Every Falling Star: The True Story of How I Survived and Escaped North Korea

Every Falling Star: The True Story of How I Survived and Escaped North Korea is a 2016 memoir by Sungju Lee and Susan McClelland. This first-person narrative nonfiction work recounts author Sungju Lee’s childhood in North Korea, surviving on the streets as a young boy after he was abandoned by his parents, as well as his harrowing escape at age 16. He is now a consultant and advocate for the reunification of the Korean Peninsula and studying for his master’s degree international relations in England. Sungju travels the world and speaks about his experience as a North Korean defector. His book, geared toward young adults, was nominated for the Magnolia Award in 2018.

The memoir begins with some of Sungju’s earliest childhood memories living with his mother and father in North Korea’s capital city Pyongyang, not far from his grandparents. His father is an officer in the military, and Sungju looks up to him, dreaming of one day being a general in North Korea’s armed forces. Young Sungju is brought up to believe that the country’s “eternal leader” Kim Il-sung is not only immortal but also invincible. But Sungju’s life is upended after Kim Il-sung’s death in 1994, which shocks the nation.

Not long after, Sungju and his family are sent on “vacation” to the small city of Gyeong-seong, where food is scarce, work is hard to come by, and everyone appears to be emaciated and starving. A nationwide famine means few, if any, people around them have anything to eat. Sungju is convinced that this vacation is temporary until his mother informs him that they were exiled. When their food stores begin to run low, Sungju’s father goes to China for a week to find a means to make money and support them, but he never returns. Sungju’s mother tells Sungju she’ll get food from her sister’s house nearby, but she never returns either.

Left alone, Sungju relies on the kotjebi, or street boys, he meets in Gyeong-seong to survive, eventually forming a gang with his new friends: Young-bum, Chulho, Myeungchul, Sangchul, Unsik, and Min-gook. They perform for money and steal food from market-goers while waiting for their families, all of whom have disappeared, to return for them.

But Gyeong-seong, a small city, can only provide so much opportunity for the boys. They travel to other cities, stowing away on trains and moving around the country, but soon realize that to survive in these new places, they must fight and beat the gangs already established there. When Myeungchul, the most idealistic and creative member of the gang, is killed in a particularly brutal fight, Sungju realizes they must toughen up even more if they want to stay alive long enough to reunite with their families.

In every city they reside, Sungju and his gang of “brothers” make a name for themselves as fighters, thieves, guards, performers, and pimps—whatever helps them to stay alive and fed for another day. After a failed attempt to steal food from a government farm, the boys are all sent to a prison. The conditions there are horrendous, and death, rape, and starvation are rampant. The gang befriends the head of the prison, who trusts them to steal food and alcohol for him, which they use as leverage to escape.

Newly free, Sungju and the gang begin stealing food from a government farm, but once again their plans go awry and Young-bum, Sungju’s closest friend, is murdered. Reeling from the grief of losing his family, his friends, and his childhood, Sungju acts out by fighting, drinking, and abusing drugs.

His downward spiral continues until, upon returning to Gyeong-seong, Sungju encounters a familiar-looking older man at the train station who knows his name as well as the names of his mother and father. The man introduces himself as Sungju’s grandfather and tells him he has been looking for Sungju for years. Despite not initially recognizing him, Sungju follows him back to his house with the intention of robbing him. But when he arrives, he is greeted by his grandmother with food and is surrounded by pictures of his parents. He splits off from the gang to live with his grandparents. They help him get back on his feet and begin studying again, and they give him a job making herbal medicine.

A stranger comes to Sungju’s grandfather’s house claiming to be a friend of Sungju’s father in China. He tells them that Sungju’s father has paid a service to help his son escape. Initially skeptical, Sungju ultimately agrees to defect from North Korea after saying goodbye to his gang of brothers and his grandparents. After traversing by foot, river, train, and plane, while being passed along from different strangers who have agreed to help him, Sungju finds himself in South Korea.

Customs authorities in South Korea identify Sungju’s fake passport and interrogate him before realizing he is a North Korean defector. He’s sent to an organization that helps North Korean defectors in South Korea, and he is reunited with his father. They embrace and cry with relief.

Despite the adverse conditions of his childhood, Sungju continues his studies, eventually going to college in South Korea and the United States before beginning his master’s degree in international relations in England. He also acts as a consultant for groups supporting North Korean defectors. He and his father continue to search for his mother, but to this day she remains missing.