Ten years after fleeing North Korea at the risk of her life, Mun Yeon-hui found in Japan the peace and recognition she had never known in her homeland. Now living in Chiba, east of Tokyo, she and her husband run a restaurant called Sulnoon, renowned for its naengmyeon, delicious cold noodles originating from Pyongyang. Her story, recounted by the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, illustrates both resilience and the quest for freedom.<\/p>\n
As reported by the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun<\/a> , Mun Yeon-hui, born in North Korea, grew up in an environment where fear and control dictated every aspect of life. As a teenager, she was forced to witness the public execution of a woman accused of selling DVDs of foreign television series. A profound trauma\u2014but also a turning point. Far from turning away from the outside world, the young woman began to take an interest in it: she secretly discovered South Korean and Japanese dramas, particularly admiring the actor Takuya Kimura, star of the Japanese series Pride.<\/p>\n This awakening leads her to question the closed nature of the North Korean regime. Despite her business training in Pyongyang, she encounters the system's inertia: no prospects, no freedom. It is then that she decides, against all reason, to flee.<\/p>\n In May 2015, Mun Yeon-hui left North Korea amidst the tears of her mother, who told her: "I'm sorry I gave birth to you in this country."<\/em> She swam across the Yalu River, the natural border with China, with only a few banknotes, razor blades, and some opium for protection, which she planned to use if she were arrested.<\/p>\n After a harrowing escape across China, she was intercepted near the Laotian border. Against all odds, the Chinese authorities released her the next day, even returning her money and belongings. "It's strange... it can only be a miracle,"<\/em> she would later say. Mun Yeon-hui found refuge at the South Korean embassy in Laos before moving to Seoul in 2016. There, she was reunited with her mother and brother and obtained South Korean citizenship.<\/p>\n It was in South Korea, alongside her mother \u2013 a former cook at a large hotel in Pyongyang \u2013 that she opened her first restaurant, Sulnoon. The place quickly became popular for its artisanal cold noodles, prepared in the North Korean style, with unhulled buckwheat and a clear broth combining beef, pork and chicken.<\/p>\n It was also there that she met Shigeru Katsumata, a Japanese restaurateur whom she married one hundred days later. Together, they decided to unite cuisine and cultures: in 2024, they opened a new Sulnoon location in Chiba, Japan. Every day, a loyal clientele comes to taste this iconic North Korean dish, prepared with patience and humility. "In North Korea, there isn't much seasoning, but everything is done by hand,"<\/em> Yeon-hui explains with a quiet smile.<\/p>\n Now in her forties, the chef speaks candidly about her past. She recounts her escape, her recovery, and her integration into Japanese society, which she describes as "kind and welcoming." On YouTube<\/a> , she now shares her recipes and her story with candor, hoping to inspire other refugees.<\/p>\n From the Yalu River to Tokyo cuisine, Mun Yeon-hui embodies the perseverance of a generation of North Korean refugees who transformed pain into creativity. Through her restaurant Sulnoon, she offers much more than a dish: a taste of freedom, served in a bowl of chilled noodles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ten years after fleeing North Korea at the risk of her life, Mun Yeon-hui found in Japan the...","protected":false},"author":8394,"featured_media":433396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_msn":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5678],"tags":[97759],"class_list":["post-433394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-societe","tag-news"],"image":{"medium":["https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Apres-avoir-fui-la-Coree-du-Nord-elle-ouvre-un-restaurant-au-Japon-200x113.jpg",200,113,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Apres-avoir-fui-la-Coree-du-Nord-elle-ouvre-un-restaurant-au-Japon-500x281.jpg",500,281,true]},"custom":{"td_video":"","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Apres-avoir-fui-la-Coree-du-Nord-elle-ouvre-un-restaurant-au-Japon.jpg","author":{"name":"L\u00e9a Michel","avatar":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1721220128171-96x96.jpg"},"categories":[{"term_id":5678,"name":"Society","slug":"societe","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5846,"taxonomy":"category","description":" The Society section of The Body Optimist unpacks the debates that shape women\u2019s lives: equality, discrimination, beauty standards, social ties and the place of bodies in public space. Its analysis, first-person stories and practical advice are for anyone who wants to understand the pressures of everyday life and push back, with an inclusive, body-positive and judgment-free perspective.<\/p>\n Beauty standards are a social issue because they are neither natural nor universal: they shift from one country to another and from one era to the next, as our article on how beauty standards differ around the world<\/a> shows. Yet these ideals of thinness, youth and flawless skin have very real effects: comments starting in childhood, pressure to watch your weight, unequal treatment at work and in health care, online harassment. Recognizing that a norm is constructed helps you take a step back, spot the messages designed to make you feel guilty and choose what you want to keep. That is the common thread of this section: connecting individual experiences to the collective mechanisms that produce them.<\/p>\n If you experience discrimination or online harassment, the first step is to keep evidence, then to turn to the right people, who will depend on the country you live in:<\/p>\n Born from a plus-size fashion site, our magazine looks at social issues through the lens of the body and representation. We give a voice to the people most affected, we explain the words before debating them (sexism, fatphobia, trans identity, consent) and we favor practical ways forward over outrage alone. Our articles start from everyday experiences to shed light on broader patterns, without moralizing or pitting women against each other.