North Korea’s ‘Return to Paradise’ nightmare

You cant blame the uncle. This before the internet, and actually before a lot was revealed. At this point most people actually thought North Korea was richer and more developed than the South.

noticed her cousin's family barely even smiled in every photo

I saw a sad story about 2 Korean brothers in Japan, of which 1 returned to NK. Before he left he told his brother to peel back the stamp of the letter he sends from NK. When the letter arrived, on the back of the stamp it said “don’t come”.

She is extremely lucky that her side of the family didn't move to North Korea.

Thank you, Hyangsu Park, for sharing your family’s story. You fear that forgetting them means they’ll cease to exist even from memory, but by giving this interview, you have ensured that they are never forgotten. I hope that, wherever they are, your uncle, aunt, and cousins are reunited once more and have found their peace again ❤️

My heart hurts so much watching this. One can only imagine what she feels. It seems like she has no more tears to shed.

What strikes me is how incredibly sad the cousins looked in the pictures, even BEFORE their father was taken. They were obviously not ever okay or happy and healthy… this is just awful. I don’t know how this county is still going.

I can’t imagine living with the regret of knowing that you doomed your family + bloodline by moving to North Korea rather than staying in Japan. Such a gut wrenching story…

It’s horrible that the Red Cross helped the people leave Japan for N. Korea. Shameful.

She is such an intelligent and eloquent interview subject and the video is wonderfully presented. Well done! But, please tell your sound guys the next time that music should never be louder than the interviewee's voice.

My korean father in law died this year aged 100. He was born in North Korea but escaped to the south just before the war with his aunty. He was stopped at the boarder because he had no papers so his aunty told him to go back one station and walk over the boarder at night. He fought for the south and was wounded. He never wanted to go back even for a visit. Hope we can visit his hometown one day soon.

I remember watching another video wherein a young girl in Japan disappeared on her way home. Years later, someone tipped her family that North Koreans kidnapped her. Her family then consulted with the Japanese ambassador to talk to North Korea so there was so much tension between the two countries because North Korea denied knowing anything about it. Years passed by, her family members died one by one (of natural death and old age) and only her Mom and sister were alive, still searching for her. Then they got another lead, a photo shows the girl now in her 40s living in North Korea. But still, North Korea denied knowing anything despite the pressure from Japan. Eventually, the mother died, leaving the sister as the only living family member to search for the girl. More years passed, someone reached out to the sister and introduced herself as the daughter of the girl. Sadly, the girl has already passed away of old age and she apparently chose to stay in North Korea because she had a family of her own there already. Her daughter is also still in North Korea.

The music volume often drowns out the dialog in this video. Subtitles save the day.

The saddest and most heartbreaking story that many are going through. My prayers and best wishes to her and those who are hurting inside because of this.

This woman is brave for speaking up. Thank you SCMP for this video.

I feel bad for them, I guess it taught me in life to not blindly trust words like “motherland” and “fatherland” as a form of smoke and mirrors but rather to judge things with your own thoughts and judgment

I can really relate to this story.. During the Korean War my grandmother took all her children(born and raised in Japan) to North Korea except for my mother as my father did not trust the Soviet Russia and communism. My grandmother believed the communist propaganda as many intellectuals did at that time. My father went onto building air fields for the US Air Force. We also found out later one of my uncle who had to go to North Korea with my grandmother died shortly after during the Korean War fighting for North Korea. Just a 19 years old boy. For many years until her passing my mother lived with the pain and guilt of being only one to enjoy the freedom in South Korea and North America..

Amazing story from Hyangsu Park. She's not the only one that's opening up about her story about North Korea and the exposure of it. But it's still sad that 30-60+ years later North Korean citizens still don't have freedom and rights and being abused by Kim Jong-Un and his past family members. One day Kim's empire will fall as nothing last forever.

this is heartbreaking. to think there's about 94,000 more stories like this 💔😢😢

this is why you gotta be careful of those "the grass is greener" ads. gotta do your own deep research