Escape to the south

摘要

For 16-year-old Lee Song Chol this should be an agreeable time. He has managed to escape from North Korea. In South Korea millions are celebrating the lunar new year. New year's day, February 12th, is a time of family reunions. Koreans travel long distances to be together. But Lee's family is cruelly divided. A sister and his aunts remain in the North. He thinks it unlikely that they will be having a good time. Although the North also has a lunar holiday, the young Mr Lee remembers only the privileged being able to afford to celebrate it. He acknowledges that he is one of the fortunate ones, with enough to eat and a degree of freedom unknown in the North. All the same, it can be a lonely life, although it is one experienced by hun- dreds of other northern defectors who have found that life in the rich South is not quite as they expected.