'I Was Shocked By Freedom': Defectors Reflect On Life In North Korea
Now in Seoul, North Korean defectors recall life inside one of the world's most secretive regimes, talking of brainwashing, required military service — and the jolt of seeing the outside world.
Watching footage of April's military parades in North Korea — with soldiers marching in formation to patriotic tunes — Lee So-yeon recalls all the steps. She was once one of those soldiers.
The daughter of a university professor, Lee, now 41, grew up in North Korea's North Hamgyeong province. But when famine devastated the country in the 1990s, women — including Lee — volunteered for the military in droves, often for the food rations.
Since 2014, North Korean women have been
