North Korean defector chef Lee Soon-sil reveals her heartbreaking story.

On the 16th, KBS2‘s ‘Let’s Live Together with Park Won-sook’ will feature chefs Shin Gye-sook and Lee Soon-sil.

Shin Gye-sook, a Chinese cuisine expert and professor of culinary arts, is also a broadcaster who won the 2024 Korea Broadcasting Awards Host Award for her program traveling around the country on a motorcycle in search of flavors. She greets her sisters warmly and confesses her unexpected connection by saying that she came to Yeongdeok to apologize to Park Won-sook, arousing curiosity.

Shin Gye-sook shows her bent finger from a ruptured artery and proves her painstaking efforts to survive as a Chinese chef despite the prejudice in the kitchen. We look forward to Shin Gye-sook‘s performance as she overwhelms the atmosphere of Saseon-ga with her sly Chungcheong dialect and unexpected charisma in cooking skills.

Following Chinese cuisine expert Shin Gye-sook, chef Lee Soon-sil, who came down from the North, visits Saseon-ga. Lee Soon-sil is a successful businesswoman who has recorded annual sales of 10 billion won with North Korean food that suits the taste of Koreans, such as kimchi, dumplings, and Pyongyang naengmyeon, and is also a rising entertainer who has taken the broadcasting industry by storm with her fiery wit.

She reveals that she lived as a beggar in North Korea, and her scars from torture while being repatriated eight times give us a glimpse into her difficult life.

Lee Soon-sil is expected to attract attention by bringing plenty of food and snacks for her sisters on this day, including pollack kimchi, artificial meat, North Korean-style snacks, and even a noodle machine.

Lee Soon-sil’s marriage story, in which she has been married three times in North Korea, China, and South Korea, will be revealed. She says that in her first marriage in North Korea, she ran away from home to escape domestic violence, and that she had such a difficult time that she ended up giving birth on the street after finding out she was pregnant late in life. She decided to defect to raise the child she had with difficulty, but as soon as she crossed the line of death, her 3-year-old daughter was taken away by a human trafficking ring and they were separated forever. After the shocking incident, Lee Soon-sil confesses through tears that she did not hesitate to use any means necessary to find her daughter, but it was all a scam. The sisters sympathize with the mother‘s heartbreak over the loss of her child and spend time comforting her.

The anticipated meeting between the two chefs, Shin Gye-sook and Lee Soon-sil, can be seen on KBS2’s ‘Let‘s Live Together with Park Won-sook’ on Thursday, January 16 at 8:30 p.m.

Jeon Hyo-jin, Donga.com reporter jhj@donga.com