Despite being witness to the murderous Orwellian circus that is contemporary North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee, who escaped that insane state as a teenager and has authored the book The Girl With Seven Names, believes the two Koreas will eventually reunite, free of tyranny. She told Michael Rundle of Wired UK of her experiences. An excerpt:

“North Koreans are tragically oppressed,” she said. “Despite the risks to my personal safety I feel a strong obligation to tell the world about the Orwellian nightmare that North Koreans face.”

That nightmare leaves North Koreans unable to rely on anyone, she said — including each other. “We have to learn that we can’t trust anyone […] classmates are forced to report on each other and spy on each other […] Someone will hear you. The walls have ears and the fields have eyes [my mother] said,” Lee told WIRED 2015.

“We are forced to watch public executions. I watched my first one at the age of seven as I watched a man hanging by his neck from a bridge […] Due to hate, fear and oppression the North Koreans cannot help themselves.”

In a harrowing description of her former home, Lee described a process by which young girls were routinely forced to perform and be judged by the state, to compile a “pleasure group” for the leader and regime — effectively to serve as sexual slaves.•