The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story

Lee recalls that she “joined the crowd of disembarking passengers, not knowing where to go or what to do. It felt like a race” (197). Lee enters a customs line but becomes nervous and exits the line just as she is about to be able to claim asylum. She notices a room occupied by South Korean navy officers. She decides the better idea is to discretely approach them and claim asylum. Lee enters the room and says, “I’m from North Korea […] I would like asylum” (198). The officers simply look up at her; one disinterestedly replies, “Welcome to Korea” (198).

Lee, however, has another problem. Because she has a genuine Chinese passport and brand name luggage, the South Korean National Intelligence Service believes she is Korean-Chinese and only pretending to be North Korean, in order to receive the status of an asylum seeker, which would be preferred to Korean-Chinese status. Lee has done so well hiding in China and assimilating that she appears Chinese to South Koreans and now has no way of proving she’s North Korean. The National Intelligence Service holds her in a facility while they investigate. Still, Lee rejoices: “I was on the other side of my divided country.