Jang Yeong-jin is a writer and the only openly gay North Korean defector.
12 Facts About Jang Yeong-jin
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In 1982, Jang Yeong-jin was discharged from the military after contracting tuberculosis.
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In 1987, Jang Yeong-jin married a mathematics teacher in an arranged marriage, but was not attracted to her or women in general.
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Jang Yeong-jin re-established ties with Seon-cheol, who had returned from the military, married a nurse and had two children.
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Jang Yeong-jin then re-entered into North Korea and after five days of traveling, escaped to South Korea on April 27,1997 by crawling through the Korean Demilitarized Zone, making him one of the few people to successfully do so.
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Jang Yeong-jin's defection made headlines and his family were punished for his actions, being banished to a remote village in the north.
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In 2004, Jang Yeong-jin fell in love with a local flight attendant who he was introduced to by the owner of his favourite bar.
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Jang Yeong-jin later suspected his illness was caused by the stress of being tricked by the flight attendant.
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Around the same time as the incident, Jang Yeong-jin learned that three of his brothers and one of his sisters in North Korea had died after being banished from their village after Jang Yeong-jin defected.
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An anonymous North Korean defector who had known Jang Yeong-jin's family said that his wife had been expelled from her village, but was later reinstated.
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Jang Yeong-jin then started to spend his free time writing and in late April 2015, he published an autobiography called A Mark of Red Honor, which was later translated to English in 2017.
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Four months later, Jang Yeong-jin met Min-su in the United States and two months after that, he was proposed to by Min-su.