About the Author

Dagyum Ji
Dagyum Ji was a senior NK News correspondent based in Seoul. She previously worked for Reuters TV.
“Number 429, you're destined to live a long life,” the South Korean-born American Kim Dong-chul was told by guards when he woke up on the ground in freezing water two days after being poisoned by briquette gas in a North Korean prison.
“If I had already died in North Korea, I would not have to remember," Kim, who was released last year, said in an interview with NK News in Seoul this month.