<\/p>\n Discrimination is unequal treatment based on a characteristic protected by law, in a specific area such as employment, housing or access to goods and services. Protected grounds vary from country to country, but they often include sex, race or ethnic origin, disability, age, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity. Some places also protect physical appearance or weight.<\/p>\n Intersectionality describes how several forms of discrimination can overlap in the same person and reinforce one another. The American legal scholar Kimberl\u00e9 Crenshaw coined the term to describe the experiences of Black women. A woman who is both fat and lesbian, for example, may face sexism, fatphobia and homophobia, which compound one another rather than simply adding up.<\/p>\n Diet culture is the set of beliefs that equates thinness with health, success and personal worth. It shows up in foods labeled \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cbad,\u201d compliments on weight loss and the shaming of fat bodies. Our magazine prefers a weight-inclusive approach to health, at every size.<\/p>\n Want to go further? Our Culture<\/a> section explores how bodies and identities are portrayed in movies, TV shows and books, and our Psychology<\/a> section supports you with self-image, confidence and emotions.<\/p>","parent":0,"count":1538,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5678,"category_count":1538,"category_description":" The Society section of The Body Optimist unpacks the debates that shape women\u2019s lives: equality, discrimination, beauty standards, social ties and the place of bodies in public space. Its analysis, first-person stories and practical advice are for anyone who wants to understand the pressures of everyday life and push back, with an inclusive, body-positive and judgment-free perspective.<\/p>\n Beauty standards are a social issue because they are neither natural nor universal: they shift from one country to another and from one era to the next, as our article on how beauty standards differ around the world<\/a> shows. Yet these ideals of thinness, youth and flawless skin have very real effects: comments starting in childhood, pressure to watch your weight, unequal treatment at work and in health care, online harassment. Recognizing that a norm is constructed helps you take a step back, spot the messages designed to make you feel guilty and choose what you want to keep. That is the common thread of this section: connecting individual experiences to the collective mechanisms that produce them.<\/p>\n If you experience discrimination or online harassment, the first step is to keep evidence, then to turn to the right people, who will depend on the country you live in:<\/p>\n Born from a plus-size fashion site, our magazine looks at social issues through the lens of the body and representation. We give a voice to the people most affected, we explain the words before debating them (sexism, fatphobia, trans identity, consent) and we favor practical ways forward over outrage alone. Our articles start from everyday experiences to shed light on broader patterns, without moralizing or pitting women against each other.<\/p>\n Discrimination is unequal treatment based on a characteristic protected by law, in a specific area such as employment, housing or access to goods and services. Protected grounds vary from country to country, but they often include sex, race or ethnic origin, disability, age, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity. Some places also protect physical appearance or weight.<\/p>\n Intersectionality describes how several forms of discrimination can overlap in the same person and reinforce one another. The American legal scholar Kimberl\u00e9 Crenshaw coined the term to describe the experiences of Black women. A woman who is both fat and lesbian, for example, may face sexism, fatphobia and homophobia, which compound one another rather than simply adding up.<\/p>\n Diet culture is the set of beliefs that equates thinness with health, success and personal worth. It shows up in foods labeled \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cbad,\u201d compliments on weight loss and the shaming of fat bodies. Our magazine prefers a weight-inclusive approach to health, at every size.<\/p>\n Want to go further? Our Culture<\/a> section explores how bodies and identities are portrayed in movies, TV shows and books, and our Psychology<\/a> section supports you with self-image, confidence and emotions.<\/p>","cat_name":"Society","category_nicename":"societe","category_parent":0}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8394"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433394"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":433454,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433394\/revisions\/433454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ma-grande-taille.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} A miraculous escape<\/h2>\n
From Pyongyang to Tokyo: culinary art as a common thread<\/h2>\n
A new life and a dream for the future<\/h2>\n
What you\u2019ll find in the Society section<\/h2>\n
\n
Why are beauty standards a social issue?<\/h2>\n
What can you do about discrimination or online harassment?<\/h2>\n
\n
Our approach: connecting the personal and the collective<\/h2>\n
Articles to start with<\/h2>\n
\n
Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n
What counts as discrimination?<\/h3>\n
What is intersectionality?<\/h3>\n
What is diet culture?<\/h3>\n
What you\u2019ll find in the Society section<\/h2>\n
\n
Why are beauty standards a social issue?<\/h2>\n
What can you do about discrimination or online harassment?<\/h2>\n
\n
Our approach: connecting the personal and the collective<\/h2>\n
Articles to start with<\/h2>\n
\n
Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n
What counts as discrimination?<\/h3>\n
What is intersectionality?<\/h3>\n
What is diet culture?<\/h3>\n