Arduous March

You are a woman living in North Korea in a city near the Chinese border called Hyesan. Your name is Ri Hee-Young and you are 24 years old, married and you have a three year old son. The year is 1995. You and your husband are just poor farmers and ever since the famine started last year it has been getting more and more difficult to get by. The state requires that you sell most of your crops to them in order for food to be evenly distributed, but whenever you go out to get food with your food stamps you barely get anything in return. Money is tight as well, but luckily the North Korean currency is not worth much to begin with. However, you soon realize that you need to take action if you want your family to make it through the famine alive. After chatting with some of the neighbor’s wives you learn about some ways to make money. The first option is to start selling the few crops you are allowed to keep for private consumption on the black market. The second option is to illegally cross the border to China, marry a man there and get a job. [[Your story begins]]

It has been a long day of work on the farm and you return home exhausted. After talking to your husband he also realizes the predicament the family is in and agrees that you should do something to help the family out. Whether you leave or stay, your responsibility as a parent to keep your son alive is the most important one so you decide that tomorrow morning you will choose which path to take. You spend a mostly sleepless night thinking, but when dawn finally breaks you have to make a decision. You will [[try and make your way into the black market|Black Market Route]] [[start your journey to China|China Route]]

The next day you gather some crops that you had intended to keep for the family from the field and you take them down to the corner of the street were a bunch of women have already gathered. Looking around you see a bunch of items that are not officially available in your country, such as DVDs in foreign languages. You notice a few women selling their crops as well so you decide to set up shop next to them. Business is a little slow and you do not quite know how much you should charge for your crops. Will you [[charge money|Money]] [[trade for crops|Crops]]

Even though you are already married and are going to miss your family if you leave, you decide to migrate to China. You talk to some neighbors who have family members living there and learn about some potential Chinese spouses. In order for you to get to China you will have to bribe some border guards as well as a broker who can take you to your future Chinese husband. This is a dangerous and expensive undertaking, but you think it is worth a shot. Some neighbors and family members agree to lend you some money so you can pay for the journey. [[Continue|Bribing]]

You trade your crops for crops of different kinds. This will make for more nutricious meals. [[Continue|Good route]]

By trading your crops for different crops you manage to gather a supply of nutricious vegetables that you can eat together with your rice. While your family officially remains poor, you are no longer starving. You are one of few women who never trade for illegal goods on the market and because you never trade for yuan either you remain a faithful loyal North Korean citizen, or so you tell yourself. [[Continue|Raid2]]

One fateful evening when you return home you are surprised to find police officers in your house. They have randomly decided to check houses for illegal goods but could not find any in your home. While they scared your son, you and your family are safe. [[Continue|Famine Ends]]

After saying farewell to all your beloved family members and friends you set out towards the border. You walk for a good bit before you start noticing guard posts. Now you are getting nervous. With shaking knees you approach the nearest border guard and take out your wallet. (either: [[You show the border guard the money and kindly ask him to look the other way while you cross|Acceptance]], [[You show the border guard the money and kindly ask him to look the other way while you cross|Acceptance]], [[You show the border guard the money and kindly ask him to look the other way while you cross|Acceptance]], [[You show the border guard the money and ask him to look the other way while you cross|Refusal]])

The border guard accepts your money and signals to his colleagues to look away. You swiftly manouveur past the checkpoint and meet up with the broker that your neighbor kindly contacted for you and start your journey towards the small Chinese village that your future spouse should be living in. [[Continue|Life in China]]

Not only does the border guard not accept your money, he urges you to turn around and return to your family. On your way back a police officer stops you and asks what you were doing near the border checkpoints. You say you were just out for a walk since the weather is so nice today. [[Continue|Reeducation camp]]

You decide to sell your crops for money. However, North Korean currency is not worth much. So instead, you take Chinese yuan. [[Continue|Bad Route]]

The next few weeks you keep selling your crops for Chinese yuan which you in turn use to buy more crops or illegal luxuries. One day you buy a DVD that contains a South Korean drama. That same night you secretly watch it on the TV you borrowed from a neighbor. In the drama the main character is an ugly girl with a unique personality who is pursued by various pretty looking boys. As the days go by you watch more and learn about South Korean culture and society. It makes you a little jealous. How come people in South Korea have so much money and freedom? You complain to your husband about it but he is too tired from working all day to really listen to your stories. [[Continue|Raid]]

One fateful evening you arrive back at your home, only to be caught by some police officers. They have raided houses in the neighborhood and found your borrowed TV as well as your drama DVD. The possession of these items is highly illegal, they tell you, and demand to know where you got it from. If you do not comply with their wishes, you and your entire family will be punished. You tell the police officers [[that you borrowed the TV as well as the drama DVD from a neighbor|Escape]] [[that you borrowed the TV from a neighbor but got the DVD from the market|Heavy fine]] [[that you have no idea where the electronics came from|Reeducation camp]]

