Culture

For North Korean Defectors, Escape is 'Like Jumping 50 Years Into the Future'

Negotiating Seoul’s subway system and living in the South can be a jarring leap into the modern world.

Jung-ae Gwak, left, and her daughter, Hanbyeol Lee, right, get a ticket to ride the Seoul metro. When Lee first arrived in Seoul from North Korea, she says she was bewildered by the fact that people sat directly across from each other instead of all facing the same direction.Eli Imadali/CityLab

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Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal

By Sam Weber

June 27, 2018 at 9:35 AM EDT

In Seoul, a huge metropolitan area of 25 million, people crammed sidewalks and businesses, often chatting away on cellphones as they walked. Gwak is from the North Korean city of Hamhung; there, she said, only spies had mobile phones. The crowds, ubiquitous in Seoul, felt sinister. Gwak sometimes hid in closets because she felt like someone was going to find her and send her back to North Korea.

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