Kim Gum-hyok, a policy adviser to the Minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs (MPVA) (Photo by Kim Gum-hyok) 

Kim Gum-hyok, a 31-year-old North Korean defector, and his 28-year-old Seoul-born wife have a YouTube channel detailing their married life aptly titled “Seoul Pyongyang Couple.”  

“It was simple, to share my married life. I wanted to tell that I’m doing well in South Korea. It was not to encourage North Korean people to escape from the North. I just wanted to share my stories with them through my vlog,” Kim said in an interview with Korea Here & Now. 

It’s a sweeter channel than “Kim Gum-hyok’s Nanse Ilgi (Turbulent Diary)” that details the realities of North Korea. In “Seoul Pyongyang Couple,” Kim and his wife talk honestly about how they met, the birth of their baby boy late May and their overseas travels. The reviews have been positive, mostly cheering the couple on. 

Kim, a former elite student at Kim Il Sung University, fled to South Korea in 2012 while studying at Beijing University. He escaped, fearing for his life, but he was also craving freedom and an opportunity to do something about the contradictions laid bare before him in Beijing. 

In Seoul, after working for a television show for North Korean refugees and as a YouTuber, Kim was recently appointed as a policy adviser to the Minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs (MPVA). High-ranking North Korean defectors served in public posts in the South before, but Kim is the first Grade 5 civil servant in a central government ministry. To date, the number of North Korean defectors stands at around 34,000.

He was recruited by Minister Park Min-shik, whom he worked with at the presidential transition committee for President Yoon Suk Yeol. It was also an extension of his dream to become a diplomat in Pyongyang. 

Since it’s only been a month into his new job, he did not have much to say about the new post. Given the ministry’s task of honoring military veterans who fought in wars, including the fratricidal 1950-53 Korean War, Kim’s background seems incongruous, but he stressed he was recruited as a citizen of South Korea.  

Prodded, Kim added, “I got a lot of benefits as a North Korean refugee living in South Korea. I was indebted to South Korea, and it is my honor to finally have a chance to repay it.” 

Kim said that he believes North Korean defectors his age, who are part of the “MZ generation,” were better able to acclimatize to South Korea and to join mainstream society than the previous generation of North Korean defectors. 

He had lived a privileged life in North Korea. Both his father and mother were members of the North Korean Workers’ Party.  

Kim Gum-hyok during his interview at a cafe near an MPVA office in Yongsan, Seoul, in early July (Photo by Kim Ji-soo) 

In Beijing, however, Kim could not ignore the stark contrast between the prospering China he saw and the economically lagging North Korea. In discussions with South Korean exchange students there, the contradictions appeared even more glaring. 

“I studied hard and had pride in the North Korean regime. I thought South and North Korea had good relations, but it was not true, which made me feel like a useless person.” 

Once in South Korea, the first two or three years were difficult.  

“The day I left Hanawon was the most helpless I felt,” Kim said, referring to the acclimatization center where defectors stay for three months after they arrive in South Korea. As a Pyongyang resident and student at Kim Il Sung University, he felt guilty interacting with other defectors and ended up keeping to himself.  

He left Hanawon after receiving 3 million won in settlement money, but worked through college as a political science major at Korea University.  

True to his generation, he talked more openly about his mental struggles. But with the help of counseling for panic attacks, he found a way to digest and handle hardships. 

“Either you flee or you fight, [to counter the prejudice and self-doubt],” Kim said. 

When asked about his parents, Kim said he has not contacted them or heard anything about them since his defection. 

“The guilt I feel for having left my parents will never diminish over time, I realize,” Kim said. Having his immediate family in the South, his wife and his newborn child, will not alleviate that, he knows. “It’s something I have to deal with my entire life.”  

When he feels homesick, he goes for Pyongyang naengmyeon (cold noodles) in Seocho-dong, Seoul. 

“Taking the situation on the Korean Peninsula and the surrounding environment into consideration, I think it’s meaningless to discuss unification for now,” Kim said. In his mind, more realistic discussions are needed, not the usual wish for unification. “What I would like to stress is that unification will not arrive without resolving real problems. Pitching cries for reunification won’t achieve it. We need to tackle three issues before discussing unification: whether our society is ready, whether the North Korean system can make fundamental changes and whether the state can manage unification until it is complete.”

Kim is looking to further his studies overseas, once again. 

“If I could pick the two schools where I’d love to study at, they would be Johns Hopkins University or Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs – definitely the East Coast of the United States if possible,” Kim said.