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A man who fled North Korea says Donald Trump's second summit with Kim Jong-un will only serve to "legitimise the regime" in the country.

Gim Gyu Min escaped from the North in 1999 after he dropped out of university and destroyed ballot boxes ahead of an upcoming election.

His actions had led to him being handed the death penalty and two weeks before his execution date he managed to escape by walking and stealing his way onto trains towards China.

Mr Gim, now a film director in South Korea, told the Standard: “I don’t think it’s going to matter what kind of result is going to come out of the summit.

"No matter what the result is coming out of the summit, because the human rights issue will not be mentioned, I don’t see any hope of the lives of North Koreans improving and basically nothing is going to change for the people.

“This is just going to legitimise the regime more and the misery of the people in North Korea will continue the same.”

The film director started listening to South Korean radio broadcasts from the age of 13 and said it “opened my mind to the fact that North Korea was totally different compared to the rest of the world.”

When he decided to drop out of university, his parents were banished to the countryside and Mr Gim was sent away to do manual labour.

It was then, twenty years ago, at the age of 25, that Mr Gim broke some ballot boxes ahead of the elections.

"I was so resentful against the government, I decided to act out in terms of my resentment against the regime.

“Because of that crime, showing resentment and resisting the government, I was a targeted man. I was put in prison and escaped from the prison. There was actually a death sentence on me. About two weeks before I was meant to be executed, I managed to flee into China.”

Mr Gim now creates movies based on issues that he had viewed first hand in North Korea, and human rights are a big focus.

His new film The Gift of Love focuses on the story of a wife of an invalid war veteran who is forced into prostitution for cash. When she loses her main income of work, she tells her family colourful stories of meeting Kim Jong-Un.

The film has been screened at locations around the world including London and New York. However Mr Gim says it is hard to get his film shown in South Korea.

He said: “Because the current political climate in South Korea is so progressive and so geared towards approaching North Korea, anything that has to do with human rights, for me as a filmmaker with a defector background, everything is difficult, not only finding investors but trying to find a theatre to screen my films.

“As long as the current progressive leftist government in South Korea remains in power it will be nearly impossible for me to make a film and get it distributed and show it in South Korea.”

However Mr Gim says he will continue to make films “until the day of reunification between North and South Korea.”

“I have to hope that some day soon people in North Korea will be able to see my films.”

Mr Gim says that he hopes his films will be a “avenue to tell people about North Korea.”

“However as long as Kim Jong-Un stays in power and he doesn’t truly change his ways, then the suffering of people in North Korea will continue.

"Human rights is the only way to improve the lives of people in North Korea.”