Skip to content

'Why did you leave me behind?'

Songmi defected from North Korea 10 years after her mother left her behind there.

They reunited in Seoul - where Songmi, for the first time, asked her mother why she left without her.

6 April 2023

North Korean defectors

Explore More

Maori man with traditional tattoos

Watch: New Zealand's Māori protests explained

MP ripping up bill as others join in on haka

Moment MP leads haka to disrupt New Zealand parliament

Road blows up in North Korea

Moment North Korea blows up roads connecting to South Korea

Ratan Tata interview to the BBC from 1997

From the archives: Ratan Tata's interview from 1997

Ratan Tata

India's Ratan Tata: in his own words

Asteroid in night sky

Moment small asteroid lights up night sky in Philippines

Kanailal Hait, an elderly Indian man who survived the 1943 Bengal famine, wearing a white kurta and yellow scarf

'We survived a brutal famine in British India'

Prawit Wongsuwon hits female reporter on the head

Watch: Thai MP to be investigated for slapping reporter

Supermoon seen over the Temple of Poseidon

Supermoon lights up the sky around the world

Split screen of protest and protest participant

Kolkata night protest: 'Today I witnessed history'

Women protesting, holding flags and candles

Watch: Thousands of women protest about rape and murder of doctor in India

Samira Hussain in Dhaka

How students are keeping Dhaka's traffic flowing

Bangladesh PM's palace

Watch: Bangladesh protesters storm prime minister's palace

Heavily flooded street in Taiwan

Watch: People rescued as Typhoon floods shops and streets

Plumes of black smoke rise from a shopping centre. Fire is visible on the side of the building.

Watch: Huge fire engulfs 14-storey shopping centre in China

Firdda Marsya Kurnia, vocalist and guitarist for Voice of Baceprot, inside a recording studio

BBC talks to Voice of Baceprot ahead of Glastonbury set

CCTV of battery stacks emitting smoke on factory floor

Footage shows moment deadly S Korea factory fire breaks out

Lunar probe in a field, next to Chinese flag and with helicopter in bacground

Moment China's lunar probe lands back on Earth

Red circle around man in life jacket holding knife, in a group of people on a boat

Watch: Chinese coast guard clashes with Filipino navy

Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un standing inside a black Mercedes car

Grandeur, gifts and performances as Putin visits North Korea

Man runs from tiger behind gate

Chinese farmer has near miss with tiger

Surveillance footage captures the moment a Siberian tiger rams into a gate just after it was closed.

BBC China correspondent Stephen McDonell is interrupted by an irate man during a news report after a car attack in Zhuhai, China

Watch: BBC China reporter pushed away from filming at car attack scene

Watch: BBC China correspondent ordered to stop filming and pushed at car attack scene

Column of dark ash against blue sky

Indonesia's Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki spews giant column of ash

New volcanic eruptions have spread fresh panic among residents on the island of Flores.

Shenzhou-18 astronaut waving in space gear

Watch Chinese space crew return to Earth

Three astronauts from the Shenzhou-18 mission landed in north China after six months aboard the Tiangong space station.

One plane at Taoyuan Airport failed its initial landing amid the strong winds.

Plane fails to land amid fierce typhoon in Taiwan

A plane at Taoyuan Airport was forced to abort its initial landing amid strong winds.

The Shenzhou 19 spacecraft lifting off, bright lights and smoke come from underneath

Watch: China spacecraft launches in mission to space station

The Shenzhou 19 spacecraft is taking three taikonauts to China's space station, Tiangong.

Mini the monkey

Moment BBC reporter returns tortured monkey into wild

Mini was rescued after a BBC Eye investigation that exposed a global online monkey torture ring.

Anton stands in partially renovated Japanese home

Meet the Tiktokers buying up Japan’s empty homes

Content creators are going viral for renovating abandoned Japanese homes for low prices - but is all as it seems?

Elephants wade through floodwaters at sanctuary

Watch: Elephants escape floodwaters in Thailand

The elephants were evacuated from flash flooding at a sanctuary near Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Building collapses into flooded river in India

Watch: Building collapses into river in India

No-one was injured in the incident, which occurred during heavy rains in Bihar state.

Woman holding her head with Yogita Limaye

BBC meets women suffering under Taliban’s new law

The BBC hears from women who have seen their rights crushed since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.

Hamdullah Fitrat

Taliban defends new law that curbs women's freedoms

A Taliban government spokesman says the edict is in accordance with Islamic Sharia law.

Child lying on bed in Afghan hospital

Inside Afghanistan hospital where babies are dying of starvation

The BBC reports from inside Jalalabad hospital in Afghanistan, as malnutrition is ravages the country.

Pope Francis wears traditional headwear during his visit to Vanimo

Pope Francis welcomed in remote Vanimo in Papua New Guinea

In Vanimo, a town near the border with Indonesia, the Pope donned a traditional Bird of Paradise feathered headdress.

Red and white plane starts to rise after aborting landing on airport runway

Planes abort landings as Typhoon Shanshan batters Japan

The country has been hit by one of its strongest typhoons in decades, with authorities issuing highest alert.

A person on a motorcycle rides underneath a poll that has fallen and is resting on a house

Watch as Typhoon Shanshan wreaks havoc in Japan

Japan has been hit by one of its strongest typhoons in decades

Fireball at Chinese port

Chinese port rocked by huge container ship blast

Surveillance footage captured the moment of the explosion at Ningbo-Zhoushan Port in Zhejiang.

Building collapsing into river

Watch: Moment building collapses into river in India

No-one was injured in the incident, which took place in Himachal Pradesh, due to heavy rainfall.

Emergency workers examine the charred wreck of a plane

Watch: Emergency workers pick through wreckage of Nepal plane crash

A clean-up operation is underway after a plane crashed during takeoff in Kathmandu, Nepal, killing at least 18 people.

Waterspout off the Philippine coast seen from a distance

Waterspout spotted off Philippines coast

Footage shows the column of air and water near Misamis Oriental province on Thursday.