This 35-year-old woman, a dancer, came to Seoul in 2004 from Pyongyang, where she had trained for and participated in the Pyongyang Arirang Festival. This festival, also sometimes referred to in English as the "North Korean Mass Games," is among the country's few efforts to expose itself culturally to other countries. This is the first time she has shared her story.

Q: Can you share a bit about the Arirang Festival?

Though the festival has a long history, we began doing these performances to show the rest of the world in 2001. I participated in the year 2002. Participants range from age 6 to university students and are allowed to perform one to five times in their lives. The festival is an expression of our unity and an example of how the state can bring millions of people to all move as one. You cannot understand this unity unless you are born there, but to North Koreans, even the love and devotion that one has toward one's own father and mother is not as powerful as the devotion to our leader.

In North Korea, we are told that since Russian socialism collapsed, we are the only ones left and that we have to preserve ourselves from foreign influence to stay true to our values. The content of the performances are historical in nature, and the games are performed to please our leader and to show the world a display of our might.

Q. What was practice like?

We practice all year round, even in winter, no matter what the weather. Gymnasts performed acrobatics without practice mats, and no one was even given meals to eat—we had to pack our own from home. The performances are practiced with a perfectionism that allows no mistakes. If someone makes a mistake during practice, nobody goes home until they are able to do it right.

Q: Why is it that under a system of state-controlled distribution North Korea has plummeted to such a state of poverty? Why is it that everyone is equal in suffering, and not instead in wealth and prosperity?

There are many reasons, and this issue is complicated. One reason, though, is that there is not truly equal distribution. In the past, equal distribution existed, but now it is different. There are many markets, and only people with money are able to set up businesses to make more money. The gap between the rich and poor is enormous.

Above this, though, is the fact that North Korea simply lacks the resources to survive completely on its own. Lack of human resources, natural resources, mental resources—in all types of resources we are lacking. Even if people have ideas for how to better develop the country, there is no freedom for them to share their ideas.

Q: Why did you leave?

My coming to South Korea was actually unintentional. I had visited China to meet friends, but I soon put myself in a very complicated situation where I had no choice but to leave North Korea. Although my first experiences of South Korea were of isolation and fear, I do not regret leaving.

I did not suffer a lot or have a difficult time like other people in my country. I arrived in Seoul safely and conveniently with the help of the South Korean government. This is one of the reasons why I feel that other people who fled North Korea have a stronger voice than my own. They suffered more than me.

Q. What do you think can be done to build a better future for the people of North Korea? Do you think there should be unification?

When many people talk about unification, they only talk about the South taking over the North economically. If this is the route that is taken, there will be many side-effects.

We need to gradually build more exchange, and in order to do this, North Korea needs to be lifted out of poverty and oppression. North Korea needs to bring itself up economically. We also need to build more factories like those found in the KaeSong Industrial Region where people from both the North and South can work side by side. We need more exchange.

The common people of North Korea need to be allowed to learn about the outside world. They know absolutely nothing. It is important to expose the common people to the world so that they know what is going on. Right now they are in the dark and this is not the way to build a positive country.

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