“Ask a North Korean” is an NK News series featuring interviews and columns by North Korean defectors, most of whom left the DPRK within the last few years.

Readers may submit their questions for defectors by emailing [email protected] and including their first name and city of residence.

Today’s question is about how North Korean society views people with disabilities.

Lee Ju Won, who lived in Hyesan in North Korea before entering South Korea in 2019, writes about how watching South Korean media, rethinking his mother’s earlier escape and enduring a dangerous journey through China led him to defect.

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