Escape from North Korea

It takes one hour and 45 minutes to fly from Shenyang, a sprawling provincial capital in northeastern China not far from the border with North Korea, to Seoul, the capital of South Korea. It's the kind of flight in which passengers have to gobble down their beef and rice before the attendants come around telling them to stow their tray tables for landing.

But for the North Koreans who escape from Kim Jong Un's regime, by way of China, there is no quick flight onward. Instead, they embark on a grueling journey that - best-case scenario - involves traveling almost 2,700 miles on buses, motorbikes and boats, in taxis and on foot over mountains, on a roundabout route that scores of North Koreans each month are embracing as the best possible way to reach South Korea, where they will immediately become South Korean citizens.

For most, the journey will first pass through China, Vietnam and Laos, where they must be on the alert for police who might arrest them and send them back the way they came - to certain and brutal punishment in North Korea. Not until they cross a fourth frontier from Laos into Thailand are they are finally safe.

Kim, the young and tempestuous North Korean leader, is issuing increasingly shrill threats to the outside world, flying missiles over Japan and threatening to strike the United States. For the people of North Korea, his threats are not just bluster. They are a very real part of daily life. Behind the visible salvos of missiles, ordinary North Koreans are risking their lives to make this invisible journey out of Kim's clutches and to safety.

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