Forbidden Love in N. Korea Finds a Way in Vietnam

 

In 1971, he was a Vietnamese student who had just met the love of his life. She was a North Korean worker who knew she was forbidden to love him back.

It took 31 years before Pham Ngoc Canh, the Vietnamese student, and Ri Yong Hui, the North Korean woman, were finally married. They wed¹ in 2002, after North Korea took the unusual step of permitting one of its citizens to marry a foreigner.

Now she is 70 years old and he is 69. They live in an apartment in the city of Hanoi, in Vietnam. Today, Vietnam is one of Asia’s fastest growing economies, but when the couple met the country was struggling. It was at war with the United States and divided in two. So the North Vietnamese government sent 200 students, including Canh, to North Korea to gain the skills the country would need to rebuild.

In North Korea, Canh saw Ri working in a laboratory. Canh said, “I thought to myself, ‘I must marry that girl.’”

Ri’s friends had told her about the Vietnamese student who was training at the factory. “As soon as I saw him, I knew it was him,” said Ri. “He looked so gorgeous².”

She added, “Until then, when I had seen so-called handsome guys I hadn’t felt anything, but when he opened the door, my heart just melted.”

The courtship

But romantic relationships with foreigners are strictly³ forbidden in North Korea. They were also forbidden in Vietnam at the time.

However, Ri and Canh exchanged letters. In time, she agreed to let him visit her at home. He had to be careful. He knew another Vietnamese man had been beaten when he had been found with a North Korean woman.

So Cahn dressed in North Korean clothes, took a three-hour bus ride and walked two kilometers to reach Ri’s home. Canh said, “I went to her house secretly, just like a guerrilla.”

He repeated the trip every month until 1973, when he returned to Vietnam. He was the son of a high-ranking party official, and he was expected to have a bright future with the state. But he refused to join the Communist Party.

“I just couldn’t agree with a socialism that stops people from loving each other,” Canh said.

In 1978, Canh asked to return to North Korea with a group of Vietnamese engineers. He arranged to meet Ri, and even wrote a letter asking the North Korean leadership for permission to marry her.

But Ri said the visit broke her heart. She did not believe her government would agree to his proposal, and she was afraid the two would never meet again.

So Canh did not send her the letter. Instead, he asked Ri to wait for him.

Later that year, Vietnam invaded Cambodia and fought a border war with China. North Korea and Vietnam were on opposite sides of the conflict. Ri and Canh stopped writing.

“My mother was crying while caring for me,” said Ri. “I think she knew that I was lovesick.”

Years passed. Finally, in 1992, Ri sent Canh a letter. She told him that she still loved him.

The marriage

But the two still could not meet, let alone marry. Then, in the late 1990s, North Korea faced a deadly famine. By now, the Vietnamese government was connected to the West, and it refused to send aid.

But Canh was so concerned for Ri and others that he raised donations of rice to send to North Korea. When North Korean officials learned of Canh’s act of kindness, they agreed he could marry Ri – but only if Ri kept her North Korean citizenship⁴.

In 2002, the couple finally married in the Vietnamese embassy⁵ in Pyongyang. “In the end, love beat socialism,” said Canh.

Canh and Ri are hoping the upcoming meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump⁶ and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi will help end hostilities⁷ between their countries.

“If you’re a North Korean, you want to see this resolved. But politics is complicated,” Ri said. “When people first heard Kim Jong Un decided⁸ to meet Trump, they expected reunification to happen soon. But that’s hard to realize in just one or two days. I hope things work out well.”

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Words in This Story

wed - v. marry

romantic - adj. of, relating to, or involving love between two people

guerrilla - n. a member of a usually small group of soldiers who do not belong to a regular army and who fight in a war as an independent unit

1 wed   

v.娶，嫁，与…结婚

参考例句：

• The couple eventually wed after three year engagement.这对夫妇在订婚三年后终于结婚了。
• The prince was very determined to wed one of the king's daughters.王子下定决心要娶国王的其中一位女儿。

2 gorgeous   

adj.华丽的，灿烂的，美丽的，宜人的，棒的

参考例句：

• The gorgeous costume added to the brilliance of the dance.华丽的服装使舞蹈更加光彩夺目。
• What a gorgeous day it is today!今天天气多好啊！

3 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。

4 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

5 embassy   

n.大使馆，大使及其随员

参考例句：

• Large crowd demonstrated outside the British Embassy.很多群众在英国大使馆外面示威。
• He's a U.S. diplomat assigned to the embassy in London.他是美国驻伦敦大使馆的一名外交官。

6 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

7 hostilities   

n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事

参考例句：

• Mexico called for an immediate cessation of hostilities. 墨西哥要求立即停止敌对行动。
• All the old hostilities resurfaced when they met again. 他们再次碰面时，过去的种种敌意又都冒了出来。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。