North Korea Freedom Week is almost over. I was able to get to two of the events, both of which were very interesting. The first day, I went to the Saturday performance of a North Korean in a labor camp. They do it every week starting at 3 PM if you want to drop by and say hi. I met Dan, also from the US, who volunteers there every week. I had a good chance to talk with him and get to know him. He said that one of the main reasons that he came to Korea was that he had studied about the human rights issue a lot while in the US and had taken a small Korean language course. Wanting to go abroad, South Korea seemed like a logical choice. Since he’s been here he’s gone through some language courses and has been participating with Justice for North Korea who puts the performance on.
There was also an opening for the one-week “Ah, the warm country to the south!” gallery. There’s two sections. The first section is dedicated to drawings made by North Korean refugees while waiting to come to South Korea in China. Many of the pictures show the disturbing realities of what went on in their lives. The second section had materials they used when leaving North Korea or getting things back in the country. It’s located on the first floor of the Press Center right next to the Seoul City Hall station and only costs 1000 won. I decided to head there and it was definitely worth the trip. It’s ending today (May 1) so if you’re downtown definitely check it out. Here’s some interesting pics from both the performance and the gallery:
- Insadong
- Insadong
- Marriage between a man from the south and a women from the north
- Saving pictures of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jung Il first
- Electricity
- Girl not wanting her mother to die
- Mother collecting bark
- Cannibalism
- Darkness in North Korea, lit up China
- Letters to family in North Korea hidden on clothes
- Letters to family in North Korea hidden on clothes
- Various items the refugees used to get to South Korea
- Dan in front of the sign for the “Warm country to the South” gallery
Today I went to another event that was part of the North Korea Freedom Week. The student club which facilitates exchange between North and South Koreans at Yonsei University put on a showing of ‘Crossing’ and arranged for the man who the film was based on to come and talk with us. Suzanne Scholte, Chairman of the North Korea Freedom Coalition, also stopped by and talked a little bit before the movie started about the human rights issues. Here’s pics:
After everything was over I had a great opportunity to have dinner with Yong-soo and the Yonsei club that put everything together.
