- Title: Lovers, comrades! Forbidden love in North Korea finds a way in Vietnam
- Date: 13th February 2019
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Vietnamese) VIETNAMESE HUSBAND, PHAM NGOC CANH, SAYING: "I just don't agree with the socialism that keeps people from loving each other. I disagree with that. I don't like such a system." CANH AND RI LOOKING AT PHOTO ALBUM (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) NORTH KOREAN WIFE, RI YONG HUI, SAYING: "At first when people heard comrade Kim Jong Un decided to meet President Trum
- Embargoed: 27th February 2019 09:34
- Keywords: North Korea Vietnam couple marriage foreigner love summit the United States
- Location: HANOI, VIETNAM
- City: HANOI, VIETNAM
- Country: Vietnam
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA004A1EXRNR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Pham Ngoc Canh met Ri Yong Hui met nearly 50 years ago in North Korea, when he was a Vietnamese student and she, a North Korean, was forbidden to love him back.
"From the moment I saw him, I was so sad because I felt it would be a love that could never be realised," said 70-year-old North Korean wife Ri, speaking from the small Soviet-era apartment she and Canh share in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi.
Back in 1967, as Vietnam and the United States were locked in war, Canh was one of 200 Vietnamese students sent to North Korea to gain the skills the state needed to rebuild itself once the war was over. Several years later, Canh spotted Ri working in a laboratory in North Korean factory.
"I thought to myself, 'I must marry that girl'," said Canh, who eventually plucked up the courage to approach Ri and ask her for her address.
After the couple exchanged several letters, Ri agreed to let Canh visit her at home. He had to be careful. A Vietnamese comrade had been beaten when he had been found with a local girl. Dressed in North Korean clothes, Canh embarked on the three-hour bus journey and two km walk to Ri's home - a trip he repeated monthly until he returned to Vietnam in 1973.
Five years later, in 1978, the Vietnamese chemical engineering institute Canh was attached to organized a trip to North Korea.
He asked to join, and managed to meet Ri. But every time they saw each other, Ri said, she became more heartbroken at the thought that they might never meet again.
In 1992, Canh again managed to get himself on a trip to North Korea as a translator with a Vietnamese sporting delegation, but couldn't meet Ri. When he returned to Hanoi, Canh found Ri had sent him a letter. She still loved him.
In the late 1990s, North Korea was gripped by a devastating famine and a desperate delegation from Pyongyang visited Hanoi to ask for rice. Canh was so concerned for Ri and her people that he raised seven tonnes of rice in donations from friends to send to North Korea.
It was an act of generosity which finally paved the way for he and Ri to reunite: The North Koreans learned of Canh's act and agreed he could marry Ri and live in either country - provided Ri maintained her North Korean citizenship.
Until this day in North Korea, and in Vietnam at the time, relationships with foreigners are strictly forbidden.
In 2002, the two finally married in the Vietnamese embassy in Pyongyang, and settled into their new life together in Hanoi, where they still live today.
Now enjoying the freedoms in Vietnam that would be impossible in North Korea, Canh and Ri are hoping the upcoming summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi will help end hostilities with Pyongyang.
"At first when people heard comrade Kim Jong Un decided to meet President Trump, they expected something big or reunification to happen soon. However, it's hard to realise in one or two days. I just hope things would work out well," Ri said.
Today one of Asia's fastest growing economies and integrated into the international community, Vietnam has been touted as a model for isolated and impoverished North Korea to follow.
(Production: Thinh Nguyen, Minwoo Park, Hyunyoung Yi) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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