You decide to blame your neighbor and tell the officers that everything is theirs. The police officers let you off with a warning, take the stuff and leave to arrest your neighbors instead. You escape relatively unscathed, except for the fact that this incident leaves you with an incredible feeling of guilt; you never dare return to the black market. Instead, you remain at your farm and spend the rest of your life farming crops. It is a wonder that you and your family make it through the famine alive. THE END [[Play Again|Introduction]]

Because you admitted that the DVD is yours the police officers decide to fine you. They take the TV, the DVD and all your money. Officials get involved and you are no longer allowed to keep any of your own crops; from now on you are to sell all of them to the state. After this incident life in North Korea remains difficult, but at least your family pulls through the famine. Other families were not so lucky. THE END [[Play Again|Introduction]]

The police officers do not believe you and take your faked innocence as an insult. Your entire family is rounded up and sent away to a reeducation camp. THE END [[Play Again|Introduction]]

It has been a few months since you arrived in China and your spouse has been kind to you. After a few weeks of studying Chinese you are getting the hang of it and you decide it is time to find yourself a job. So far you have been working at your husband's farm and sending home some crops and other necessities, but sending them some Chinese money, yuan, would help your family buy products on their own black markets. One of the reasons your spouse married you was so you could care for his parents while he works on the farm all day, and one day while you are running errands for them you run into your spouse's sister. She works at the local hospital but due to a lack of working women in the area they are running short of nurses. Even though she knows you are in China illegally she offers you a job at the hospital as a nurse because all help is appreciated. After some thought you accept the job since you already have some experience and also because your sister-in-law promises that she can convince her superiors to get the paperwork done for you. [[Continue|Nurse]]

In 1998 the famine finally ends but the damage is terrible. Many families you know have lost members to starvation and though your own family survived, you remain poor for the rest of your lives. THE END [[Play Again|Introduction]]

As a nurse you finally start to earn actual money and you gladly send most of it back to your North Korean husband and son. Your Chinese improves rapidly and your colleagues as well as your patients like you a lot. At some point you overhear a superior talking to another nurse who you have always thought had an interesting non-Chinese accent. Actually, you are quite sure she is also a North Korean woman living in China. You do not know whether she is working there illegally, however. They are discussing a possible promotion, or even a transfer to a hospital in the bigger city nearby because she is performing so well. You realize that there is room for you to grow and you also might be able to be promoted. [[Continue|Growth]]

One day while you are caring for a patient with tuberculosis, you are assisted by the nurse who is about to be promoted. When you both head back to the nurse's office you gather up the courage to ask her something. You ask her [[whether she could tell you about the promotion she is about to get|Promotion]] (either: [[whether she is North Korean|Secret Route]], [[whether she is North Korean|Secret Route]], [[whether she is from North Korea|Arrest]])

You thought it might have been rude to ask her about the promotion, but she seems more than eager to talk about it. She rambles on for a solid ten minutes about how great the new position is going to be and how much she is going to earn. However, she is concerned about what will happen to the hospital in the village as it is already understaffed. After another ten minutes she finally realizes that she has only been talking about herself and profusely apologizes. She actually feels so bad about it that she says she will say some good things about your work to the supervisor so that maybe, in the future, you could also get a promotion or at least a raise. You thank her for her kindness and the two of you go your separate ways. [[Continue|Promoted]]

The question startles the poor lady, but she quickly composes herself and requests that you meet her somewhere safe after work. As soon as your shift is over the two of you head towards the rice fields in hopes of there not being any people around. After walking for a good half an hour she suddenly turns to you and says that she is glad to finally meet another North Korean woman after working in China for all those years. She then says that the promotion she is getting will be her ticket out of China. This puzzles you a little. Where would she go? To South Korea, she says. [[Continue|Towards South Korea]]

Your question startles the woman, but she quickly regains her composure. She is in fact a North Korean woman working in China illegally, but because of someone's hospitality she managed to get a job and working papers. You girls really hit it off and decide to meet later for lunch. During lunch it becomes clear that you both miss your home country, family and friends. Before you know it both of you are chatting and laughing, in Korean. In fact, you are so busy chatting that you fail to notice that someone has been listening in on you until it is too late. When you turn your head because you thought you heard something you see the shadow of a person disappearing. [[Continue|Arrest 2.0]]

After work you head home but you feel uneasy after the incident at lunch. What if the person who heard you notified the authorities? You try to shake the idea out of your head, but you can not shake the feeling that something is wrong. As you head into your house you are grabbed by police officers. They do not even say anything to you, but just cuff you and take you away, in front of your Chinese husband. The van they put you in is cold and dirty and while you do not know for sure what is going to happen to you, you are pretty sure you are to be deported back to North Korea. THE END [[Play Again|Introduction]]

The next week your supervisor calls you into her office. For a second you are afraid something bad is about to happen, but then you remember what the kind nurse had said. You head into her office with confidence. Once inside the supervisor congratulates you on your growth as a nurse and insists that you stay with the hospital for a long time. In fact, she offers you a raise if you will just stay. You gladly take the raise and return home that day with the biggest smile on your face. [[Continue|Hope]]

