Kim Yong-soon

Kim Yong-soon
Born	circa 1937
Other names	Kim Young Soon
Occupation	dancer, choreographer, memoirist
Known for	documented the brutality of North Korean forced labor camps in her memoirs, I Was Sung Hye Rim's Friend

Kim Yong-soon is a North Korean defector, who wrote a book about her experiences in North Korea, particularly the 9 years she spent in the Yoduk camp, a humiliating forced labor camp. Commentators have claimed Yoduk was modeled after Aushwitz, one of the most notorious SS extermination camps.

Kim's family had fought against Korea's Japanese occupiers, during World War 2, entitling her to attend schools for the most respected citizens of North Korea. This is where she met Song Hye-rim, another child of the privileged. The two remained friends in University. In the late 1960s Song told Kim that she was going to move in with Kim Jong-il, the son of Kim il-sung, North Korea's leader.

Kim was married, at that point, and had several children. Kim, her husband, parents, and children, were all arrested, and sent to Yoduk. Kim says that she was never told why she was sent to the camp, and that it was only ten years after her release that she was told it was to keep secret from North Korea's leader Kim Il-sung, that his son was neglecting the wife he had picked for him, and was secretly having an affair with Song, the famous actress. By then Kim Jong-il had divorced, and was living with a new mistress.

In her book I Was Sung Hye Rim's Friend she said she and her family were imprisoned because she was friends with Song Hye-rim, one of Kim Jong-il's secret mistresses. Kim Jong-il's father, North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung, had hand-picked a wife for his son, so he wanted to hide his mistress from him. To make sure Kim Yong-soon did not reveal the relationship she was arrested, along with her parents, and her three sons. She says her parents died of exhaustion, and two of her three sons were executed, trying to escape.

After release and defection

After her defection Kim Yong-soon worked as a dance instructor and choreographer -- credit REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won

She spent nine years in the camp. Eventually she was able to defect, to South Korea, where she published her memoirs.

Kim worked as a dance instructor and choreographer, after she arrived in South Korea.

She wrote a play about the Yoduk camp.

Kim was asked to testify before the United States Congress's House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, on September 20, 2011.

Kim commented on the controversy over the account of another defector, a young man, when the accuracy of his story was challenged. He had described being tortured in his camp, when he was still a child. Actually, while he had arrived at the camp, when he was a child, and the record supports his claim of torture, it seems to have taken place after he turned 18. Soon confirmed that some defectors experiences were so terrible, and effected them so profoundly, that they exagerrated. She encouraged defectors to not succumb to the temptation to exaggerate.