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NKorean Defectors Struggle To Send Money Home
The disconnection between defectors and their families in the North during the pandemic is shutting down an important emotional and financial link between the rival Koreas, whose citizens are banned from contacting each other across the world s most highly armed border.
For the first time in years, Choi Bok-hwa didn t get her annual birthday call in January from her mother in North Korea. The pattern was always the same: Choi s 75-year-old mother climbed a mountain in the North with a broker who had a smuggled Chinese cellphone, and after wishing her daughter in South Korea a happy birthday, arranged a badly needed wire transfer.
ANSAN, South Korea (AP) For the first time in years, Choi Bok-hwa didn’t get her annual birthday call from her mother in North Korea. Each January, Choi’s mother had climbed a mountain and used a broker s smuggled Chinese cellphone to call South Korea to wish her happy birthday and arrange a badly needed money transfer.
Choi, who hasn t sent money or talked to her 75-year-old mother since May, believes the silence is linked to the pandemic, which led North Korea to shut its borders tighter than ever and impose some of the world’s toughest restrictions on movement.
N Korean defectors struggle to send money home amid pandemic
by Hyung-Jin Kim, The Associated Press
Posted Mar 11, 2021 9:15 pm EDT
Last Updated Mar 11, 2021 at 9:28 pm EDT
North Korean defector Choi Bok-hwa speaks during an interview in Ansan, South Korea, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021. For the first time in years, Choi didn’t get her annual birthday call from her mother in North Korea. Choi believes the silence is linked to the pandemic, which led North Korea to shut its borders tighter than ever and impose some of the world’s toughest restrictions on movement. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
ANSAN, Korea, Republic Of For the first time in years, Choi Bok-hwa didn’t get her annual birthday call from her mother in North Korea. Each January, Choi’s mother had climbed a mountain and used a broker’s smuggled Chinese cellphone to call South Korea to wish her happy birthday and arrange a badly needed money transfer.