North Korean defector gives an account of life under Kim Jong-un

Kim Jong-un

Kim Jong-un always appears to receive an over-enthusiastic round of applause whenever he makes a speech at his rallies but now a North Korean defector has revealed the reason why.
'You have to do it because you don't want to die,' says the former soldier, whose identity has been kept secret in order to protect his family.
Speaking from the South Korean capital Seoul, he also described witnessing regular public executions in North Korea. When asked if the rapture of applause shown for tyrant Kim Jong-un at the mass parades, the defector said people had no other option.
'When people are clapping... if you don't clap, if you nod off, you're marked as not following Kim Jong Un's doctrine,' he told Sky News.
'You have to do it because you don't want to die. You chant 'Long Live' and clap because you don't want to die,' he said.
The defector, who served in the North Korean military for 20 years, said his first attempt to escape North Korea ended in him being imprisoned and beaten for 15 days.
'In our unit, when I was a lieutenant, we saw one of our own soldiers executed by gunfire. Public executions ... I have seen a lot of public executions."
'When Kim Jong-un does something wrong, if the people don't live well, he points to someone else and says, 'you have done it wrong,' he said.
'Therefore, the people get punished, or executed. It's not them that have done wrong.'
The man also spoke of the emotional pain of leaving his wife and two daughters behind in North Korea when he defected last year.
Fearful of retribution, he told his family to deny any prior knowledge of his disappearance and blame him for abandoning his family.
Since leaving, he hasn't heard from his children and only had a couple of brief phone conversation with his wife.