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Outlook: I fled North Korea for playing the wrong song

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Kim Cheol woong cred Kim cheol woong.jpg

26/03/2020 GMT

I fled North Korea for playing the wrong song

BBC World Service - Outlook, I fled North Korea for playing the wrong song

Pianist Kim Cheol-woong defected after being interrogated for playing a western song

Kim Cheol-woong grew up in an elite family and excelled at the piano. When he was interrogated by North Korean authorities for playing a western song, he decided to defect.

Pianist Kim Cheol-woong was born into an elite family in North Korea, and learned piano at kindergarten - a privilege enjoyed by very few in the country. He spent time studying in Moscow, where he discovered different types of music, including A Comme Amour by Richard Clayderman, and he planned to play it as he proposed to his girlfriend. It was while practising the song back home that he was reported, and subsequently interrogated for playing western music. It was then that Cheol-woong decided to defect. But before he found safety, he had to brave freezing temperatures, treacherous borders, and the Chinese police. Outlook’s Rajan Datar hears his story.

As people around the world isolate to slow the spread of coronavirus, all this week Outlook has heard the stories of those a little cut off from society. In 2015, British medical doctor Beth Healey travelled to Antarctica to conduct a research study. For 105 days, she joined a small team at a remote station to study the effect of isolation on relationships.
 
Many couples like to tell the tale of how they first met. But few will top Emmy Abrahamson and Vic Kocula’s story. When they first set eyes on each other a decade ago, they were far from home - and love was far from their minds too.

Picture: Kim Cheol-woong
Credit: Courtesy Kim Cheol-woong

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