Song Ee Han said the nightmares about North Korea were severe during her 10 years of hiding in China. They've become less frequent since she and her children settled in the United States four years ago.
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Han survived being tortured by police officers in North Korea. The beating shattered the parietal bone in her skull into four pieces. She and two of her children escaped to China by crossing the Tumen River in 1998.
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Han's two daughters, EunHye, 20, and JinHye, 24, pray at the Pilgrim Community Church in Virginia. In 1998, the sisters, severely malnourished, walked for three days and crossed the Tumen River to escape into China. They had to leave their younger brother behind in North Korea.
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Food was always scarce in North Korea, the family said. Their ribs jutted out of their bodies and they tried to combat their hunger by drinking water. This is a lunch of cabbage soup and kimchi, a traditional spicy pickled cabbage dish, served at their church.
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After work, EunHye Jo, 20, goes to adult night school, where she takes high school courses in hopes of going to college someday. She goes to bed at 2 a.m. most nights after finishing school work.
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Faith plays a important role in the family's lives. They first learned of Christianity through missionaries secretly helping North Korean refugees in China. EunHye Jo exchanges texts with a friend at church.
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JinHye Jo, Song Ee Han and EunHye Jo used to scour the countryside for tree bark, grass and rodents to survive in North Korea. "You can't sleep," JinHye recalled. "You think of meat, rice and what it's like to have food in your stomach. You're constantly thinking of food, so you lose your mind."
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EunHye folds name tags for the work she does at a health center for aging Chinese and Korean immigrants. Her fluency in Chinese and Korean have been vital, according to her supervisor.
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JinHye and EunHye regularly advocate for human rights issues in North Korea. They hang signs for a church program thanking those who helped them adjust to life in the United States.
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As part of efforts to raise money to help North Korean defectors, JinHye sells handmade beaded crosses. Crosses are present in every room in their house.
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JinHye and her friend, Jacob Seo, also a North Korean defector, pick melons at a Korean supermarket. North Korean defectors form a small community in the D.C. area.
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In North Korea, JinHye spent her days in the countryside looking for pine to strip off trees and edible varieties of grass. Now she works, goes to school and handles speaking requests.
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"My heart was torn into shreds," Han said about being unable to properly feed her children in North Korea. Two of her children starved to death.
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Han has lost her husband, mother, and two children because of the famine and oppression in North Korea. "I was born in this world and I gave birth to children. I have to help my kids survive -- that's the mission of being parents. If they all die, what's the point of being born?" she asked.
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EunHye and JinHye barely had the opportunity to go to school in North Korea or China. They hope to get accepted into college soon.
From North Korea to the U.S. —
A beaded cross dangles from the rearview mirror of JinHye's car. She made all the crosses so she could sell them to help North Korean refugee efforts.
