“ Their drive to survive is beyond our imagination,” says Chun Junghee, head nurse at Hanowan [a government-run facility]. But helping defectors is rarely easy, the staff says, for they trust no one. “People from North Korea are very paranoid,” says Kim Heekyung, a clinical psychologist at Hanowan, who supervises group therapy for defectors. Paranoia, she adds, is a rational response to reality in North Korea … When defectors arrive at Hanowan, they whisper. They are reluctant to disclose their names or dates of birth. They question the motives of people who want to help them … A majority of defectors suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The war crime that is Kim Jong Il’s continued rule by Thomas P M Barnett
