North Korean Defectors are “Amazed” and Think South Koreans are “Crazy” for Championing Kim Jong-un

The Korea Times has a compilation of opinions from North Korean defectors on what they think about the current North Korean peace initiative: 

Mikyung, female, escaped from North Korea in 2016 and arrived in 2016

I am amazed that South Koreans have high expectations that Kim Jung-un is seeking peace. It should be clear to anyone who understands the regime that it is seeking survival on its own terms, not to compromise. At last, more people are recognizing that he will not give up his nuclear weapons. The next realization needs to be that he won’t give up control of North Korea, that he will continue trying to exert complete control over everyone within North Korean territory and maybe even the entire Korean Peninsula.

We can see that even though he seems to be opening up, he still isn’t allowing North Koreans to talk with the outside world, to visit South Korea, or to even Skype with their elderly relatives in the South. It is a human tragedy, not just a North Korean tragedy.

South Koreans will be disappointed later when it is clear that he won’t change, and hopefully they will start to recognize that soon.

Korea Times

Here is my favorite opinion:

Eunji, female, escaped from North Korea in 2015, arrived in 2015

After I escaped to South Korea, I was shocked to learn that it was North Korea that had attacked South Korea in 1950. When I was in North Korea, I had learned the opposite, and so many other things that clearly were not true. There are some things that only North Korea believes. Sometimes it seems that South Koreans have been learning the North Korean version of history. I won’t be surprised if some South Koreans start insisting that it was South Korea that attacked North Korea.

And the people who are welcoming Kim Jung-un? They are crazy people. Some of my South Korean friends and colleagues have asked me about this, some of them even believe that I should welcome Kim Jung-un. I tell them, “Kim Jung-un’s supporters need to go to a mental hospital to have their brains checked. They need to live in North Korea, then they can learn what a real dictator is like.” 

South Koreans hated Park Geun-hye, she was removed through the constitutional process and even jailed, so she was not a real dictator. But now the people who held candle-light vigils against President Park are now welcoming a real dictator? When I was in North Korea, I had an excuse for being ignorant about the outside world because I was taught only the truth according to the Kim family. If you live in South Korea, with so much information available everywhere, then you have no excuse.

You can read articles, books and even see videos showing both sides of an issue, instead of the situation of North Korea where only one side is presented. If Kim Jung-un truly changes and North Koreans can become free, then even I would welcome him. Before we can welcome Kim Jung-un, there needs to be truth about North Korea, there needs to be freedom for North Koreans. A murderer and dictator should not be welcomed as a hero.

Korea Times

She is absolutely right, anyone championing Kim Jong-un is not only crazy but should be considered treasonous considering how many South Koreans the Kim regime has murdered, injured, and kidnapped over the years that they have never been held responsible for.

You can read more opinions from North Korean defectors at the link.