South Korean media reported last October that the number of defectors from North Kore exceeded thirty thousand. The report coincided with my interview with Oh Sung-cheol, who was wrapping up his exhibition in gallery Art World in southwest Seoul.

Titled ‘Strangers on the border,’ it was a group show by Oh and two other artists from North Korea. Wearing thick-rimmed glasses, a checkered shirt under a slightly oversized cardigan, and a pair of jeans, he seems perfectly assimilated. His work, however, raw in color and in presentation, tells a different story.