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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Escaping North Korea |
| 2006-05-12 |
| by Melanie Kirkpatrick, Wall Street Journal EFL, go read it all; it's heartbreaking. Old habits die hard--especially those whose disregard could mean death. So it is understandable that the North Korean refugees with whom I met this week set strict ground rules for our interview: no names, no photographs, no indication of their location in the U.S., and no identifying details of the Southeast Asian nation whose government risked the ire of China to permit them to depart for asylum in this country after they sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy there. "Hannah" and "Naomi" are the noms de liberté of the women who were willing to savor a taste of their new freedom by meeting an American journalist. Even so, they remain fearful for the safety of the families they have left behind in North Korea. The relatives of defectors can simply disappear--sent to the gulag or worse. "North Korea has many spies," says Naomi, through an interpreter. Even, it went unstated, in this country. The women's new names were bestowed on them by Chun Ki-won, the South Korean pastor whose underground railroad led them, and four others, thousands of miles across China to sanctuary in Southeast Asia this spring. . . . Pastor Chun is a man of "miracles," the women say. Their own particular miracle is to have stepped off a plane in this country late last Friday, the first refugees to enter the U.S. under asylum rules set up under the 2004 North Korean Human Rights Act. Naomi, Hannah and the four compatriots who traveled with them had spent years in virtual servitude in northeast China, along the North Korean border. Hannah and Naomi are willing to share their stories, but first they wish to make a statement. Hannah settles herself in her chair, opens a small notebook, and reads in Korean the words she has prepared: "Before we begin this interview, I want to thank God for bringing us to this land of dreams. We sincerely thank President George Bush and the American government for letting us enter as refugees." She bows slightly, closes her notebook, and prepares to relive her ordeal. . . . |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #4 MAOISM or MAO-IST SOCIALISM promised great things to the people, until Mao himself started following Jozef Stalin. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-05-12 21:20 |
| #3 I hope that someday they can be reunited with their children. How terribly sad! |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2006-05-12 12:24 |
| #2 And the they will pin the deaths on Bush'es 'failed policies' and on the victims themselves for even thinking of leaving the 'workers paradise'... Read the article... it is heardbreaking and a story which should be told. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2006-05-12 08:53 |
| #1 Don't let the speak to anyone on the House or Senate Intelligence committees. USA Today will have their pictures on the front page and they'll be dead by week's end. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-05-12 08:03 |