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

Lee hadn’t planned for Min-ho to defect with her mother. She only has enough money for her mother and no ID for Min-ho. They spend an entire day finding Min-ho a fake ID in Changbai. They purchase the ID from someone sixteen years older than Min-ho, and who bears no resemblance to him. Lee reasons that the gender on the ID is all that matters, and that the police won’t examine the picture. They plan their departure during the 60th- anniversary celebration of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, so Chinese police are on high alert. Less than five minutes into their journey, they encounter the first of what will be many checkpoints. Lee distracts the police from her family by pretending to be a foreign tourist and making a scene, but future checkpoints aren’t so easy. 

Lee’s journey spans eight Chinese provinces. Lee’s plan for checkpoints is to pretend her mother and Min-ho are deaf-mutes and she is their guide. At the next checkpoint, police order bus passengers to the front, to engage in a conversation in Mandarin. They have been on the bus for some time and other passengers have heard them speaking Korean.