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From Our Own Correspondent

Escape from North Korea

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kate Adie presents stories from North Korea, the US, France, Antigua and Ireland. Kim Jong-Un has made it harder to escape North Korea, and numbers of people who have done so successfully have dropped from a thousand each year to just 67 in 2022. 17-year-old Songmi Park was one of the last known people to escape, and Jean MacKenzie heard the story of her childhood there, and her reunion with her mother in Seoul. Last year more than a hundred thousand Americans died from a drug overdose - two-thirds of them after using synthetic opioids like Fentanyl. Tim Mansel was in San Diego where he saw first hand how the opioid crisis still has a firm grip on American communities. Paul Moss was in Paris during the street protests that have escalated across France after President Emmanuel Macron pushed through his pension reforms by decree. He ponders whether the writing is on the wall for President Macron's leadership. Around 900 Cameroonians arrived in Antigua at the end of last year, though many had expected to touch down in the US, where they hoped to build a new life. Gemma Handy investigates why they failed to reach their final destination. On the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, Chris Page explores how, at critical moments during the peace process, it was the personal relationships between leaders which helped to finally get the agreement over the line. He spoke to many of the key players about their memories of that period. Series Producer: Serena Tarling Producer: Louise Hidalgo Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith Production Coordinator: Helena Warwick-Cross

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts

0:05.4

Today, America's opioid crisis continues unabated.

0:10.1

In recent years, hundreds of thousands of people have died from overdoses.

0:14.9

The majority caused by the drug fentanyl.

0:18.2

We visit communities affected in Southern California.

0:23.0

Images of town halls, satellite and vast street protests in France have been seen around

0:28.3

the world amid public outrage over pension reform.

0:32.2

We hear what people are saying in Paris.

0:35.3

In Antigua, we reveal how hundreds of Camaroonian migrants came to be stranded on the Caribbean

0:41.8

Island after failing to reach their final destination.

0:46.1

On 25 years on from the Good Friday Agreement, we hear about one of the critical components

0:51.6

for getting the deal over the line, personal chemistry.

0:57.2

Next North Korea, where Kim Jong-un Saberattling continues with Pyongyang test firing weapons

1:04.2

over the last month.

1:06.4

The sanctions imposed on the country for refusing to end its weapons programme have had hugely

1:12.0

negative consequences for the North Korean people.

1:16.3

Experts believe the country's long-standing food shortages are rapidly becoming worse.

1:22.0

It's become increasingly difficult to escape.

1:25.5

The number of North Koreans arriving in South Korea has plunged from around a thousand

1:30.8

each year to just 67 in 2022.

1:36.0

Seventeen-year-old Song Mi was one of the last known people to make it out.

1:40.8

She was on a quest to find her mother who'd left her behind in North Korea as a child.

...

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