What is it like to be a North Korean refugee today?

The National Geographic just published an article accompanied by high-quality photographs which describes what it’s like to be a North Korean refugee today.

Photograph by Chien-Chi Chang China In the border city of Yanji a missionary cautiously looks for North Koreans needing help on their long journey to freedom.

It’s definitely worth reading:
“Escape from North Korea – Defection is daunting. So is starting a new, free life.”

A frigid November day pressed against the windows of a shabby apartment building in the Chinese city of Yanji, ten miles from the North Korean border. Three stories up, footsteps stopped outside a door. At the sound, two young women hurried to a back room and shrank against a wall. Then came a knock. The women, defectors from North Korea, bowed their heads, expecting the worst. If the Chinese police found them without identity cards, they would be deported in handcuffs and chains. Back in North Korea, they would be sentenced to years of hard labor in a prison camp…