Apparently, we have our answer.

***UPDATE: SIGN THE PETITION HERE.***

Recently, as the world knows, Kim Jong-Un succeeded his father as the leader of North Korea.  We all waited with baited breath to see how he intended to rule.  Ladies and gentlemen, we have our answer.

In December, I visited Korea's Demilitarized Zone, and got to peer across the border into North Korea itself.  What I saw broke my heart for the people who live there.  

We've all heard of the few who speak out and make their ways to other countries, gaining refugee status.  Unfortunately, North Korea and China are not honoring this status, "even though North Korea joined the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and inserted additional ‘respects and protections of human rights’ article into the constitution", and the "Chinese government agreed to the UN’s Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and the UN Resolution on the Situation of Human Rights in the DPRK stipulates ‘the principle of non-refoulement’ that the North Korean defectors seeking asylum should not be put back to dangerous situation." (Quoted from the article below.)

A single voice can be drowned out with plugged ears, but the voice of the many cannot be quelled.  Let me suggest a plan of action:

1. Read the article below, then post it to any and all social media sites to which you have access.
2. Join with the families of the arrested refugees, whether by mirroring their abstinence from food and drinks, abstaining from something else that these refugees are no longer allowed, setting aside a certain time for prayer for them each day, some combination of these things, or something entirely different.  These people are scared and feeling unheard right now.  Let them know they're not alone.
3. Correspond with your representatives and senators.   (A simple copy-paste of the plee below should do just fine.)  It's an election year in the U.S.; our voices travel further than they usually do.  As such, you could even go all the way to write to the president.  He's made a big show of his camaraderie with South Korea, demand that he stand by that now.  (The White House online correspondence asks for a limit of 2,500 characters, so I would recommend copying and pasting the first three paragraphs of the plee, and then pasting in "As refugees, these people are entitled to protection  under UN Resolution on the Situation of Human Rights.  This situation cannot be allowed to continue.  For more information, please visit http://tinyurl.com/SaveRefugees." Make sure you select "We the People - Petitions" in the subject line. I made sure I requested a response. That is up to you.)
4. Boycott all products from China. Look for the label. Nothing speaks louder than your money.

Let's not be the generation that stood aside and let massive slaughterings of people happen AGAIN.  It is a cycle that keeps repeating.  We ask our grandparents why it took so long for America to respond to Nazi death camps.  We ask our parents why it took so long for America to respond to the situation in Rwanda.  For what will we be known?

Every human life is intrinsically priceless.  Please read the article below, as copied from the blog Ask a Korean, and take action.

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First, a little bit of background. As Kim Jong-Un attempts to consolidate his power in North Korea, one of the new regime's focus has been arresting as many North Koreans in China as possible. Right now, North Korea has sent into China a task force of covert agents numbering in the thousands -- a scale simply unprecedented -- who would pretend to be North Korean defectors, only to rat out true defectors to the Chinese police. The Chinese police arrests these defectors and repatriate them back to North Korea. Once back in North Korea, these defectors will face near certain deaths in gulags out of hard labor and starvation. Recently, there was an arrest of 28 North Korean defectors in China, who will be repatriated back to North Korea in just a few days. Right now, even as we speak, these defectors are essentially facing a death penalty if they are sent back to North Korea. Some of the defectors' families in South Korea (who defected before this group of defectors) are pleading that if these defectors are to be sent back to North Korea, they are better off killing themselves in the Chinese prison.

Mr. Joo Seong-Ha, whom regular readers of this blog would know well, decided to do something about this situation. Below is his plea regarding this issue, translated into English. Mr. Joo is hoping that the social services networks worldwide would be plastered with this message, so that the Chinese government would hopefully think twice before condemning North Korean defectors to certain death.

The Korean knows that a lot of AAK! readers came to this blog because of the peerless insight of Mr. Joo. If you learned anything new about North Korea thanks to one of his posts, you owe him -- and now is your chance to return the favor. It will not take much to put up this message on Facebook, Twitter, LinkdIn, or any other social network to which you belong. Please, please carry this message forward. You may end up saving lives. Thank you.

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Our appeal to the Chinese government and the international community for help. Please stop the repatriation of North Korean defectors! Forced repatriation is ultimately a death sentence.


