'In North Korea, nobody knows Harvard, but almost everyone knows Oxford’

Eom Yeong-nam, third from left, a North Korean escapee and human rights advocate, speaks about his experience in North Korea's army during an event at the U.K. Parliament in London, Oct. 24. Courtesy of Freedom Speakers International

Almost everything about America is vilified by the regime in North Korea, where people are taught from an early age to use phrases like “American bastards.”

Unsurprisingly, ordinary North Koreans know little about the country. Harvard University, its globally famed school, has no name recognition there. But many would know what Oxford is. Although Britain is a key member of the West and a democratic country, North Korea’s state media tends to describe it relatively more fairly.

This is why Britain and other countries in Europe should be more active in promoting human rights in North Korea, Eom Yeong-nam, a North Korean escapee, said.

“The regime would not listen to the U.S. but it might listen to Britain and other countries in Europe, even though it does not like what they have to say,” Eom, 43, told The Korea Times during a recent interview.

“North Koreans know almost nothing about America. Growing up and attending a college in North Korea, I did not even see any official documents other than ones created to stir up anger and resentment.”

Pyongyang’s hostility toward Washington is also reflected in its foreign language education system, through which students learn British English, not American pronunciation or spelling. Eom believes this anti-U.S. sentiment is so entrenched that even if diplomatic relations somehow begin to improve, it would take many years for North Koreans to change how they feel about Americans and their leaders.

Last month, Eom and officials of Freedom Speakers International, a Seoul-based group that supports North Korean refugees, visited the United Kingdom, where he spoke about violations of human rights under the regime.

At the parliament as well as Oxford University, he shared what he experienced in the North, where the line between abusers and the abused was often too vague to the point of being a meaningless differentiation.

While serving in the North Korean army, Eom said he was deprived of food. Eom, about 175 centimeters tall, weighed less than 90 pounds (40.8 kilograms) there.

“My company commander took almost all of the food,” he said. “Not surprisingly, around 60 percent of my colleagues in the company were malnourished … That’s why stealing food and money from civilians was very normal.”

At every chance, Eom said he asked politicians and diplomats in Britain to use the country’s global influence and diplomatic leverage to improve the human rights situation in North Korea.

The former resident of Hyesan, a North Korean city near its China border, escaped the regime in 2010 after the stigma as a “child of defectors” deprived him of all his hope for a better life and future after his parents’ escape.

Since entering South Korea, he has experienced a country very different from what he was taught in the North, he said, adding that he would like to continue to be part of the effort to spread truth.