Tag Archives: escape from North Korea
Sung Kook`s Challenges – A Far Journey
On December 14, 1959, a so-called “Repatriation Ship” set sail from North Niigata in Japan and headed for North Korea. A massive propaganda campaign had, for months, been touting a “Socialist Paradise on Earth,” and this ship was carrying the first of the 93,000 ethnic Korean residents of Japan and Japanese spouses in search of their dreams, their hopes, and even their misgivings about the unknown country where they planned to make their new home. Included among that number were 6,730 Japanese spouses and children.
Price of Freedom Soaring
I Want to See my Daughters as Soon as Possible
By Pak Sung Hee (alias), a Former NK Refugee
I once lived in Chongjin, North Hamgyong. From the 1990’s (the time of the “Arduous March”) through early 2000 we experienced severe starvation. I realized that my whole family would starve to death if something didn’t change, so I crossed the Tumen River into China to bring back food. I bitterly regret, however, that I was never able to make it back to Chongjin where my family was waiting for me.
My father is Japanese, and my mother was an ethnic Korean resident of Japan. Years earlier my parents had believed the propaganda claiming that North Korea was a Paradise on Earth. So, together, they immigrated to North Korea.
Former NK Refugee Starts New Business
LFNKR has helped many North Korean refugees to escape and resettle in Japan. Here is one of those success stories. This young lady attended LFNKR’s recent annual meeting, where she caught us up on her current activities. This report is from the mother of Baby Sumi, now age two (check the links below for more details). Here is a summary of her presentation.