Are they mad? A growing number of North Korean defectors are risking the arduous and desperate passage once again — to get home. Is life in the free world really so bad?
The North Koreans who want to go home
Threat: Kim Jong-un speaking this week to military recruits (above) said he would use nuclear weapons if South Korea attacked and that “even thinking about that country gives me the creeps.” Glossary
Defected - To have left and abandoned one's own country for a new one.
Precarious - Unpredictable; uncertain.
Unfathomable - Incapable of being fully understood.
Stockholm syndrome - When imprisoned people develop positive feelings towards their captors.
Status quo bias - People's natural preference for keeping things the way they are.
Assimilation - When individuals or groups acquire the habits, attitudes and ways of life of a new society. Often used in the context of immigration.
Authoritarianism - A form of government in which individual freedoms are severely limited by government power. Examples include Nazi Germany, Khmer Rogue Cambodia and contemporary China.
Relinquish - Voluntarily cease to keep or claim; give up.
Tyranny - Cruel and aggressive use of power, often used to describe countries under the grip of a single oppressive leader.
Dichotomous - Involving two completely opposing ideas or things.