“The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) has never once let its guard down. Despite that, there will continue to be North Korean soldiers like me who cross the DMZ in search of freedom.”
In an interview with The Chosun Ilbo on Sunday, Jang Han-ul, 30, recounted his 2012 defection from North Korea by crossing the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone. “The hardest part was making the decision to risk my life. But once I made up my mind, there was nothing left to fear,” Jang said.
Jang is the real-life inspiration behind the South Korean film ‘Escape,’ which tells the story of a North Korean soldier’s defection. In the film, released in July, actor Lee Je-hoon plays Kyu-nam, a soldier who risks everything to escape across the DMZ just before completing his 10-year military service. Unlike the character in the film, Jang defected in August 2012 after serving for only a year and five months.
Born in Hamhung in 1994, Jang enlisted in the North Korean military after graduating from middle school. At the time of his defection, he was 18 years old, and it was the first year of Kim Jong Un’s rule following Kim Jong Il’s death. “Kim Jong Il, who had promised national reunification, died without fulfilling that promise, leaving me deeply disappointed,” Jang said. “After his death, I started picking up South Korean leaflets that had been dropped in North Korea, hoping to find some truth.”
The leaflets, which criticized Kim Jong Un’s regime, had a profound impact on the young soldier. One phrase in particular—”South Korea is an economic powerhouse with abundant electricity and lush forests”—struck a chord with him. “It felt like I had been hit over the head. From that moment on, I started planning my escape while on guard duty, something I had never paid much attention to before,” Jang recalled. At night, he would watch the lights in the South Korean villages through his binoculars.
Jang carefully planned his defection, choosing a day in August 2012 when a powerful typhoon had damaged the DMZ’s triple-layered fence, which included electric and barbed wire barriers. “That day, the senior soldier on duty with me disappeared, saying he was going to take a nap. It felt like a sign from above—I knew I couldn’t miss this chance,” Jang said. He pocketed two grenades and took his AK rifle with 90 rounds of ammunition as he made his way to the fence. The grenades were meant for suicide in case he was caught by North Korean forces.
Although he managed to cross the fence, Jang encountered unexpected obstacles. “Unlike what I had seen from the North Korean side, the DMZ was filled with 2-meter-tall reeds and thorny bushes that I had to fight my way through. My entire body was scratched and bleeding, and my uniform was torn to shreds,” Jang said. It took him 18 hours to cross the roughly 2-kilometer stretch of the DMZ. “Even now, I can’t tell if those 18 hours were a dream or reality. I remember hearing the North Korean soldiers calling my name, and 12 bullets whizzed past my head as they fired at me. Bullets also hit the river next to the reed field,” he recalled. During the crossing, he lost 2 kilograms. Weighing 43 kilograms immediately after his defection, he now weighs 67 kilograms.
Now in his 12th year living in South Korea, Jang reflects on the hardships he’s faced since his defection. “There have been many difficult times since coming to South Korea, but whenever things get tough, I think back to the day I risked my life to escape,” he said. After arriving in South Korea, Jang studied for six years before entering college in 2018, where he majored in political science and diplomacy. Since February 2020, he has run a YouTube channel called BukSital with Kim Kang-yoo, another defector who crossed the DMZ in 2016. The channel aims to raise awareness about the harsh realities faced by North Korean soldiers. It was through this channel that Jang was contacted by the production team of ‘Escape,’ who sought his advice and offered him a small role in the film. In January of this year, Jang also released a short film he directed and produced, titled Two Soldiers, which highlights human rights abuses in the North Korean military.
Jang hopes that societal prejudice and discrimination against defectors will diminish. “There’s discrimination in any society, but I wish the bias against North Korean defectors would disappear,” he said. “I also hope that negative perceptions of reunification—such as the idea that it’s a burden or that we shouldn’t have to take responsibility for North Koreans—will improve.”
