Ji Seong-ho

Ji Seong-ho (; born April 3, 1982) is a South Korean politician who is a member of the National Assembly as a member of the People Power Party (PPP). Born in North Hamgyong, North Korea, in 1982, he defected to South Korea in 2006, where he worked to raise awareness about the situation in North Korea and to help fellow defectors. He was elected as a member of the National Assembly in the 2020 South Korean legislative election.

Early life in North Korea Ji was born on April 3, 1982, not far from the Hoeryong concentration camp, "The family survived by eating the ground-up cores of corn husks and the roots of cabbages", according to one report. Ji later said, "There was no meat and never any oil ... Sometimes we could get seaweed and we would also eat mountain grasses ... At harvest time, rats in the field would stash seeds down their burrows, which we would dig up. Often the rats would attack us and we would club some of them to death and that would give us a real feast." Every few days, Ji would go out and steal coal from trains and try to exchange it in the markets for food. He underwent a four-and-a-half hour operation without anesthetic. This event, he related, was the main motivation for his desire to leave North Korea and relocate to another nation. In 2006, Ji and his brother escaped from the North, crossing the Tumen River into China. Ji nearly drowned in the river. After the crossing, Ji insisted that his brother leave him behind, lest his disability result in capture for both of them. With the aid of religious groups and others, Ji managed to make his way across China. He was ultimately reunited with his brother in South Korea. Ji's mother and sister disappeared after their defection and he has not heard from them since. and has initiated various projects to help North Koreans who are still in the North as well as those who have escaped to the South.

In April 2015, he said that his favorite part of the recently released film The Interview, a comedy in which Kim Jong Un is murdered, was when Sook, a North Korean interpreter played by Diana Bang, turns against the regime. "It shows it's possible", Ji commented. Ji's activities, reported the Hollywood Reporter at the time, "are operated on a shoestring, out of an office far too small for all of the boxes of supplies it houses". Ji stated his motivations are to provide opportunities to North Korean youth under the same circumstances he had been under.

On January 30, 2018, Ji attended the 2018 State of the Union Address at the invitation of U.S. President Donald Trump, who told Ji's story of escape from North Korea, stating it as a "testament to the yearning of every human soul to live in freedom".

Member of the National Assembly Ji ran as a member the Future Korea Party, the sister party of the United Future Party, in the 2020 South Korean legislative election, and was elected as a member of the National Assembly.

In May 2020, Ji apologised to voters for claiming he was 99% certain that Kim Jong Un had died during a three-week period when Kim was not portrayed in the media. The Democratic Party criticised Ji for carelessness, with some members urging that Ji should be excluded from the intelligence and defence committees.

Governor In May 2024, Ji ceased to serve as a lawmaker with the ruling People Power Party. On August 14, 2024, Ji was appointed as the governor of North Hamgyong province, which was a vice-minister level position under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. As the province is occupied by North Korea, it's a largely ceremonial role.

Views Ji has stated in an interview that "I think that freedom means being able to do what you want without harming others". "Freedom isn't something given by the government. I think it is a God-given right, and you are born with this right as a human being ... I only had a vague understanding of what freedom meant when I was back in North Korea ... When I thought about freedom or rights, I thought it was a concept that was given under the great leader. Everything was subordinate to the great leader of North Korea."