CHILDREN are Kim Jong-un’s brutal schools are brainwashed, starved and spied on – and even taught to kill, defectors said.
Brave Ji Hyun Park – who escaped the country twice – spoke to The Sun about the harrowing experiences children in North Korea go through. She revealed how they are starved, spied on, and coerced into “killing” imaginary US soldiers as part of their everyday playground activities.
Ji, now 56, was raised in a two-room house in Chongjin City, North Hamgyong, sharing one bedroom with her parents and siblings.
Indoctrinated from birth by the state – whose media arm consists of only one TV channel and one newspaper – Ji was raised on a diet of anti-West propaganda.
And as a young child in kindergarten, Ji was taught to “hate the enemy countries”.
“We hated Japan and hated America, and we also hated the South Koreans because they are ‘American colonies’.”
As young as kindergarten, Ji said she and her friends were taught to play-fight with sticks in a make-believe scenario where the North Koreans beat the Americans.
And sports days involved beating models of American soldiers, she said.
Ji explained: “One is the American soldier and one is a Korean soldier.
“So we fight each other. But the Korean soldiers always win. As a child you are growing up playing these.”
The human rights activist, who now lives in Manchester in the UK, said her education in North Korea was based on “political emotions” and “hate”.
Ji’s history lessons at school were shaped by the government’s agenda – with warped tales of world events and wars.
They were indoctrinated, she said, but “but we never talked about that”.
She explained: “We were afraid, of course, because we didn’t get any information from outside the country.
“In North Korea still, they have one TV [channel] and one newspaper.
“They always said that North Korea is a socialist country and the greatest country in our world, not only Asia, but in our world.”
Fellow defector Timothy Cho was forced to escape the clutches of North Korea’s regime twice and now lives in the UK.
He has been left scarred by the country he was born in and now campaigns for change in North Korea to help others see the same world he has.
It took me some time to break the chains of brainwashing, misperception, misunderstanding
Timothy Cho
Timothy left school aged just 10 – but he remembers how his lessons from nursery to primary school were laced with propaganda.
Textbooks would be filled with made-up tales to embarrass Western countries and make the North Korean way of life look perfect.
Another popular activity he says was done involves disguising sporting lessons as opportunities to incite violence.
He remembers a game where kids would be given a stick and they were told to thump toys produced in the West such as army men or dolls.
This created an inner feeling of hatred and rage against North Korea’s enemies.
One of the other biggest weapons the state uses is to present each Supreme Leader as a God for youngsters, the two-time defector said.
He told The Sun: “They brainwash children to believe Kim is the God of the country.
“North Korea does not have any religious education at all because the Kim family is God and Kim is a state religion by itself.”
Other religions are also used as a tool to bash the so-called enemy.
“They call Christianity the American religion and make out that America used religion to try to destroy North Korean society and the country,” Timothy continued.
“They actually use a religious structure to build a society and make it a hermit kingdom.”
Timothy also said every Friday groups of children and adults would attend “criticism sessions” where they essentially tell their friends a negative thing about their beliefs.
“It took me some time to break the chains of brainwashing, misperception, misunderstanding,” he added.
NORTH KOREA’S FAMINE
Between 1994 and 1998 as many as 3.5 million people are thought to have died in North Korea as a result of the grim rationing scheme put in place by then dictator Kim Il-sung.
After a loss of Soviet support and in a poor economy, the country implemented cruel laws that saw families fed on less than 2kg of rice and corn every month.
Ji’s family were given 700g every fortnight and she was left near-starving for years.
She said: “There’s not enough. You know, always the hunger, we were hungry all the time.
“But we didn’t complain. We didn’t complain. The reason is North Korea systems, the government said we have to say yes.
“Nobody says no.”
“That’s why parents always told us, be careful what you say. We don’t know who is listening.”
Officials told them that because of American sanctions the economy had collapsed – and food was being rationed.
As scores of people continued to die, the country told people that they had simply been “ill”.
But Ji watched it happen to her uncle Ilsub.
The pair were very close and she teared up as she talked about tending to him in his final hours.
Describing him as reduced to “bones”, Ji said he was starving and would cry out constantly for food.
We didn’t complain. The reason is North Korea systems, the government said we have to say yes
Ji Hyun Park
They fed him soup, which made him ill, before he eventually died in front of her.
“He didn’t look human anymore”, she said.
 “We always saw the dead bodies in the street.”
Ji was taught from a young age to be constantly careful of what she said aloud, as secret police were “always watching and listening”.
Those who criticised or broke the rules, she revealed, were thrown into “political prisons”.
They and their families were then forced to live out their days in imprisonment.
Ji’s family were careful for years to play by the rules in North Korea – as they saw people they knew disappear.
They had “no family pictures” on the wall while Ji was growing up, only of the Supreme Leader.
Every morning they would wake up and thank Kim II-Sung – and it was this enforced nationwide patriotism that the despot’s government would use to squash dissent.
Inside North Korea’s elite Storm Corp special forces
By James Halpin, Foreign News Reporter
KIM Jong-un has sent his special forces soldiers to fight in Ukraine – known as the Storm Corps.
Storm Corps is made of 10 units, including a snipers unit, a light infantry unit, and a paratroopers unit, according to Lee HyunSeung.
Lee shot down the suggestion of whether they would be comparable to Western special forces.Â
He said North Korea didn’t have the equipment to continually train troops for combat as ammunition and bombs would need replacing.
Instead, they trained “for show” so they could march in parades or for propaganda videos.Â
Lee said those soldiers are drawn from North Korea’s working class and will be ambivalent about fighting for the regime.Â
He said: “They are just seeking food and then they’re seeking career advancement.”I’m sure nowadays, these, you know, young soldiers they don’t have like a real loyalty to the regime.
“They just got order command from the Supreme Commander, and then they have no choice but to, you know, move to Russia.”
