narrator: when chanyang was 17, her family decided to defect. to avoid raising suspicion, they left at different times. she was the last to leave. (translated): i was always being watched. the people watching weren't just from the government. the people who were watching me were my friends and neighbors. i knew all of this, but had to act as if i didn't. narrator: after two years laying low, chanyang escaped through china and reunited with her family in seoul. (translated): my brother and sister had grown up so much when i saw them, and their accents had all changed too. but we were all back together again, in a circle. we're a family of five. we were all just so happy that we didn't even need to say a word. the first thing we did was just eat together. narrator: chanyang now appears on a weekly tv show with other defectors called on my way to meet you. here is my name and where i'm born. narrator: it's broadcast in south korea, but is a popular show smuggled back into the north. (translated): my friends back home watch it, and all the children