color="blue">I’ve done what my conscience has told me to do,” lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> color="olive">said Mr. Tu.

size="4" color="navy">He Helped North Koreans Reach Freedom.

Now He Wants South Korea’s Protection.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> size="3" color="maroon">After two stints in Chinese prisons for helping
North Koreans flee, Tu Airong is awaiting a final decision from Seoul on his
asylum application

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">By
color="green">Jonathan Cheng December 19,
2018

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="purple">JEJU, South Korea- color="navy">Tu Airong was smuggling goods over the China-Laos border when
he agreed to do a favor for some ethnic Korean businessmen he had befriended
over drinks and karaoke. Sure, he told them, he could sneak their relatives
into Laos without papers.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“It was an accidental encounter,” style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">the Chinese native said. color="blue"> color="blue">“I didn’t know what the purpose was.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">That journey in 2004 was the first time Mr. Tu helped North Koreans
escape China. Over the next decade, he helped roughly 500 more, according to
Mr. Tu and a South Korean pastor who became his partner in the enterprise.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Now Mr. Tu, who is 55, is in diplomatic limbo. After two stints
in Chinese prisons for helping North Koreans flee, Mr. Tu sought asylum from
South Korea in 2016.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Officials rejected his claim, but after legal challenges he is
awaiting a final decision expected Friday. If he is successful, human-rights
workers say it would be the first time Seoul has granted asylum to a person
who helped North Koreans reach the South. He fears his fate if he returns to
China.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">More than 30,000 North Koreans have fled their country, most resettling
in the South- color="navy">including more than 1,000 this year. Escape usually means a harrowing
journey across China and into Southeast Asia, where they are received by South
Korean officials. China routinely detains North Koreans on the run and sends
them back to face imprisonment.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">If Beijing didn’t do so, color="blue">“there would be North Korean citizens who don’t flow to South
Korea but just stay in China and work,” color="navy"> said Sokeel Park of Liberty in North Korea, a Los Angeles-based
nonprofit that helps North Koreans escape.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">While South Koreans- color="navy">some motivated by faith, others driven by profit- lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">typically orchestrate and finance the escapes, they rely on Chinese
middlemen like Mr. Tu.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">This account is based on interviews with Mr. Tu, his public-interest
lawyer, the South Korean pastor and human-rights workers, as well as court documents.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">As a young man, Mr. Tu drifted from China’s impoverished Jiangxi
province to Laos, where he did construction jobs and smuggled herbal medicine
and wild animals. He found a niche importing teakwood into China.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Life changed when Mr. Tu was approached by the men who wanted
their color="blue">“relatives” color="navy"> smuggled into Laos. color="blue"> “I was lugging a lot of heavy stuff over the border but these
are people who can walk on their two legs. How hard could it be?” lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> he said.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">A second request raised Mr. Tu’s suspicions. When he learned
the color="blue">“relatives” color="navy"> were North Koreans, hungry and fearing arrest, he was shocked.
They spoke of others hiding in Yunnan province, awaiting a chance to flee China.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Mr. Tu said he confronted the businessmen, but eventually struck
a deal with their boss in South Korea to ferry more North Koreans into Laos
for $500 a head. color="blue">“I had the power to bring these people from hell to heaven,” lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> he said.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Of the 100 North Koreans that Mr. Tu estimates he smuggled to
safety over the next year, several later became among the first to acquire U.S.
citizenship under the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Nicole Choi, who was among the second group of North Koreans to
become U.S. citizens, called Mr. Tu color="blue"> “da ge,” color="navy"> or color="blue">“big brother.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“Of course he received money but he still had to risk his life
for many people,” said Ms. Choi, 38, who lives in California. “He always kept
us safe.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">In 2006, having fallen out with the South Korean boss, Mr. Tu
got a call from Chun Ki-won, a South Korean pastor who was also helping North
Koreans escape. Escapees who remembered Mr. Tu’s honesty and humanity had passed
along his details, Mr. Chun said.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Mr. Tu agreed to work with the pastor, accepting $1,000 to bring
each North Korean to Thailand, across two borders. Soon, Mr. Tu was making three
round trips a month.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">He took circuitous paths to elude authorities. But in April 2007,
Chinese authorities detained him for a month. The fate of six North Koreans
caught with Mr. Tu is unknown.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Mr. Tu was caught again a year later by Chinese authorities and
spent six months in custody. After he got out, he fled China in March 2009.
Chinese officials didn’t comment.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Mr. Tu sought asylum in 2010 via the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees in Bangkok, but was denied. Dejected, Mr. Tu returned to Laos to
settle into a life of exile. There, he married a Lao woman.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Then, in early 2016, Mr. Tu said the Chinese embassy in Laos told
him to return home for favorable treatment. Suspecting the Chinese might arrest
him in Laos, Mr. Tu instead flew to South Korea’s Jeju island and sought asylum
there.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Seoul rejected his first application on the grounds that he wasn’t
in danger in Laos and that any punishment he might face in China wouldn’t be
for political reasons. Mr. Tu challenged the decision.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Meanwhile, Mr. Tu struggles to find stable work. He shares a rundown
dwelling with his wife and children and feels that his new home has turned its
back on him despite the help he has given North Koreans, to whom South Korea
grants automatic citizenship.

border="0">

Mr. Tu lives with his wife and children in Jeju. Photo:
Tim Franco for The Wall Street Journal

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="blue">“Some of the Koreans may say, ‘If you don’t like Korea, then
leave.’ But I have nowhere else to go,” color="navy"> he said.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">A spokesman for Jeju’s immigration office said Mr. Tu’s case
was being considered not because of Mr. Tu’s help for North Koreans but on
the grounds of potential political persecution in China.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Mr. Tu says his old friends in the lumber trade earn $2,000 a
day. color="blue">“Many of my friends have become very, very rich,” lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy"> he says. color="blue">“But I’ve done what my conscience has told me to do, and hopefully
things will be better in the future.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">-Dasl Yoon in Seoul and Xiao Xiao in Beijing contributed to this
article.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;">Write
to Jonathan Cheng at jonathan.cheng@wsj.com