They’re the refugees from North Korea’s hermit kingdom who overcome huge odds to escape to a new life in South Korea. Most of them are women and the journey they undertake is a perilous one.

Many are influenced to leave after viewing smuggled South Korean TV dramas which showcase a life of freedom and opportunity. But the reality is often very different. Instead of finding happiness they are overcome with loneliness and isolation.

On arrival, often after harrowing experiences at the hands of human traffickers, they are placed in a training school and taught how to live in the modern world, South Korean style.

Once on the outside, their accent, clothing and behaviour often make them stand out, and they struggle to assimilate, some often barely surviving.
Those who do escape are known as defectors and they rarely speak out publicly.

This week on Foreign Correspondent reporter Naomi Selvaratnam meets some of the North Korean women who are trying to make new lives for themselves in South Korea and asks them: Has their escape been worth it?

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Foreign Correspondent is the prime-time international public affairs program on Australia's national broadcaster, ABC-TV. We produce half-hour duration in-depth reports for broadcast across the ABC's television channels and digital platforms. Since 1992, our teams have journeyed to more than 170 countries to report on war, natural calamity and social and political upheaval – through the eyes of the people at the heart of it all.

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