From prison camp to ballot box: North Korean defector seeks British election win

[webfact]

Jihyun Park, who fled North Korea before settling in Britain, poses for a photograph after deciding to stand for election as a Conservative party candidate in the upcoming local elections in the Moorside Ward in Bury, Britain, March 22, 2021. REUTERS/Phil Noble

 

By Natalie Thomas, Andy Bruce and Phil Noble

 

BURY, England (Reuters) - Sixteen years after she was left to die unremembered outside a labour camp in North Korea, Jihyun Park will enter the British political history books if she wins office in local elections this May.

 

Human rights activist Park said she wants to repay a debt of kindness shown by residents in the northern English town of Bury, her home since 2008, by becoming a councillor in the local government.

 

She is standing in the May 6 election as a candidate for Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party in the Moorside electoral ward of Bury, a former industrial town lined with old red brick houses.

 

Sixteen years after she was left to die outside a labor camp in North Korea, Jihyun Park will enter the British political history books if she wins office in local elections this May. Lauren Anthony reports.

 

"I am really confident because I have already fought totalitarian evils twice, because I escaped North Korea twice," Park, 52, told Reuters from her house adorned with the flag of England and Britain's Union Jack.

 

"People were really nice to us. I want to pay back this debt," she said.

 

She grew up in the mountainous North Hamgyong province of North Korea but, hungry and desperate, in 1998 Park fled with her younger brother to China where they fell into the hands of human traffickers.

 

They were separated - her brother never to be seen again - and she was sold to a man whose family used her as a slave.

 

"One day I wanted to give up my life but I found that I was pregnant. I had changed my mind because this child was my last family member - and maybe this child would give me hope," she said.

 

She hid her pregnancy and, fearing arrest in hospital with no ID or papers, gave birth to a boy on her own.

 

The pair struggled on for five years before Park was captured by the Chinese authorities and sent back to North Korea without her son - a parting of "unspeakable" pain, she said.

 

Imprisoned in a squalid labour camp, she grew seriously ill from a leg injury.

 

"The police told me that you cannot die inside the camp, you die outside. So they released me," Park said, adding that she prayed to survive so she could be reunited with her son.

 

She regained enough strength to return to China and in 2005 she found her son, who had been treated badly by her former masters.

 

Park resolved to find a safe place for them.

 

She met her now-husband during an abortive move to the Mongolian desert and in 2007 a Korean pastor in Beijing put them in touch with the United Nations, which relocated the family to Britain.

 

They settled in Bury, birthplace of Robert Peel, a 19th century prime minister and a founder of the modern Conservative Party.

 

Asked why she joined the Conservatives, whose immigration policies have been criticised by campaign groups like Amnesty International, Park said their emphasis on family values and individual freedom appealed to her.

 

"Britain taught me what is freedom, and what is human. So that's why I want to help. Last year was a very difficult year and many people lost their family members," Park said, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

She now spends her time helping other refugees from North Korea adjust to life in Britain.

 

While Park leads a happy life in Bury and has now raised three children, her thoughts still turn to the past - and her younger brother.

 

"I still don't know whether he survived or not, but I never give up my hope. One day I want to be reunited with my brother," she said.

 

(Writing by Andy Bruce; Editing by Giles Elgood)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-03-25

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[ourmanflint]

Is she totally mad, repay the kindness of Bury residents by becoming a Tory!

[klauskunkel]

What a story!

[simon43]

I'm confused.  How can a (presumably) citizen of DPR Korea stand for election in a British local election?  Surely you have to be British by birth?  (Excuse my total naivety here for assuming that only British-born citizens can stand for political elections...)

[blazes]

What strength and determination.  Great to hear her story.

Puts a very different perspective on the pampered lives people live in the West.

 

 

[dabhand]

6 minutes ago, simon43 said:

I'm confused.  How can a (presumably) citizen of DPR Korea stand for election in a British local election?  Surely you have to be British by birth?  (Excuse my total naivety here for assuming that only British-born citizens can stand for political elections...)

 

I believe that being a British citizen, as is this lady, is sufficient. Similar, in a way, to Robert Maxwell, plus many others I would assume.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-55841159

[Dogbarker]

.. various qualifications to be eligible for  local election is  British citizen, an eligible Commonwealth citizen  and I believe until Brexit you could also be a 
citizen of any member state of the European Union. 
 Indeed my  wife born outside the UK but a British Citizen was invited to become involved in local UK politics many years ago  so is one reason I know. With regard to naivity a spoonful of a Google search engine often works wonders too! ????

