Charles (27:04)
So, yeah, so, you know, I also heard that, like, this person who's screaming at me, it was not like, you know, heavy, like, you know, deep voice. It's much more high pitched, like a, like a scream. So those are, those are my theories. But, you know, fortunately, he did not pull the trigger. And if he did, you know, I probably won't be here. Interesting, right? So thankfully, you know, I kept wet at hat, and then five minutes later, you know, I was dripping wet. But, you know, finally back in China, I walked in China for three days without any proper meal or, you know, water. My North Korean quality shoe fell apart because I was walking so much and my feet got blisters and it popped and it started bleeding. So I could not walk anymore. So I collapsed and I, you know, I was ready to die and I started crying and I started regretting the decision that I made to escape North Korea, because if I were to be in the coal mine right now, I would have food in my stomach and I would have roof over my head. Why did I escape North Korea to face this kind of fate? And frankly, I was curious, like, why am I the only one who's going through this kind of struggle? And I blamed everybody. And I was sad, I was crying and I prayed. Because when I first escaped. When I first escaped North Korea, a South Korean pastor came to my house and he taught me how to pray. And he gave me a Gospel of Matthew, a tiny Bible. And, you know, I didn't care about it so much. Like, I did not know what Christianity was. I did not know what, what God was, you know, because North Korea portrayed like they talked about, yeah, Christianity, they talked about, like pastors, they talked about churches. But they demonize like, they demonize like other religions, right? At least that's how I was taught when I was in North Korea. So I did not really care about it much. But I still read the Gospel of Matthew because each time this pastor come to my house, he would ask me, like, how many pages of this book did you read? And I was like, oh, yeah, I've read like two to three. He'll give me Chinese yen based on how many. How many pages I've read. So I usually tell people that he bribed me into the kingdom, you know, so, you know, I'm glad he did. And that's how I learned about Christianity. And when I was going through the labor camps, the North Korean defectors detention centers, and when I was going to the coal mine, escaping again, like, you Know those journeys, I, you know, I constantly prayed and you know, asking God for, you know, wisdom and help. And then at the end of three days journey, you know, my shoe fell apart, my feet got blisters, it, my blisters. And he popped and he started bleeding. I could not walk anymore. I'm hungry, I'm dehydrated, I'm exhausted and I kneel down And I started crying and regretting everything. And then I prayed, God, please don't let me die like this. And maybe it was a miracle or maybe I was just really lucky or I don't know what it was. But sometime later, a Chinese guy drives motorcycle middle of nowhere, has no business whatsoever doing like middle of nowhere. He shows up, he comes to me and he stares at me for a while think like, trying to think of like what should I do, right? And then he offers me bread and water. And then he picks me up, he puts me, puts me on his motorcycle. And then we drove to his house for, for many hours. And then he gives me medication for my feedback. He feeds me, give me clothing, gives me money. Next morning he connects me to a South Korean pastor who eventually helped me to get to my dad's house. Wow. And then I got on a bus and I came to my dad's house and I knocked on my dad's door, right? I knocked on it. And he opens the door, he flips out, right? He grabs the belt and he started beating me. He asked me, did you kill a person in North Korea? Because it doesn't make sense to him, right? Like 17 year old kid risking his life crossing the international border. And it's not just like going to a neighbor's house, right? I told my dad, no, I was hungry. I want, I missed you and I wanted to be with you, right? And my dad was like, all right, fine. And he took me in and you know, I was terrified. You know, even though I came to China and even though I'm like, okay, now I'm safe, like from like starvation, but I wasn't safe, right? Because I was in a constant fear of being captured and sent back to North Korea, right? And if I were to get captured here and sent back to North Korea, there is no mercy for me because it's a second time and I would have no life. You know, it was, it was terrifying. It was, you know, I could not go out during the daytime. I would only go out like in the super early in the morning or super late at night. I was afraid of just looking at police officers. Even when after coming to America, like, I was terrified of the police, you know, because, like, Chinese police and ptsd. Yeah, PTSD and whatnot. But my dad was like, you know what? If you're. If you're going to stay here, like, you have no life? Like, you know, it's like, eventually you're going to get captured and you're going to be sent back to North Korea. You're going to die anyway. So go to South Korea. Dying, trying to escape China and go to South Korea. So he introduced me to a broker who smuggles North Korean refugees out from China to Southeast Asia. And from Southeast Asia, they go to Thailand. And in Thailand, there is an international refugee camp. So in the international refugee camp, I apply for a political asylum to United Nation. And then United Nation accepted me, and they sent me to California back in 2012.
