Interview:

Hangul Celluloid: I believe your decision to defect from North Korea came as a result of seeing mass-starvation and poverty during the carrying out of your duties as part of the North Korean army. At that point in time, how aware were you of other countries and cultures and what were your thoughts about South Korea?

Kim Joo-il: Only a very small number of people in North Korea have any access whatsoever to information about the outside world and the majority have to rely solely on information and news fed to them by the Government. That’s the overall situation. Until high school, I knew nothing about the world beyond North Korea but on beginning to serve in the military I was stationed near the DMZ and there I could hear the South Korean news and what I thought was propaganda near the border. However, at that point I was so thoroughly brainwashed by the North Korean regime that I thought it was all lies. For a long time while I was serving in the army, I was a kind of blank sheet and at that stage I just wasn’t ready to listen to or process what I overheard about the outside world. As you said, during my duties I subsequently began to see poverty all around the country and slowly – incredibly slowly – I began to ask if what I was being told by the Government in the North was as written in stone as it was claimed to be.


Hangul Celluloid: I realise that discussing film may seem too light a subject in the wake of what you’ve been through but as you’re here today to give a Q&A in conjunction with a screening of ‘Crossing’ (2008 - directed by Kim Tae-gyun, based on a true story): In your role as manager of the ‘North Korean Democratization Broadcasting System’, how important do you films like ‘Crossing’ are in raising awareness around the world of the problems faced on a day-to-day basis by North Korean citizens?

Kim Joo-il: There have been a lot of films about North Korean made in South Korea but the majority distort the reality of day-to-day life in North Korea and I must say I have been deeply disappointed to see so many films distorting the situation in the North. However, of all the films I’ve seen, ‘Crossing’ is the one that I feel most accurately depicts day-to-life in North Korea, in fact not only daily lives but also values and the way North Koreans actually think. I think that a film like ‘Crossing’ is incredibly important in raising awareness of the plight of North Koreans and I highly recommend people to see it.


Hangul Celluloid: In numerous South Korean films, North Koreans are shown searching for humanity, if you will, within a regime portrayed as cold, harsh and somewhat uncaring. As you have stated your feeling that depictions of North Korean in South Korean films are largely a distortion of the truth, how would you describe day-to-day life in the North? What in particular do you feel is inaccurate about those depictions of North Koreans?

Kim Joo-il: Most South Korean film-makers have very limited channels of information about North Korea and largely have to sift through North Korean propaganda and use defector testimonies to strip away falsehoods. As such, a lot of their depictions rely on large amounts of imagination on the part of the director, scriptwriter etc. There is a tendency to exaggerate one or two aspects of North Korea and North Koreans and films seldom reference the breadth necessary for anything close to accuracy. Words like “freedom”, “humanity” and “human rights” don’t even exist in the minds of North Koreans and in fact there is aversion or even hatred for ideas like freedom or liberalism which, I guess, constitutes itself as almost an abandonment of responsibilities in North Korean citizen’s minds.
Of course, I understand film directors in the South having to use imagination to realise their films but that fact raises the question of how much those outside North Korea believe those depictions to be true.


Hangul Celluloid: You’ve spoken previously about the fact that North Koreans who defect through China are not recognised as refugees there. As you yourself defected by travelling through China, what are your thoughts on the issue? I also believe that Joseonjoks (Chinese of Korean descent) helped in your defection. Do you feel the fact that Joseonjoks have a lower status/standing in China played a part in their helping you in your defection?

Kim Joo-il: Officially, the Chinese Government regards North Korean escapees as illegal border crossers, in accordance with the bi-lateral agreement on border control signed in the mid-1970s. So, China arrests these economic migrants who are in the country on a temporary basis and repatriates them. Although the Chinese Government does this to abide by the bi-lateral agreement, North Korean escapees are in truth not just economic migrants - they are repressed both economically and politically and, as such, they fulfil the definition of refugees under the UN convention. Therefore, I argue that North Korean escapees should be given full refugee status and I will continue to fight for that to become the case.
The Chinese Government has special policies to manage 56 minorities, currently, and while Joseonjoks having Chinese nationality means they are very different to foreign economic and political migrants the fact that they are of Korean descent has played a large part, I feel, in them giving help to many North Korean defectors over the years. As you mentioned, I was indeed one of those helped by Joseonjoks.


Hangul Celluloid: If I may, I’d like to ask rather a difficult question: What are your feelings about North Korean now? Obviously, it was your place of birth and home and I assume you must miss it in some respect but how have your feelings about the country changed since you escaped and do you ever see a time when tensions between North and South Korea might come to an end?

Kim Joo-il: Even though I left North Korea, it doesn’t mean that it’s not my home. It’s just in a wrong state and my dream is to go back when the situation is rectified. Therefore, I’m working hard to let the outside world know what’s going on in North Korea. Personally, I don’t want to say that South Korea isn’t my fatherland or vice versa. The Korean peninsula as a whole is my fatherland and, as I mentioned, it’s just currently in a divided state. To me, it’s not North Korea or South Korea, it’s Korea.
Regarding the second part of your question, I think the tensions will end when changes take place in North Korea, whether it be a change of government, an open-door policy or whatever. Having lived both in North Korea and elsewhere, I don’t think the necessary changes will take place under the current successive dictatorial regime but I honestly believe and hope that they will take place in the not so distant future.


Hangul Celluloid: We’ve already spoken about South Korean cinema and your feeling that many depictions of North Koreans in films are ‘distorted’. As a North Korean who served in the military, what are your feelings about North Korean Cinema? Were you aware of the fact that Kim Jong-il was a huge movie fan and what are your thoughts regarding his abduction of South Korean director Shin Sang-ok and actress Choi Eun-hee to make films in North Korea?

Kim Joo-il: Like the films of any other socialist or communist country, the films of North Korea are largely used to publicise the regime, push expected values and ideals with propaganda and to brainwash its people. North Korean films have always avoided talking about social problems and are very melodramatic as well. I do find some merit in North Korean films as they promote positive values and guide people to a positive way of thinking, even if that way of thinking is inherently misguided. For example, suicides are not talked about in North Korean films and you will never see a film telling the story of a psychopath, so people’s imagination does not extend to such thoughts of suicide or of murderers.
However, ultimately North Korean films do play a crucial role in brainwashing people in the country.
In secondary school, all North Korean children must learn and study ‘Art of Cinema’ written by Kim Jong-il who is regarded as the genius of film, so yes, absolutely everyone who has ever been to school in North Korea knows that Kim Jong-il was really into arts and films.
As far as the abduction of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee is concerned, we didn’t actually know that they were in North Korea against their will. We believed that they had been inspired by great and noble characters of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il and had voluntarily come to North Korea. Many, many North Koreans watched the films made by Shin Sang-ok and we felt they somehow contained glimpses of the outside world. There was one of Shin Sang-ok’s films I particularly remember called ‘Salt’ (1985) because it contained a kissing scene. It, of course, wasn’t a real kissing scene but to North Koreans it was very bold and almost shocking at the time.


Hangul Celluloid: Thank you for taking the time to talk to me and I sincerely hope that tonight’s screening and Q&A will further raise awareness of the problems faced by those in North Korea.

 

 

Many thanks to Amnesty International UK for arranging the interview with Kim Joo-il and to Chung Soo-min for her role as interview interpreter.

Side-note: This interview will also form part of an extended essay/discussion on the subject of North Korea as portayed in South Korean cinema; coming to the Hangul Celluloid site in the near future.