[wombat]

Rocket man will get leverage over BoJo if she wins.

[RuamRudy]

"Thank you, you wonderful people of Bury, for helping me when I was struggling.

"Now I will repay your kindness by lending my support to the most corrupt, most incompetent government, led by the most venal of individuals, that any of you can remember." 

[Chomper Higgot]

1 hour ago, simon43 said:

I'm confused.  How can a (presumably) citizen of DPR Korea stand for election in a British local election?  Surely you have to be British by birth?  (Excuse my total naivety here for assuming that only British-born citizens can stand for political elections...)

You thought wrong:

 

United States: 

Boris Johnson Con Uxbridge & South Ruislip 

Tobias Ellwood Con Bournemouth East  

Greg Hands Con Chelsea & Fulham  

 

Pakistan: 

Rehman Chishti Con Gillingham & Rainham 

Afzal Khan Lab Manchester Gorton  

Khalid Mahmood Lab Birmingham Perry Barr 

Yasmin Qureshi Lab Bolton South East  

 

Australia:  

Deidre Brock SNP Edinburgh North & Leith 

Marcus Fysh Con Yeovil 

Catherine West Lab Hornsey & Wood Green 

 

(West) Germany: 

Crispin Blunt Con Reigate  

Mark Field Con Cities of London & Westminster 

Wera Hobhouse Lib Bath 

 

Kenya: 

Peter Hain Lab Neath 

Stephen Lloyd Lib Eastbourne  

 

India: 

Alok Sharma Con Reading West  

Virendra Sharma Lab Ealing Southall  

 

(Aden) Yemen: 

Keith Vaz Lab Leicester East 

Valerie Vaz Lab Walsall South 

 

Ireland:  

Nia Griffith Lab Llanelli 

 

New Zealand: 

Paul Beresford Con Mole Valley 

 

Bangladesh: 

Rushanara Ali Lab Bethnal Green & Bow  

 

Egypt: 

Margaret Hodge Lab Barking  

 

Poland: 

Daniel Kawczynski Con Shrewsbury & Atcham  

 

(Hong Kong) China: 

Rory Stewart Con Penrith & the Border  

 

Uganda: 

Shailesh Vara Con North West Cambridgeshire  

 

Iraq: 

Nadhim Zahawi Con Stratford-on-Avon  

[Sujo]

Wow what a story she could tell. Inspirational woman to come out of the hell and still be positive.

 

Regardless of her politics, well done you.

 

Imagine going to the pub for a few beers and someone asking you what you did with your life and you have a story like that.

[roquefort]

2 hours ago, ourmanflint said:

Is she totally mad, repay the kindness of Bury residents by becoming a Tory!

Obvious choice. The Corbynista wing of the Labour Party wants to turn the UK into North Korea.

[Paul Henry]

Thank God she did not finish up in the USA, the Republican party and Trumpists would have made her life so unbearable she would have wished she was back in NK or China. Great countries are the ones that welcome and facilitate multi-culturalism. There are many  EG. UK ,Canada, New Zealand, Netherland and Australia to name a few. Love of our fellow man is more important than greed and racism.

[unblocktheplanet]

I hope she makes a mint with the book & movie rights. I don't know British politics but she must have developed a lot of empathy for ordinary people.

[RuamRudy]

44 minutes ago, unblocktheplanet said:

I hope she makes a mint with the book & movie rights. I don't know British politics but she must have developed a lot of empathy for ordinary people.

Her supporting the Tories suggests otherwise. They are not known as the Nasty Party for nothing. 

[ooyha]

i never realised we have this many foreigners as mp's.don't forget johnson ennobled a russian

 

[worldexpress]

Interesting note: overwhelming majority of NK defectors are "conservatives" and extremely against the SK left-leaning government's "sunshine" or friendly-engagement policy towards NK.

[RuamRudy]

31 minutes ago, worldexpress said:

Interesting note: overwhelming majority of NK defectors are "conservatives" and extremely against the SK left-leaning government's "sunshine" or friendly-engagement policy towards NK.

 

Interesting - do you know is that conservatism extends into their normal life, or is it only in relation to the SK/NK situation? 

If the former, possibly a form of Stockholm Syndrome?