Since 1997 when Hong Kong sovereignty was transferred back to mainland China, no North Korean defectors could escape through the city, until Li Jong-yol carried out his bold and rash plan on July 17, 2016.

Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported the details of his escape under the title “How North Korean maths-whizz defector escaped through Hong Kong” on Feb. 26.

According to the SCMP, Li, one of the North Korean representatives at the International Mathematical Olympiad, an annual world mathematics competition for high school students, snuck out of the dorm room on the campus of the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology on July 17, 2016. The event had just finished and surveillance had loosened up a little. He took a taxi to the Hong Kong International Airport because he thought he would be able to find some South Koreans there.

When he arrived at the airport, he went to the counter of a South Korean airline and told the staff there that he was a North Korean and that he wanted to go to South Korea. The staff immediately called the South Korean consulate for him. Because of the protocol that prevents diplomats from being directly involved in a defectors’ escape, he was asked to take a taxi himself, again, and to get out at the consulate, located downtown.

After safely arriving at the consulate, he had to wait two months for the Beijing government’s permission to leave for Seoul. For the first month, he rarely talked to anyone, spending time playing video games or working out on a treadmill in the small room allotted to him. However, he gradually opened up to the consulate staff. On Sept. 24, Li finally received a new passport and visa and headed to Korea.

For Li, who was then 18-years-old, the math competition in Hong Kong was his last chance of escape, as it was his last year of high school and he would not be able to attend the competition again.

He was under strict surveillance. He had to turn in his North Korean passport. He was never allowed to use a smart phone, and he was watched by the team leaders. Also, if he got caught while trying to escape, he and his family would be punished. However, nothing could stop him from grabbing his one last opportunity.

Although his plan sounds bold and daring, it's not an improvisation. The SCMP said that Li was determined to make his way to the South before he even went to Hong Kong to take part in the competition.

The two-times silver medal winner of the competition -- once in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2014 and once in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2015 -- met his South Korean counterparts in both those cities and felt a difference between the North and the South. Also, at his home in Gangwon-do Province, located at the southern end of North Korea, TV and radio signals from the other side of the border delivered news about the world outside.

According to the SCMP, he had told his father, a middle school math teacher, about his plan. Despite the danger he might bring to the family, the father handed the son some USD 200 worth of currency, telling him to “not to worry and go.”

The SCMP said that Li took classes in South Korean language, culture, society and international relations and that he will start university in March.

By Kim Young Shin
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photo: South China Morning Post
ysk1111@korea.kr