavenge for food. Lee's father shares his plan to bribe his way across the Chinese border to trade goods, and departs from the family. Lee's mother also leaves, indicating that she's going to visit her sister in Wonsan to find food.

Without family, Lee's nightmares, loneliness, and starvation worsen. With few options, he turns to a group of his classmates, all of whom become kotjebi. Young-bum, one of Lee's primary school friends, introduces him to the bustling market scene, and they team up to steal food and won.

After some success, they form a larger group in hopes of working together to persist against rival kotjebi gangs. Lee weaves plentiful detail into his story, including the gang's chain smoking, drinking, occasional infighting, and conversations about death, family, and dreams. Further, Lee's narrative centers largely around the theme of brotherhood.

Lee and his gang eventually leave Gyongsong. They sneak onto a coal train that takes them to the outskirts of Chongjin, where they survive by stealing food from the market.

Lee remarks, "Death was all around us. We'd enter the market in the mornings to find women wailing and rocking in their arms children who had died during the night ..." (p. 175).

Later, they reached a market in Rajin-Sonbong, where they were challenged to another battle and lose one of their brothers, Myeongchul, in a brutal fight.

Lee's doubts about North Korea's leadership are sprinkled throughout the memoir.

He hears fictionalized accounts from others about his gang, and mentions, "I'd laugh when I'd hear these stories but then later wonder: Was this how Kim-Il-sung's childhood snowball into such an epic? Myeongchul's words came back to me: Folklore has a funny way of becoming truth" (p. 211).

Later, Lee and his gang make their way for Hwasong where they are caught stealing from a pear farm and taken to the guhoso (detention center). Lee details the dismal living conditions, witnessing various forms of abuse and the sight of dead children. They end up escaping, but soon after lose another brother from a horrid beating.

Lee and his gang eventually return to Gyongsong. At the end of February 2002, a man at the train station approaches Lee, claims to be his grandfather, and convinces Lee to come to his house in the mountains.

Once there, Lee is astonished when he sees pictures of his mother and father. After settling in with his grandparents, a man delivers a note from Lee's father, asking Lee to meet him in China.

Soon after, Lee decides to accompany the broker. They cross the Tumen River on the outskirts of Hweryong, Lee meets with another guide in China, and he spends nearly a week waiting for the next move.

Lee and his guide board a train in Yanji, and equipped with a passport, he is led to board an airplane. Amid his confusion, Lee's plane lands in South Korea, where he is investigated and finally able to meet his father.

In the epilogue, Lee tells of his struggles to assimilate in South Korean society, his educational pursuits, and ongoing work with refugees' human rights.

"Every Falling Star" is a valuable read for both specialists and non-specialists on North Korea. Lee's memoir is particularly noteworthy as it offers detailed insight about life in North Korea, loss, and survival.

In addition to the well-written prose, the book offers a high degree of narrative coherence and merit. Further, Lee appears to meet his objective to inspire hope. He ends with a note about his mother: "She is still missing. My father and I search for her ever day. I will never give up hope that we will be reunited" (p. 307).

Dr. Tony Docan-Morgan (tdocan@uwlax.edu) is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, the U.S.