Please help save the lives of North Korean defectors who are about to be repatriated by The Public Security Bureau of China. The defectors including minors are crying out for help, saying they’d rather die in China than be repatriated. Please help us stop the inhumane repatriation by the Chinese government. Compulsory repatriation will only result in cruel torture, persecution, and public execution. We ask the Chinese government and the global community to help in our effort to protect the human rights and save the lives of the innocent. 

From February 8th to the 13th, 28 North Korean defectors were arrested by the Public Security Bureau agents in three cities near the Chinese border. The first group had 10 people (4 men and 6 women) arrested in Shenyang, the second group consisted of 9 people arrested in Yian-ji, and the third group had 12 people arrested in Changchun. Reportedly, the 10 people detained in Shenyang contacted with their family in South Korea by the phone. 

The refugees escaped from North Korea for many different reasons. They had to suffer extended period of financial crisis, wide-spread starvation, electric power shortage, ‘guilt-by-association’ political system, absence of freedom of speech, travel or relocation, and violence against women and children. Some refugees escaped from the prison camps, while others left their country to meet with their families who had settled in South Korea. Most of the refugees want to come to South Korea but a few of them want to start a new life in other countries like the United States, the U.K. and Canada. 

The arrested defectors will go through 7 to 10 days of investigation before their repatriation. Therefore, the 10 people arrested in Shenyang are now facing immediate deportation. For a decade, the Chinese Bureau of Public Security has postponed the repatriation until the international community diverts their attention to other issues, and has so far repatriated over 10,000 refugees. The Chinese government is now evading negotiation on this matter with ambiguous answers, saying they cannot confirm the arrest of 28 North Koreans.

Recently, the North Korean government ordered a harsher crackdown on escapees during the 100 days of mourning period for Kim Jong-Il. After repatriation, the defectors will be sent to political prisoner camps and their chances of public execution are imminent. In the prison camp, their human rights of will be cruelly abused as they are subject to forced labor, involuntary abortion, physical violence, sexual assault, public execution, torture, medical experiment and lack of hygienic care. Even though North Korea joined the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and inserted additional ‘respects and protections of human rights’ article into the constitution, it has never followed or adhered to any of the rules. 

Most of the refugees want to come to South Korea, and many of them have families already residing in South Korea. For instance, one of the refugees under arrest is a teenager boy who does not have any family or relatives in North Korea but has a brother and a sister in South Korea. In this case, he is a full citizen of South Korea and the South Korean government has the right to ask the Chinese government to send him to South Korea. 

Kim Jong-un and his government must admit the sovereign default and the abuse of human rights of its citizens. As a leader, Kim should help promote the well-being of his citizens rather than promote the death of his people.

North Korean defectors left their country due to poverty, autocracy, and many other political reasons. So, their escape from North Korea and their desire to settle in South Korea prove that they qualify for the status of refugee or asylum seeker prescribed by the international law. The Chinese government agreed to the UN’s Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and the UN Resolution on the Situation of Human Rights in the DPRK stipulates ‘the principle of non-refoulement’ that the North Korean defectors seeking asylum should not be put back to dangerous situation. Therefore, the Chinese government must stop the forced repatriation and allow the refugees to continue their lives in other countries.

In an effort to show their opposition to North Korea, the families of the arrested refugees are abstaining from food and drinks, and appealing to the Chinese government while also trying to reach out to the international community. In one extreme case, a father of an arrested female refugee stated that he would rather have his own daughter killed by poison than taken back to North Korea. Her repatriation will only lead to indefinite torture eventually ending with public execution. 

We urge the Chinese government to protect the basic human rights and the lives of all human beings. Also, we encourage the Chinese government to understand and realize the importance of freedom and democracy for all people. Repatriation will cause long and painful suffering to the family members of the refugees. Tens of thousands of people in North and South are already feeling guilty as they failed to save their family. Please help us stop this pain and injustice. 

We appeal to all the people of conscience around the world, including worldwide news media, governments, leaders, and organizations. Please raise public awareness of the North Korean refugee crisis and the devastating effect of the Chinese government’s unjust repatriation. Please help save the lives of North Korean defectors. Show your love for humanity! 

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

***UPDATE: SIGN THE PETITION HERE.***

Korea's Demilitarized Zone (a follow up post)

Everything I saw during my visit to the DMZ has been percolating inside me.  The more I think about it, the more it breaks my heart.  I'm sure you could tell that based on my last posting about it... I wasn't exactly working to keep it a secret.

