A village near the Chinese border city of Tumen in Jilin province in February 2019. North Korea’s Hamgyongbuk Province can be seen across the Tumen River. (Daily NK)
A North Korean defector in Shenyang, China, received financial aid for a trumped-up illness, sparking anger in the North Korean defector community. Fellow defectors who made donations in early September to help with her apparent illness have expressed deep anger and disappointment after discovering the fraud.
A Chinese source recently told Daily NK that Chinese defectors live in different places and may not even know each other, but they create chat rooms on messaging apps where they can talk about their illness. It is said that they maintain their relationship by complaining about things, comforting each other, and sending messages to each other. A present for each other’s birthday.
When a North Korean defector (a woman in her 30s identified as Ms. A), who was an active member of such a chat room, went missing for several days early last month, another defector asked how she was doing. I contacted her for this.
Mr. A suffered from a severe headache and was unable to hold his head up, and was bedridden due to nausea and anemia. She said she needed to go to the hospital to find out the cause, but she couldn’t go alone because she didn’t have any ID and her Chinese husband was busy with work, so she was just suffering.
The North Korean defector who contacted Mr. A informed the other members of the chat room of Mr. A’s condition, and other North Korean defectors in China contacted the woman who appeared to be sick, with the pure intention of making a quick recovery from the illness. voluntarily sent 100 to 300 yuan ($14 to $41). disease.
The official said, “Strictly speaking, North Korean defectors in China are illegal immigrants, so they cannot receive formal treatment at hospitals, and even if they receive treatment, they must pay a large amount of money.” Therefore, in many cases there is little choice but to endure the disease.” “The North Korean defectors know the situation they are in, so when they hear that one of them is sick, they sympathize with them and do whatever they can, despite the hardships they are facing. I’m trying to reach out.”
In fact, the North Korean defectors gathered together and collected 5,000 yuan ($690) for Mr. A.
betrayed community
However, recently it was accidentally revealed that Ms. A was not actually sick, but had used the sympathy of fellow North Korean defectors to raise funds to fly to South Korea. I felt very betrayed.
A North Korean defector who sent money to Mr. A said that most North Korean defectors in China “are in the same situation, so even if they don’t see each other, when they hear someone is sick, they send money thinking they are family.” Ta. . She said North Korean defectors “even if we don’t have a single yen in our pockets, even if we have to borrow money just to wish the other person a speedy recovery, when we find out that it’s a lie, we… I was furious,” he said.
“It’s shameful to exploit people’s emotions like that, whether the amount is large or small,” she continued, adding: “On the other hand, it makes me feel even sadder to think that she must have really needed the money to lie about such an illness.”
A source said, “Ms. A was kicked out of the chat room and abused a lot. Other defectors who heard what happened said that if she needed money, she would abuse people’s emotions.” Instead, I should have just told the truth and asked for help.”
Daily NK works with a network of North Korean, Chinese and other sources. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.
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