On the unreliability of North Korean defector testimonies

"Efforts to delegitimize and silence voices undermining the narrative of a “good West” against an “Asian communist evil” would persist long after the Korean War and appear to have redoubled following the Cold War’s end. As perceptions of a global communist menace, of which the DPRK was previously portrayed as a fanatical puppet, have faded, demonization of the state has increasingly come to focus on allegations of major human rights abuses. North Korea’s population are portrayed as oppressed or even enslaved, and the state’s collapse, westernisation and integration into the Western-led order is depicted not only as an inevitability—but as a fate desired by and strongly in the interest of its people. Such a narrative depicts the benevolent Western world’s actions against the northeast Asian state largely as altruistic—emphasizing the interests not of Western governments but rather of the supposedly enslaved Korean people themselves.

To further this narrative, atrocity fabrications and horror stories regarding life in North Korea are vital. The accounts of a small number of defectors from the DPRK residing in South Korea and the West have served as the most essential source of such stories—although a significant number of the most influential and best publicised testimonies have proven to be highly dubious. Several North Korean defectors have been able to derive significant financial benefits from denouncing their former homeland, some of the most prominent gaining celebrity status in the West in the process while giving inconsistent or otherwise unreliable testimonies. Shin Dong Hyuk was one such defector, whose allegations of severe human rights abuses were widely accepted as fact in the West despite a lack of evidence. Shin’s life story, Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Journey from North Korea to Freedom in the West, was authored by former Washington Post journalist Blaine Harden, based on his narration. The book’s title was notably indicative of the agenda it represented—the story of “Western good” against “Asian communist evil”—and it became a bestseller promoted in Western countries as a key reference for understanding the DPRK. The book was translated into 27 languages and sold worldwide—while Western human rights organizations heavily based several of their reports on the DPRK on Shin’s testimony. This testimony was then used as a pretext for further Western economic sanctions against the DPRK, and was said to have “shifted the global discourse about North Korea.”78 A Western-led United Nations commission on North Korean human rights would base its reporting and positions almost exclusively on Shin’s testimony, with a member of the commission referring to him as the world’s “single strongest voice” on Pyongyang’s abuses.79

Several years after Shin’s testimony was published, the author, Blaine Harden, himself revealed that Shin had fabricated much of his story while the book was being written.80 Shin later admitted to having “altered details” of his testimony. Harden stated that Shin was an “unreliable narrator” and re-emphasized that “Shin was the only source of information about his early life,” allowing him to alter his testimonies as they would be accepted without the need for evidence.81 Harden also said he would not be surprised if Shin made further alternations to his testimony in future.82 Other North Korean defectors interviewed by South Korean media notably referred to Shin’s testimony as “complete lies,”83 while Korea expert Andrei Lankov, despite being a strong critic who had called for regime change in Pyongyang,84 stated that Shin’s testimony was unreliable—noting that defectors faced considerable pressure to exaggerate their stories.85 Western sanctions on Pyongyang and UN reports made on the basis of Shin’s testimony notably were not reviewed, much less changed.86 What the DPRK’s adversaries needed was not necessarily a verifiable story—but rather an emotional and horrifying one which could be used to demonise the Korean state before the world and serve as a pretext for further hostile actions towards it. Shin’s testimony filled this role perfectly—and it didn’t have to be even remotely true to do so.

Another highly prominent defector whose fame went on to eclipse that of Shin was Park Yeonmi, who was strongly endorsed and widely promoted in the West in much the same way as her predecessor shortly after the flaws in Shin’s testimony were revealed. It has been widely reported by other North Korean defectors, and even by some prominent Western reporters with a basic knowledge of the DPRK, that Park’s stories were highly inconsistent with reality and at times nonsensical. Award-winning documentary producer Mary Ann Jolley, having interviewed Park several times, noted telling inconsistencies in her stories. In an article for The Diplomat Jolley details how interviews Park gave changed completely depending on when she told her story. She also noted that several facts Park gave did not stand up to reason; for example, Jolley wrote: “In telling of her escape from North Korea, Park often says she crossed three or even four mountains during the night to get to the border and describes the pain she endured because her shoes had holes in them. However, Hyesan where Park was living is right on the river that divides the two countries and there are no mountains to cross.”87 This was but one of many impossible claims that Park made, added to a list of severe contradictions between her different interviews. Several other observers, including journalist Michael Basset, concluded that Park’s statements regarding the DPRK were not synonymous with the reality in the country, and that she was using outright lies to gain fame and, in the process, tarnish the country’s image. Park has meanwhile reaped a small fortune from her “sensationalized” speeches, from which she earns over $12,500 per speech according to her agent.88

Je Son Lee, a North Korean defector, noted that several facts about Park’s story were clearly fabricated. Regarding some of Park’s claims she commented “no one would believe this unless they were an idiot.”89 South Korea professors Shi Eun Yu and Kim Hyun Ah, who worked at the ROK’s processing sector for North Korean defectors, strongly refuted several of Park’s statements. “It’s not possible” they commented outright .90 Swiss businessman Felix Abt, who had worked and travelled extensively in North Korea for seven years, strongly refuted Park’s claims as “obviously exaggerated or plain false,” noting multiple significant inconsistencies.91

Stories such as those of Shin and Park have been endorsed and promoted because they suit the Western agenda towards North Korea. They are able to gain such traction because of the general ignorance about the DPRK around the world and the country’s lack of global media with which to counter this misrepresentation. Among those with even a basic understanding of the country, however, there is generally a consensus that the narratives endorsed in the West and on which Western human rights organizations and reports have based their testimonies are unreliable—often bordering on absurd.

While the allure of fame and fortune may motivate some to seek celebrity status, the need to subsist in the ROK where defectors face discrimination, earn significantly less money than South Koreans and often struggle to adapt to life is another key motivating factor. The fact that defectors and their children residing in Seoul have been known in extreme cases to die of starvation alone says much regarding their plight.92 Statistics from defectors’ unemployment rates to high school dropout rates among their children93 further demonstrate this, which leaves resorting to sensationalist reporting as one of their few avenues to escape poverty and provide better for themselves and their families. Dr. Konstantin Asmolov was among several scholars who noted that defectors had a strong financial incentive to fabricate testimonies that were as gruesome as possible—with Western and South Korean media prizing such stories highly. He stated to this effect: “The media has enough materials about how difficult they find it to adapt in the South and that they are considered second-class citizens there. One of the few ways to get more is to actively participate in propaganda against the North Korea, telling the public not so much what is really going on, but what is desired to be heard. And as the competition is high, it is necessary to tell something particularly terrible and become the author of an ‘exclusive rumor.’”94 Interviews with defectors living in Seoul strongly indicate that there is a strong tendency towards fabrication of testimonies which are particularly gruesome or horrific regarding life in the DPRK—and that the financial incentive for doing so can be very considerable.95" - A.B. Abrams, "Immovable Object: North Korea's 70 Years at War with American Power"