My sister was sent back to North Korea after 25 years

AFTER desperately fleeing across a frozen river to escape North Korea 25 years ago, Kim Kyu-li was able to reinvent her life and built her own catering business in London. Yet on the other side of the world, Kyu-li's sister, Cheol-ok, is languishing in a North Korean prison, facing torture and starvation under Kim Jong Un's tyrannical rule. Kyu-li, 47, told The Sun through tears how she is desperately trying to find her sister disappeared by the cruel regime and fears time could be running out.

Image Credit: The Sun [Woman holding a sign that reads, "Save My Sister Send Her Back To Her Family!"]

She said: "I don't know what's happening inside the prison camp she is in. "I have lost all family, I only have my sisters left.". Victims locked away in Kim Jong-un's prisons are brutally punished by guards with rape, forced abortions, and even extrajudicial executions. Families and prisoners are not told their location or even how long they will have to endure the horrifying camps for - a practice known as enforced disappearance.

Image Credit: The Sun [Woman in white shirt and black pants standing in a wooded area.]

Kyu-li doesn't know for fact that Cheol-ok is still alive, but says she believes in her heart that her sister would never give up because she is "strong". It's the latest twist in a heartbreaking saga that saw the sisters separated for 20 years after they fled North Korea separately in the late 1990s and became illegal immigrants in China. In 2007, Kyu-li staged another daring escape from China, and found freedom and safety in Britain - now leading a wildly different life from her younger sibling.

Image Credit: The Sun [Woman holding photo of her missing sister.]

Just days after escaping North Korea, Cheol-ok was sold for marriage to a man 30 years her senior. She had his baby at just 16 years old and was condemned to a life of poverty in rural China. The pair lost contact for 20 years despite Kyu-li constantly searching for her sister in North Korean defector communities online. They were finally able to reunite during the Covid pandemic after finding each other on social media.

Image Credit: The Sun [Kim Kyu-li, sister of a North Korean defector, in her London home.]

Kyu-li encouraged her sister to flee and move to Britain to live the same safe and prosperous life she had. But as she made her dash from China, Cheol-ok was caught by cops, and was deported back to North Korea in 2023. The family only know about the arrest after Cheol-ok begged a Chinese prison guard to let her use his phone in order to make a final call. They have not heard from her since with North Korea's policy of 'enforced disappearance' meaning officials refuse to pass on any information about the imprisoned.

Image Credit: The Sun [Large group photo of people, possibly a family, posing in front of a vehicle.]

Heartbroken Kyu-li says the family has no idea where exactly Cheol-ok is being held inside North Korea, or how long she will be there for. North Korea has repeatedly denied the "hellish" camps exist. But satellite photographs reveal they can hold thousands of people and are even visible from space, while stories from survivors have detailed the horrific conditions inside. Witnesses have told how inmates are forced to live on just 80g of corn a day, topping up their miserly rations with insets, rodents or animal feed.

Image Credit: The Sun [A female North Korean soldier stands behind barbed wire, carrying a rifle.]

The skeletal prisoners are also subject to vicious beatings, forced labour and rape. Amnesty International say Kim Jong-un has even been pouring more resources into two notorious political prison camps, known as kwanliso, including building an expanded crematorium to dispose of the bodies of those who have died at the hands of the regime. The first time Kim's family escaped North Korea was when the country went through a deep famine in the 1990s.

Image Credit: The Sun [Kim Jong Un supervises North Korean artillery firing drills.]

The tyrannical Kim dynasty turned on its people and impoverished them to keep itself afloat. Kyu-li's family were smallholding farmers and cronies of the rulers stole most of the food they grew to feed the country's rich elites. She says they were only left with two months worth of food each year - condemning them to starvation. Tragically, Kyu-li's mother died in 1995 and her father soon after became too sick to work.

Image Credit: The Sun [Kim Jong-il and his son, Kim Jong-un.]

That left the responsibility of running the farm on Kyu-li's shoulders - with her brother and older sister conscripted into to the army. She said: "This was not my farm. We were working there - but in the end there was nothing left for us.". Kyu-li began stealing potatoes, tomatoes, and chillies from her own farm and then going into the city at night to sell them. One night, while the then 18-year-old was standing outside in the cold winter night crying, she noticed how bright the lights across the Yalu River were in China.

Image Credit: The Sun [Kim Jong Un waving to a large crowd at a New Year's performance in Pyongyang.]

Her family lived close to the border and Kyu-li imagined what life would be like fleeing out of the darkness. She remembers saying to herself: "'I will die in North Korea if I live like this'.". So, one night, Kyu-li waited for a border guard to finish watching the river as he enjoyed a cigarette and then return to the inside of his hut. Kyu-li then then sprinted across the frozen waterway demarcating the two countries desperately hoping to dodge the distracted guard.