THE streets of Bury may not be the most obvious place to seek refuge after fleeing the world’s most repressive state, but it is where Jihyun Park has called home since arriving in the UK ten years ago.

Living in Fairfield with her husband and children, her cheerful, relaxed demeanour bears little trace of the suffering she has endured, or the journey she has been on.

Her story is a remarkable one, involving time spent in a detention camp, family separation, and a love story that is difficult to top.

Ms Park is a North Korean refugee, having fled the country twice. The first, in 1998, was in the midst of a famine which ravaged the country and resulted in the death of three million people, including her uncle.

Her decision to escape her homeland was further fuelled by her younger brother almost being beaten to death for leaving the army.

As she set out in search of a better life, away from the threat of starvation, her father’s final wish was that she remain with her younger brother.

“When we crossed the border, I thought life would change for the better,” she says. But, it did not.

After arriving in China, she became a victim of human trafficking and was sold off for the equivalent of £500, separating her from her brother, who was sent back to North Korea.

She has not seen him or her father since, and has no idea what happened to either of them.

The man who bought her had alcohol and gambling problems, and abused her, she says.

She gave birth to his son, but six years into her life in China, police stormed into her home and arrested her. The Chinese authorities had determined she was there illegally and she was separated from her son and repatriated back to North Korea.

After being handed over to the the country's authorities, Ms Park was treated as a political criminal, sent to a detention camp, and forced to carry out manual labour.

The days were long, beginning at 4.30am and ending when darkness descended in the evening.

The camp’s squalid conditions led to her hair and skin changing colour, and after several months she was released after an infection in her leg - caused by being beaten by a prison guard - resulted in her being unable to work.

Sick, alone and desperate to be reunited with her son, she fled over the mountains to China again, and took the youngster from the father’s family, who had been neglecting him.

In 2005, Ms Park then fled China for Mongolia on foot, along with several other North Korean refugees.

“It was very dangerous,” she says. “The Chinese wall was two metres high and we had to cut a hole in it. I was scared that I might get sent back to North Korea and never see my son again.”

That was the moment she met her husband, Kwang, a fellow North Korean defector, who came to her rescue, helping Ms Park and her son to safety.

They stayed in the desert in Mongolia for three days without water or food, but amid fears that her son might die, they returned to China and stayed in Beijing for two years before, in 2007, a pastor directed them towards the United Nations.

They eventually wound up in Bury, some 5,000 miles away from their homeland, and a world away in many other respects.

At first, Ms Park says she thought the town, in the days before The Rock shopping centre dominated its skyline, was a village.

And while she was immediately faced with housing and communication problems, she soon set about embracing her new life.

Ms Park, now aged 49, said: “When we arrived in England, we went to the Home Office and they sent us to this area.

“We had never heard of Bury, or even Manchester. When I lived in North Korea I only knew of England and London.

“We did not know any English so life was very hard. In the street, we met our neighbours and they would say ‘hi, how are you?’, but I did not know what the words meant.

“We got the house and there was no electricity or gas. It was the end of October so it was really cold outside. We banded together in the living room and slept with only one blanket.”

The next day, she and Kwang went to Six Town Housing, who assigned the family a translator and helped solve their housing difficulties.

Feeling ashamed at her inability to communicate effectively, Ms Park started English lessons at Bury Adult Learning Centre, while working at a Korean restaurant in Manchester. She then completed an English GCSE at Bury College.

She now works as a human rights activist and spends a significant amount of time in London, as well as speaking at universities and conferences across Europe, but says she feels at home in Bury.

“We love our neighbours and my children grew up in Bury so have a lot of friends here,” she says.

Trips to Bury Market are a favourite of hers, and she can often be found there hunting down ingredients to make the traditional Korean dish kimchi.

Their children are also thriving. Her eldest son Yong is at university in London, studying accounting and finance. Prior to that, he was at The Derby High School.

“When we arrived in the UK, he was nine, but he did not go to school in China, so it was the first time he had been to school,” she said.

“He is a really hard worker and achieves a lot of good things.”

Her other son Yoojang is currently in year seven at Broad Oak, and Ms Park speaks with pride about the fact he has just won a national maths award.

Meanwhile, her daughter Yoojin, who was born in Bury, is at St Paul’s C of E Primary School.

“She tells everyone she is English,” Ms Park jokes. “She has a very different life to what we had.”

While Ms Park traverses Europe, Kwang stays at home and looks after the children; the torture he endured in detention camps left him requiring two operations on his heart, and he now requires daily medication.

There are roughly 700 registered North Korean refugees in the UK, with the majority living in New Malden in south west London. As well as her work as a human rights activist, Ms Park also helps her fellow compatriots settle in the UK by assisting with everything from arranging housing to learning English.

And while she does miss friends and family back home, she describes the current situation there as a ‘21st century Holocaust’.

She is quick to point to Trump and Kim Jong-un’s meeting in Singapore last week, and says the lack of discussion about her homeland’s human rights record was disappointing.

“If we are silent about this genocide then in the future, many innocent people will be killed under the dictatorship,” she said.

“Everyone needs to speak out about this, not just world leaders. In Hitler’s time, many people were unconcerned about genocide and now it is the same. The world needs to wake up, these are dictators, and we need to speak out.”

Earlier this year, Mr Park’s work on human rights was rewarded with the Natwest Chairman’s Award at the Asian Women of Achievement Award. She has evidently come along way in the last ten years, and seems perfectly content with her life in the UK.

“My life is very different now,” she said. “Before I left North Korea I did not know the outside. We thought North Korea was something to envy.

“I did not know emotion. The only emotions are political and there are only two - happiness and hatred.

“We did not know personal emotions, but in the UK, I found happiness with my family together around the same table, with my children’s school life and when they are smiling. That is very emotional for me.

“When I lived in North Korea, I thought that happiness was a big mountain which I could not reach in my lifetime, but happiness is with the small things like family, neighbours, and meeting new friends. Our life in the UK is heaven.”