evidence: SL: There were a couple of reasons why I decided to leave, but the most important reason was family. I had an older sister who left for China when she was young, but she couldn’t return to North Korea because of the government’s policy. We had lived separately for 13 years, and there was no way for our family to reunite [except] to go to South Korea. Another reason was [being] born in a border city in Ryanggang province. I had many opportunities to observe what was taking place across the river in China. On the North Korean side, there’s no power, it’s completely dark, and the Chinese side is very bright. It raised many questions, and I started learning more about China and started a cross-border business. The business eventually expanded to a very organized business that enabled me to learn about North Korea’s society in comparison to China. Also during that time, the last part of my life in North Korea, I had an opportunity to work with a government agency, the Ministry of People’s Security, a police department. I saw corruption and the darkness of the North Korean [leadership].