Upon leaving North Korea, Lieutenant Colonel Han's adventure begins in an impossible way: A line of underwear smuggling from South Korea.

In 2008, underwear was among the essential items that were in short supply in North Korea and Han, then a military lieutenant colonel, was looking to buy underwear for his 20-year-old daughter, Han Ock.

At the time, Han was sent to an army enterprise in the Kaesong Industrial Park, where Korean companies recruited workers from North Korea.

"Initially, we followed the rules and stayed away from people from the South. But we were all human and as time went on, we naturally became close",

The parents of several soldiers under Han worked on the famous ginseng fields in Kaesong.

Initially, Han only traded ginseng for a few sets of underwear to send back to his daughter in Pyongyang, but later on, he increased it to several barrels.

"My daughter was fascinated by the fine, well-designed lingerie in Korea and she showed them off to her friends. Gradually, she started selling underwear to you, making a very good profit."

But soon, Han Ock, then a nurse at a military hospital, began to realize she was being watched by the authorities in Pyongyang.

The border guards let them pass the security checkpoints because they assumed the car was carrying the division chief's family.

Han's family went to Yunnan province, south of China, across the border to Laos, and finally to Thailand.

A few months later, Han received a call from Han Ock telling him that the whole family was still living well in Seoul.

"We all know Korea is prosperous and I intend to go there. My daughter's call is crucial. It motivated me to give up 38 years of military career in Korea to flee to Korea."

At the time of receiving the call from his daughter, Han was overseeing North Korean workers at a logging project in Russia.

Han applied for asylum at the Korean Embassy in Bangkok.

After arriving at Incheon airport, he was allowed to reunite briefly with his family before being questioned by intelligence agencies for seven months.

Han revealed that North Korea had built six cross-border tunnels before 1998 to enter South Korea if war broke out.

With the money received, Han bought a 9,000 square meter plot of land in Seosan district, south of Korea, where he and his family settled and settled.

Han now works at a window-closing factory in Seosan, while tending gardens that grow cabbage, tobacco, corn and sesame.

The case of the Han family is special in that their whole family goes to Korea together and successfully settle down on a new land, unlike many other Korean defectors.

Many of the 33,000 North Korean defectors living in South Korea complain about poverty, illness, and loneliness and homesickness.

Han's daughter, now 32 years old, said the decision to flee to Korea was "right".

In a corner of the factory, two of Han's grandchildren, seven and three years old, sit around the fireplace, watching cartoons on their mobile phones.

"However, things here are still very different. They speak in many different accents. I feel uncomfortable that some Koreans have prejudices against Koreans living in Korea," Han shared.

Han Ock said she spent large sums of money sending her children to math and English cram schools.