In a daring, decade-long plan, a family of nine escaped North Korea by sea. The plot was conceived by the family patriarch, who believed there was a wider world beyond North Korea and that the ocean offered their only route out.
On May 6, 2023, the Kim family—brothers Kim Il-hyeok and Kim Yi-hyeok; their mother; Il-hyeok’s wife, five months pregnant; Yi-hyeok’s wife and their two children, aged 4 and 6; and a mother-in-law and brother-in-law—boarded a boat on the North Korean coast to cross the Yellow Sea.
The younger brother had moved to the coast years earlier to learn maritime skills and boat repair, and to study patrol patterns near the Northern Limit Line, looking for gaps in government surveillance. Il-hyeok told CNN the family had been relatively well off in a country where many live in poverty. Their father had traded antiques and gold and sold coal transported by train. The family had also obtained a second television smuggled through China, giving them exposure to South Korean media. The father died before the escape but left money to his children, and Il-hyeok supplemented savings by selling household appliances.
May brought storms that reduced visibility at sea, creating a window to attempt the crossing. Il-hyeok persuaded his hesitant wife—then in her second trimester—to join, telling her it was for their child. Because women rarely went to sea in North Korea, the women in the group crossed a minefield to reach the boat without attracting attention. Living near the coast, the family used connections to bribe guards and assembled at an undisclosed coastal point. The two young children were hidden in burlap sacks during the embarkation, and the family carried their father’s ashes with them.
They muffled the boat’s engine to reduce noise and set off slowly. After roughly two hours of silent sailing, they entered South Korean waters. Near Yeonpyeong Island, Il-hyeok switched on a searchlight; a navy vessel approached and asked if their engine had failed. The family declared themselves “North Korean fishermen here to defect to South Korea.”
Four months after arriving, Il-hyeok’s daughter Yeri was born. About a year later tragedy struck: Yi-hyeok died in a scuba-diving accident two months after Yeri’s first birthday. The family has continued to rebuild their lives. Il-hyeok is training as a chef and learning to operate a forklift, and he welcomed a second daughter this year. “I consider myself one of the lucky ones,” he said.
