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.
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.