Love in the time of Kim
HANOI - Frustrated negotiators dealing with North Korea can take comfort: one
foreigner, at least, got what he wanted from Kim Jong Il's regime. And it only
took 30 years.
In 1971, Pham Ngoc Canh was a 23-year-old Vietnamese exchange student
in Pyongyang. There he fell in love with Ri Yong-hui, 24, a North Korean
factory worker. Their governments were communist soul mates, but
relationships with foreigners were taboo in both countries. "I saw no chance,"
says Canh. Both were devastated when he left in 1973. A year later, Ri asked
a Vietnamese student to smuggle a letter to Canh. Thus began three decades
of furtive exchanges.
They saw each other in 1978 and 1982, when Canh acted as an interpreter for
Vietnamese delegations to North Korea. In 1992, he began lobbying the
North Korean embassy for Ri's hand, bearing 40 yellowing letters as proof of
his devotion. He was told she had married, and later that she was dead. But he
was still receiving letters from her. Through contacts of his ex-diplomat father,
Canh last year persuaded Vietnam's President Tran Duc Luong to plead his
case.
It worked. Ri was allowed to leave North Korea, and they wed last
month in Hanoi. "She's still beautiful," beams Canh. He sees his bliss as a sign
that North Korea is changing. Ri disagrees: "It was all (due to) the great efforts
of my lover." True love, like diplomacy, can require heroic persistence.
By Kay John-son - Time Asia Magazine - January 20, 2003.
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