A NORTH Korean dissident made a terrifying escape from Kim Jong-un's regime at the age of just 15 after goons arrested her mother and beat her until she signed a false confession.

Evelyn Jeong, 24, also spent 10 months in a hellhole prison as a teenager before she and her mother were eventually reunited.

Speaking to The Sun Online, Evelyn gave a fascinating insight into life growing up in tyrannical Kim's secretive communist dictatorship.

"We were reasonably well-off, by North Korean standards," she said.

"I was born in a town close to the Chinese border to a middle-class family. Our house was quite nice.

"My mother was a businesswoman who travelled back and forth between China and North Korea for trade."

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Even after her parents split up, her mother was able to raise her alone, bringing the fashion-mad Evelyn clothes back from China.

Pictures from Evelyn's childhood show her at primary school in North Korea in 2003, and her with two women who worked for her mother.

However, everything changed when fresh restrictions on the selling of goods from abroad in North Korea were brought in, and Evelyn's mother was now effectively an outlaw.

Needing to support her daughter as a single mother, she continued to make the illegal border crossings, until one day, Kim's police caught her – shipping her away to a hellhole prison.

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"A government van pulled up and men jumped out, grabbed her by the arms, and dragged her away," Evelyn said.

"She never came home that day. We had no idea what had happened. We didn't hear anything for a month."

In total, Evelyn's mother spent four years inside the horrific jail.

"She doesn't like to talk too much about prison," she said.

"My mother is very petite. When I visited her, I was shocked to see her body was swollen and beaten."

In jail, Evelyn's mother was beaten by Kim's secret service and forced to sign false confessions, under threat of further torture.

When she was finally released, she wanted her and Evelyn to get out of North Korea at any cost.

At the end of 2013, aged only 15, Evelyn made her escape from the Hermit Kingdom to China.

Coming from North Korea, China seemed like another world. She was shocked by the neon lights in the towns – "it seemed like heaven!" – and amazed to have running hot water.

She was able to indulge her love of fashion, and go on trips to spas.

In China, she found that people ate white rice, while in North Korea, they were forced to subsist on cheaper corn noodles.

She was also exposed to films from China, South Korea, and the US for the first time.

However, her troubles were far from over.

A government van pulled up and men jumped out, grabbed her by the arms, and dragged her away

With China not safe for North Korean exiles, she continued her dangerous journey alone through Laos and Thailand.

She walked through mountains and travelled by boat and bus.

At the age of 16, in Thailand, she applied for a travel visa to the United States.

She was forced to spend 10 months in a horror Bangkok prison while her visa application was being handled.

"Between 200 to 300 people" were crowded into one large dormitory-type room, she said.

She made a fence around her tiny sleeping area using bottles to try and maintain some privacy.

"I missed my family and I cried a lot," she went on. "This was also the first time I had met so many foreigners. The prison was full of international tourists, including some from the UK."

As bad as it was, she noted, at least she had running water, which was better than in North Korea.

Eventually, aged 17, she was able to move to the US alone, where she was set up with a foster family in Colorado.

There, she went to an American high school, and tried a number of foods for the first time, including apple pie with cinnamon.

"My foster family were very strict," she said. "They were also vegetarian, which I found strange.

"The first year in the US, I cried a lot. But I was able to call my mum. I found a lot of the technology confusing, such as vending machines."

Evelyn says she can never return to North Korea until Kim's regime falls.

Now finally reunited with her mother in South Korea, she is able to live a free life, regularly posting updates on her Instagram page.

"In North Korea, there are so many restrictions on everyday life," she explained.

"You can't dye your hair. Fashion is very formal. Everyone wears black and white or beige.

"There are no jeans or bright colours."

She also had no idea about the outside world growing up.

"I didn't even know where the UK was," she said.

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Evelyn wonders how much her home town has changed and wishes that "Kim's regime will fall soon".

"I still have a mental map of North Korea in my head," she said. "I miss my house and my friends, but I know that I can't go home again."

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