North Korean students | Image: NK News (Oct. 2016)

“Ask a North Korean” is an NK News series featuring interviews with and columns by North Korean defectors, most of whom left the DPRK within the last few years.

Readers may submit their questions for defectors by emailing [email protected] and including their first name and city of residence.

Idam, a pseudonym for a defector who left North Korea in 2019 and entered the South a year later, reflects on attending an alternative school after resettlement. She also illustrates how she adapted to a new society, prepared for university and began thinking about her own dreams for the first time.

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