My friend Joshua and were talking today, and he showed me a trailer for a movie that came out here this past July (linked to the title).  It's getting ready to release in the U.S. with English subtitles.  It's all about the war that has been plaguing this little peninsula for the last 70 years.  I would highly recommend watching both the title-link and the trailer below, then taking yourself and anyone for whom it would be suitable to see this film.  Not only does it look very well done, I think it will voice my feelings on the subject better than I can.

As I said to Joshua, I feel like this war has captured my soul.  It's constantly there, on the edges of my mind, begging me to help in any way I can.  Currently, I have no idea how to help, so I'm doing the one thing that I know generally helps: I'm spreading the word.

Go see the movie; I pray that it wil break your heart too.

The one I've been really excited about posting, but kept putting off because I've knew it would take at least an hour to write... AKA: my family's trip to the DMZ.

(Believe it or not, I've had no caffeine today... mostly because I had three coffee dates with three different groups of people two days ago, and, well, I can still feel the affects... especially when I watch videos about caffeination.)

Okay.  I really am excited about this.  I've been secretly working on this post since 2011 (Dec. 31).  The short story is that on December 31, instead of getting drunk and making things explode, like the rest of the world, my family decided (well, I decided, and my family decided not to rock the boat) to go visit the front lines of a war (The Korean Demilitarized Zone) that's been waging for the past 70 years.  Yup.  70.  That's the very cold, calus version of what happened.  Here's how it happened in my head/heart:

We spent the night in Seoul, sot that we wouldn't have to get up even more insanely early to get to the USO in time.  As it was, I was incredibly stressed, trying to make sure we got there before they started turning people away.  I think I upset my family, but I hope they understood why I was so stressed.  They joked later about it, and how they were calm, because they couldn't understand the cabbie saying he had no idea where he was going, whereas I did... so I think they are chill about it now.
I felt a little awkward taking this picture, as I did about all the pictures we took while smiling on this trip, but I was so happy to be sharing this experience with my family, and I realized that the last family photo we got was in... maybe '09???... so I knew we needed some more... preferably with us looking happy to be around each other.

In between many successive games of Catan and our briefing from the military, I got picture number one of my whole family.  We were all tired, but I think it turned out pretty well.

The military personelle encouraged us to take many pictures and videos during the briefing, but asked us to turn off our flashes, as they had to memorize their spiel verbatim.  The way they talked about it, it sounded like they were trying to tell us that there was a lot more to the story than what they were allowed to tell us (duh).  I couldn't help but note that I never heard a cause for this war, and I never heard a cause to most of the fighting incidents between North and South Korea.  This is where my agitation began in the trip.  It grew throughout the day - a continual frustration at a war separating families and friends, all over what seems to be the selfish desires of some political leaders.  Why must our governments think only of themselves and rarely represent the people?

I'm including this photo, as we were never allowed to photograph Taesongdong (or anything on the South side of the DMZ, really), because it is such an important part of the DMZ.  Both North and South Korea are allowed a village within the DMZ, but the purposes of these villages are as vastly different as the political strategies of each side.  The people whose lineages are from Taesongdong are allowed to maintain a residence within the village.  There is a strict 10pm curfew, and residents must spend somewhere in the order of 340 nights a year within the village (students are granted an exception).  Failure to comply results in the immediate removal of your nuclear family.  Women may marry into the village, but men may not.  Students are given full scholarships to attend any university in Korea (this is a HUGE deal).  This is a major show of faith on the part of South Korea.
(I will write about the North Korean village in a little bit.)

Our guide/guard, Pfc. Futch, was both informative and entertaining, exactly the right combination to keep me from getting to introverted on this trip, and leaving feeling entirely frustrated/depressed.  He expressed an interested in attempting to transfer to Germany, so I spent some time talking with him about what to expect there.  It was nice to find someone else excited about that place.  I think the best part, though, was that he kept us feeling safe the whole time we were there, despite the fact that we were staring down a member of the Korean People's Army (North Korea) the whole time.

We were so close to North Korea... it sends little shivers down my spine, thinking about it.  Would this man kill me, given the chance?  Most likely.  I'm having trouble finding words to express the sadness-thrill-fear mix that is engulfing my stomach right now.  So I will here reiterate my constant desire for the world to see that peace cannot come from violence.  And I will voice for you your "broken world" counterargument, and we can all move forward.

