Lee Sung Ae's story is remarkable. Despite the loss of her husband and one of her sons, she's working to help refugees like she used to be and getting aid into North Korea. Here's her story'
Famine takes its toll on the family
"My troubles began seriously during the famine of the mid-1990s. My four young sons and I suffered severe malnutrition, and my husband died of starvation. We lived very close to the Chinese border, so I crossed into China to try and find family there to help us. My cousin was too poor to help us, but he told me of a nearby pastor who could. I stayed with that pastor for a month, and I became a Christian.
I then took food, clothing and Bibles back in to North Korea. I told ten friends about my faith, and between us we formed a small Bible study group. However, my neighbour became suspicious and reported me to the police, who then deported me to an interrogation centre.
"Raw chilli put in my wounds"
I went through six months of extreme torture and interrogation. I was repeatedly beaten and nearly suffocated; my teeth were knocked out, my nails extracted and raw chilli put in my wounds. I used to be 170cm tall, but after my time there, I was only 150cm. I refused to give the names of my friends, because I knew that they and their families would just experience the same brutality as I had.
After that I was sentenced to four years in Kyo-Haw-So prison. Our cells had no roofs, so we were forced to dig holes with leaves for shelter. Around 30 or 40 people were dying there every day. We were so hungry that we would take food from the mouths of dead people, or fight for the undigested corn husks found in animal faeces.
Once I was so weak that I was given up for dead, and put on the pile of corpses awaiting burial.
Our escape from China to Mongolia
When I was released in 2003, my sons and I went back to China. But living in hiding and being under constant threat of deportation by the Chinese authorities weighed on me so heavily, and my heart was very weak from my prison experiences, so I decided to go back after four months.
My third son persuaded us to flee back to China when he realised the North Korean police were suspicious. So we bribed a policeman to allow us across the river that separates China from North Korea, and then walked 170km to a different region.
In 2007 my son used the internet in China to contact a South Korean pastor. He gave us the money to flee to Mongolia, and from there we applied for asylum in South Korea.
I am now involved with trying to get Bibles, clothes and other aid through China and into North Korea."
Mrs Lee testifies
Mrs Lee's visit to Britain in November 2009 was her first experience of giving her testimony to officials and the media. She still has family in North Korea.
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