13 Spider Bloody Chain
Grandmaster Knight
So, during club period in school today (an hour in which people hold meetings for various clubs, societies, etc.) one of the Korean seniors decided to bring in a movie called "Seoul Train", a documentary showing the hardships and realities of North Korean refugees fleeing from N. Korea to China and from there hopefully to Mongolia or South Korea. According to the movie:
China considers people running from North Korea to be "illegal immigrants" based on the idea that, since they ran away from their countries illegally and without official papers, they are NOT refugees. This means that China, under its own laws, is obligated to return these "illegal immigrants" back to North Korea, where they are severly punished, tortured, exucuted, and, for pregnant women, brutally forced to abort their baby.
The UN's Refugee protection officials (they're under a branch called UNCPHR or something, I can't remember the name) have tried to intervene, but since China refuses to let them investigate, they cannot properly prove that these North Korean defectors (people who run away) are legitimately refugees. The movie acusses the UN, however, of not pressuring China enough.
Like the American abolitionists of the 19th century, activists helping North Korean defectors have their own Underground Railroad that assissts refugees in getting from (usually) China to other countries like Mongolia.
The film also showed the escape attempts of several groups/families:
One group was led by a South Korean pastor to the Mongolian border, where they were stopped and arrested. The pastor, a teen from the group and her mother were the only ones to get back to South Korea; the rest were sent to North Korea and presumably executed, or at least imprisoned and tortured.
Another group tried to play China's game and brought immigration papers to the Chinese Foreign Ministry building; they also brought protest banners begging for freedom that were quickly confiscated during their immediate arrest (when the guards were shown the papers, they realized that these people were North Korean defectors and thus captured them). This group of 7 people were called the MoFA 7. They were deported to North Korea and presumably executed.
Yet another group tried to find asylum in the Japanese embassies by concocting a plan in which the two males of the group would shove aside the guards while the two women and the toddler ran inside the consulate, hopefully granting them immunity from Chinese guards. During the heat of the plan, however, the men ran inside without shoving aside the guards, resulting in the women getting beaten/captured and even the child injured somewhat. Most fortunately, however, these people gained enough publicity (they were filmed by various people) so that China was pressured into releasing them to South Korea.
This film was especially painful for me to watch; for all I know, some of the people featured in that film might have been a cousin twice removed, or what have you. The fact that these refugees spoke Korean made their desperate and pained speeches all the more agonizing to listen to.
With this said, I'm curious to know what people on this forum think of the civilian situation in North Korea.
China considers people running from North Korea to be "illegal immigrants" based on the idea that, since they ran away from their countries illegally and without official papers, they are NOT refugees. This means that China, under its own laws, is obligated to return these "illegal immigrants" back to North Korea, where they are severly punished, tortured, exucuted, and, for pregnant women, brutally forced to abort their baby.
The UN's Refugee protection officials (they're under a branch called UNCPHR or something, I can't remember the name) have tried to intervene, but since China refuses to let them investigate, they cannot properly prove that these North Korean defectors (people who run away) are legitimately refugees. The movie acusses the UN, however, of not pressuring China enough.
Like the American abolitionists of the 19th century, activists helping North Korean defectors have their own Underground Railroad that assissts refugees in getting from (usually) China to other countries like Mongolia.
The film also showed the escape attempts of several groups/families:
One group was led by a South Korean pastor to the Mongolian border, where they were stopped and arrested. The pastor, a teen from the group and her mother were the only ones to get back to South Korea; the rest were sent to North Korea and presumably executed, or at least imprisoned and tortured.
Another group tried to play China's game and brought immigration papers to the Chinese Foreign Ministry building; they also brought protest banners begging for freedom that were quickly confiscated during their immediate arrest (when the guards were shown the papers, they realized that these people were North Korean defectors and thus captured them). This group of 7 people were called the MoFA 7. They were deported to North Korea and presumably executed.
Yet another group tried to find asylum in the Japanese embassies by concocting a plan in which the two males of the group would shove aside the guards while the two women and the toddler ran inside the consulate, hopefully granting them immunity from Chinese guards. During the heat of the plan, however, the men ran inside without shoving aside the guards, resulting in the women getting beaten/captured and even the child injured somewhat. Most fortunately, however, these people gained enough publicity (they were filmed by various people) so that China was pressured into releasing them to South Korea.
This film was especially painful for me to watch; for all I know, some of the people featured in that film might have been a cousin twice removed, or what have you. The fact that these refugees spoke Korean made their desperate and pained speeches all the more agonizing to listen to.
With this said, I'm curious to know what people on this forum think of the civilian situation in North Korea.