Editor’s note: The following article is an opinion piece by Su Lee, a teacher at the Durihana International School in Seoul. Views expressed in opinion articles are exclusively the author’s own and do not represent those of NK News.

Sok-chol (a pseudonym) spent the first 12 years of his life hiding in China with his North Korean mother before arriving in South Korea. Since his mother faced the danger of repatriation in China, she did not officially register his birth, which meant that he could not attend school or go to the hospital. When he eventually arrived in South Korea,