Ahn Chol

{{Short description|Pseudonymous North Korean freelance journalist}} {{family name hatnote|Ahn||lang=Korean}} {{Infobox person | name = Ahn Chol | birth_date = {{birth based on age as of date|28|2000|8|3}} | known_for = ''Children of the Secret State'' | module = {{Infobox Korean name/auto | hangul = %안철 | child = yes}} }}

'''Ahn Chol''' ({{Korean|hangul=안철}}; born 1971 or 1972) is the pseudonym of a North Korean freelance journalist who shot the footage for the film ''Children of the Secret State'', a movie about the condition of orphans in North Korea.<ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.dailynk.com/korean/keys/2000/8/03.php | script-title=ko:기고: 인도적 지원이 '비밀경찰의 부활', '김정일의 세습'을 후원하고 있다 | work = Daily NK | date = 3 August 2000 | accessdate = 21 April 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140423061101/http://www.dailynk.com/korean/keys/2000/8/03.php | archive-date = 2014-04-23 | url-status = dead }}</ref> He won the Rory Peck Award in 2001 for his work.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.rorypecktrust.org/ | title = The Rory Peck Trust: Awards 2001 | accessdate = 2006-12-19 | publisher = The Rory Peck Trust | archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20061205052136/http://rorypecktrust.org/| archivedate= 5 December 2006 | url-status= live}} </ref>

==Life== Ahn Chol initially released a VHS of the Jangmadang in Hoeryeong in September 1998.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2000/11/26/2000112670462.html|title=[NK리포트] 탈북인이 최근 촬영한 북한 장마당 풍경|date=2000-11-26|publisher=The Chosun Ilbo}}</ref> Ahn Chol first spoke with the Korean press in September 1998, to the newspaper Hankyoreh. In the interview he spoke about the footage he leaked of Kotjebis, which was included in Korean Broadcasting System's 1998 documentary. He smuggled the videotape out of North Korea by hiding it inside a pack of cigarettes.<ref name="hankyoreh">{{cite web|url=http://legacy.h21.hani.co.kr/h21/data/L990301/1p94310s.html|script-title=ko:꽃제비 알리는 데 목숨 걸었다|publisher=Hankyoreh 21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/View/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0000223369|script-title=ko:탈북자 다큐 '서울행 기차'를 아시나요?|date=2004-11-29|publisher=OhmyNews}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|reason=See reliable sources list on WP:KO/RS|date=August 2025}} Ahn Chol revealed he was a worker in a factory while living in North Korea and defected from North Korea in 1997, having lost his parents and relatives during the famine. He risked going back to capture the aforementioned footage.<ref name="hankyoreh"/>

==See also== {{Portal|North Korea}} *Bandi (writer) - North Korean pseudonymous writer

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahn, Chol}} Category:1970s births Category:Living people Category:North Korean journalists Category:20th-century North Korean writers Category:21st-century North Korean writers Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers Category:21st-century pseudonymous writers Category:Year of birth missing (living people)