This article is by Lee Soo-jung and read by an artificial voice.
Ms. Jung, a North Korean defector in her mid-50s, awaits a criminal trial in South Korea on charges of sending money back to her homeland.
However, she is determined to do it again.
In South Korea, no official routes exist for sending remittances to North Korea. Thus, North Korean defectors, left with few choices, rely on illegal and proxy channels to deliver their money across the border - not for the Kim Jong-un regime, but for families they left behind.
Since escaping the regime in 1998, Jung has sent around 1 million to 2 million won ($720 to $1,450) every year to her family in the North. Now, she calls her actions "unstoppable," saying such remittances are the sole means to help her family.
"As long as there is a path connecting me to my family, I will continue helping them," Jung said. "If it weren't for the money sent by me, they would not survive."
Despite being against the South Korean Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, the government used to tolerate these remittances until two years ago. The authorities considered them a form of "humanitarian assistance" and looked the other way.
However, a police crackdown in 2023 - the first of its kind since North Korean defectors began sending money to their families in the late 1990s - pushed the defectors into a corner, cutting nearly all their connections. Indictments and criminal trials followed.
Police investigations exposed delivery routes and intermediaries. As a result, around 60 to 70 percent of connections to the North "were shattered and rendered irreparable," according to Ju Su-yun, who assisted other defectors in sending remittances to the North. "However, money still flows into the North," Ju said.
Four North Korean defectors, who either sent money to their families or acted as brokers at the request of other defectors, spoke to the Korea JoongAng Daily on how money from the South is making its way into one of the most reclusive countries in the world.
Clandestine cash delivery
The defectors who spoke with the newspaper said all money sent from the South inevitably goes through China before reaching its final destination - North Korea.
Typically, at least four brokers and delivery personnel are involved in the process.
A defector in South Korea wires the money to a China-based broker, who can freely cross the China-North Korea border and deliver the funds to a North Korean broker. The North Korean broker, who usually has the authority to evade the regime's crackdowns, relays the funds to the final courier, according to Hwang Ji-sung, a defector and Ju's husband.
Hwang and Ju have helped arrange such remittances for more than a decade.
Hwang said each broker and delivery person earns "around 10 percent of the remitted fund" as their commission. He said that the commission has increased multifold in recent years as China and the North intensified border patrols and began sentencing those caught relaying or receiving cash to three to five years in prison.
In this scheme, when a defector sends 1 million won, their families receive between 500,000 won and 600,000 won. Another defector, who fled the North in 2011 and requested anonymity, called the commission costs "immense" nowadays.
Jung said the assurance serves as an opportunity to check on their relatives' survival and well-being.
If the families reside near the border, where Chinese telecommunication networks are accessible, they can speak directly with their families in real time using Chinese-made mobile devices and confirm the amount that they received.
In interior regions, the final courier or broker records a video of the recipient counting the money. The videos are usually sent through online messaging apps.
Jung said she saw how her family or other defectors' families had gained weight or worn better clothes after receiving the cash.
"However, the process is not completely trustworthy," Jung said. "I heard of some instances where brokers ...