For the next few years you keep working at the hospital and in 1998 you finally get the notice from your family that the famine seems to be over. Your North Korean husband and son have remained safe and well-fed thanks to your help. As much as you would like to return to them, you realize that traveling back would be a dangerous ordeal and that you are still going to be of much more help if you stay in China and send them money instead. Your family has bought a mobile phone on the black market with the money you send them and now you can call them to hear their voices. While this is not the ideal situation, you decide to stay in China and hopefully, one day, you will be able to meet them again. THE END [[Play Again|Introduction]]

South Korea? The thought of migrating there had never crossed your mind because it seemed impossible. How would one get to South Korea? The woman says that she knows a broker who can arrange the trip, but it is incredibly expensive and dangerous. She really wants to move on with her life and leave China, but she fears the journey. Will you go with her? [[You will go with her|A perilous journey]] [[You stay in China|Better safe than sorry]]

Your friend promotes and works in a city nearby for a while, saving up as much money as she can to pay the broker. You do pretty much the same and send a lot less money back to North Korea with the message that life is tough right now but that you will be able to send more again in the future. Your Chinese husband suspects nothing and you intend to keep it that way. One the fateful night you and your friend meet and you finally set out on this journey together. You meet the broker, give him all of your savings and get in the back of a smelly, old van. [[Continue|Van life]]

While the offer is tempting, you think it will be too risky and you are content with your life as it is now. You wish her luck on the journey and return home. [[Continue|Hope]]

On the way you pick up more people, all women, and you are ordered to remain as quiet as possible for you will be crossing into another country at some point. The van gets hotter and smellier as the days go by. At least, you think days are passing but in reality you have no idea how long you have been in the van for. Every once in a while the broker, or other unknown men, throw you some bread or pass along a bottle of water so none of you die. The journey is mentally exhausting because you have no idea what is going on and you are in a constant state of fear. At some point you are dozing off but you are rudely awoken by voices outside. It is too dark inside the van to see the other women's faces but you think they are all terrified. Is this the end of the journey? Will you be caught? (either: [[Continue|Plane Travels]], [[Continue|Plane Travels]], [[Continue|An unfortunate incident]])

The van doors open and you are on top of a hill from where you can see an unknown city. You have no idea what country this is, let alone what city, but you do notice planes flying low. That is your next destination: the airport. This is the point where your broker bids you farewell, but not before he hands everyone some papers and fake passports. Every single one of you is to travel alone from here on out and there are multiple ways to get to the airport. It is for the best if some people make their way there on foot, while others lift. [[Continue|First and final flight]]

Suddenly the van doors open and you are blinded by rays of light. Before you know it some men are yelling and pulling you out. When you get out of the van you notice that you are in the middle of nowhere, next to a rice field and bordering a forest. You turn around and see the broker who has been smuggling you and he seems annoyed. While the men are talking amongst themselves you can pick up some of the words because the men are Chinese but speak in a heavy dialect; they are glad they spotted this van and figured that it was being used for human trafficking. Then they stopped the driver and forced him to open up. Now, they would like to take some of the girls into the woods for you know what... Wait, what? [[Continue|An unfortunate incident continued]]

After discussing for a bit, the men turn around and point towards your friend. That is the girl they want. She stares at them with a horrified expression, but knows she can not fight them off. Her fate is sealed. The men pick two other girls and make off with them. You are frozen in fear, but before you can even utter a word the broker forces the rest of you back into the van. He cannot wait for the men to return because time is running out. He needs to get you girls to a location in time. You try to protest but he will not hear it and before you know it you are locked up inside the van again for god knows how long. Eventually, however, the doors open once more. [[Continue|Plane Travels]]

You manage to get a lift from some random old man in an old car and he drops you off at the airport. The broker ordered you to inquire at a specific kiosk inside to get you on a plane to South Korea. This sounds dangerous, but the broker assured you that the South Korean government has made arrangements with several Asian countries to let North Korean defectors fly into South Korea, for free. After stopping by the kiosk you are put onto a plane headed for South Korea. [[Continue|True end]]

You arrive in South Korea and are immediately received by some officials, including a translator who helps you communicate and they assure you that you are safe now. Time flies after your arrival: the government situated you right outside the capital city, Seoul, arranged your housing and got you into a program so you can learn the South korean language, culture, history, customs and much more. You are also told that if you wish to have your family come over they would gladly help you contact them and reunite them with you after arrival but sadly they are not able to fund it. This promise motivates you to work hard and graduate from the program, after which you are offered an office job. After months of hard work you have finally saved enough money to pay a broker and get your family out of North Korea. The government representatives help you contact them and your money is sent off. Another few months go by and you are anxiously awaiting your family's arrival when you are finally notified that they have landed safely. The reunification with your family is the best moment of your life. All of you get relocated to a bigger appartment and your family is united again. THE END [[Play Again|Introduction]]