Play all audios:
North Korean defectors have given invaluable insight into life within Kim Jong-un’s infamously private hermit state – but now their rights to free speech may be under attack. South Korean
police, under orders from President Moon Jae-in, arrested two two brothers who they believed were responsible for sending anti-Kim Jong-un leaflets north of the border. Discovery of the
notes provoked fury from Pyongyang, who branded those behind them as “human scum” in a move that led to a military demonstration. Under orders from the Supreme Leader’s sister Kim Yo-jong
they destroyed an inter-Korean communications building and ignored all correspondence with the South. While tensions appear to have calmed, the recent arrests have raised questions whether
defectors are safe within South Korea and whether they will be able to voice concerns and accounts. Those who have spoken out about the state have exposed the extreme measures North Korea
has gone to in a bid to intimidate and silence them. They include Yeon-mi Park who claimed she did not care if she was assassinated by agents from her mother nation after a detective warned
that she was in danger and should retract statements or go into hiding. Yeon-mi Park escaped from North Korea when she was 16 years old and spent two years in hiding before she was able to
reach the South. She became a TV star and journalist and used her platform to denounce Kim Jong-un’s regime, according to a 2016 ‘Dateline’ report. The defector claimed to have received
death threats and was warned that her life was at risk because of her candid disclosures since moving to South Korea. Ms Park said: “My detective just told me, ‘Seriously, you are in danger
and you have to change all your information’. “But I said no because my name, Park Yeon-mi, is my legacy from my father, that’s the only one he just left me. Tragically, soon after their
arduous journey began Ms Park’s father was diagnosed with terminal cancer, given three months to live and died shortly after. She claimed to have to dig her own father’s grave – a
devastating moment that encouraged her to speak out against Kim Jong-un’s regime and to preserve his legacy. Ms Park said: “I was sitting there and it was so cold, there was nobody I could
call, there was nobody who came to my father’s funeral, nobody knows. “When I saw my father’s death it was not human, he was less better than an animal and I didn't want the end of my
life to be like that.”