Republic of Korea (ROK) (South Korea) soldiers face off with a KPA soldier in their modified taekwando stance and dark aviator sunglasses, designed specifically to prevent their showing any emotion toward their North Korean counterparts.
While observing this, I couldn't help but reflect back on my many Civil War class lessons, and the discussion of brother-on-brother fighting.  How many families are forced to fight and kill each other because of this war?  How many lives are ripped apart?  How could this possibly be worth it?

Momma, me, and Daddy in at the Joint Security Area (JSA), yards from the North Korean line.

This table marks the North Korean line, within a South-Korean-controlled building (so it's still technically South Korean).  I (and a lot of other people) did, however, get a bit excited about crossing the line "into" North Korea.

These posts mark the line over which we CANNOT stray.  Don't be fooled, it's heavily guarded by posts and checkpoints along the way.

Kijongdong, the North Korean village within the DMZ, more commonly referred to as  Propoganda Village.  Atop the 525-foot Tower flies a Democratic People's Republic of Korea flag, weighing in right around 600 pounds.  This flag is so heavy that it must be lowered in storms, or else it will tear under its own weight.
The major difference between Kijongdong and Taesongdong are the requirements to live within the villages.  While Taesongdong is rather strict, the rules to live in Kijongdong are rather simple, surprisingly enough.  From what I can tell, here is the one rule: DON'T.  After several defection incidents, North Korean citizens are no longer allowed this far south in their country.
So why the village at all?  Well, that answer lies within it nickname.  For many years, vast amounts of propaganda about the wonder of North Korea blared, deafeningly loud, from a speaker in Kijongdong, eight to ten hours a day, encouraging their neighbors in Taesongdong to defect to the "wonderfully prosperous village."  Those who did would be unknowingly met with a sickening surprise: The village is nothing but an expensive, vast Hollywood set.  The buildings are hollow, with painted on doors and windows.  A few buildings have actual holes for windows, so the South Koreans could see lights within them.  This plan is actually what proved their lack of floors, as the light is very bright at the top of the building and gradually gets more dim on the way down.  No, the only thing that would be there to welcome these defectors are KPA military, no doubt to interrogate and kill them, on accusations of espionage.  (Call me biased, but I dare you to prove me wrong.)

This is a memorial, marking the spot where Captain Arthur Bonifas (for whom the U.S. military base is named) and one of his men were brutally axed to death by KPA soldiers.  The event, known as the Axe-Murder Incident, revolved around the removal of a tree that had grown so tall as to block off some rather crucial sight-lines between two check points, one of which included a bridge between North and South Korea.  This apparently seemed like a crucial piece of strategy to the KPA soldiers, as they attacked in a swarm to prevent its removal.

This is the aforementioned bridge, also known a The Bridge of No Return.  There was a decent-sized POW exchange here, in which the POWs were told to pick a side, but, after they did, they would never again be allowed to cross the line.  I can't help but break for those people.  Again, there are so many families broken in half by this line.  How do you chose which part of your family to never see again?

Between this picture and the last, my dad and I opted to join the group touring the "3rd Tunnel."  A series of tunnels were found, leading from North Korea, under the DMZ, and surfacing, each about an hour away from Seoul.  We went all the way down to the North Korean line, where we could peer through a window, cut in on of the three walls now blocking the two sides.  In case that's not enough to stop someone, there's also a considerable amount of razor wire, and I'm pretty sure there are explosives.
There are four tunnels reported to be found, and about sixteen that are reported to be unfound, but I have a hard time believing that they still unknowns.  Maybe I have too much faith in our military, but I'm willing to bet that they were all found within a month or two of the first one.  Whether or not the military wants to report that is on them, but I know I wouldn't.  That's just bad strategy.

The photo above was taken at Dorasan Station, the last operating South Korean station before North Korea.  There used to be another one, further North, but the DPRK abused it, and so it was shut down.  I can't help but be excited about this station.  One day, when Korea is unified again (and I firmly believe it will be), this station will connect Busan (the Southern-most train station in Korea) to Lodon.  I fully intend on traveling the whole length of these tracks within my lifetime.

One day, I will show this picture to my grandchildren, as so many grandparents showed us their pictures of the Berlin Wall.  I will tell them how so many people thought that the cities down these tracks were closed of forever, and I will tell my grandchildren how those people were wrong.  I will tell them how my fingers were not a "V for Victory," but a sign of peace, my hope for the future and the legacy I want to leave behind.

Family portrait number two - at the crossroads of Korea.

Pray for peace.  L-rd knows, this world so desperately needs it.