I think most of you already know Eat Your Kimchi but for the ones who don’t know it’s a blog by Simon and Martina who moved to South Korea and blog about various things like Kpop, life in South Korea and many other things.
Now they have this awesome project to help Liberty in North Korea and I really wanted to help them by sharing this video as much as I can: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9HDVoi6n0g
More info about the project and such can be found here.
If you want to know more about LiNK go here
The past few months I have been reading quite a lot about North Korea because I was curious about what’s going on there and it’s all so shocking. People die of hunger, no freedom of speech, one bad move and you might be send to a prison camp or simply be executed right away.
This topic is not only to help EYK/LiNK but also to have a discussion about North Korea.
But anyway. N Korea’s…existence, is just ridiculous. Like how can there be such a backwards place that still functions in the world. (Arguably, it could be said that it doesn’t, since it’s more or less cut off from the world.)
And I just can’t imagine living there. No rights, no food, no way out? And you probably have no inkling of what exists outside of what the government feeds you. It’s kind of terrifying.
That is scary, the thing is, if you don’t know what exits out there you don’t wish or desire anything else but what you are used to see everyday, like Plato’s metaphor of the cave is the same thing. So I guess they try to prevent people from knowing anything different, I don’t know if better, cause we all have different problems is our own countries, but a person should be able to choose how to live and in what to believe.
Yes that’s true @Niennavalar many don’t know better and people who do better be careful about what they tell others. One bad move and you might be send to prison camp or be executed.
So far I did read the following books: Escape from camp 14 which is about Shin Dong Hyuk who is the first known person who escaped from a total control concentration camp where he was born at and would die too if he didn’t escape. More info The Aquariums of Pyongyang which is about Kang Chol Hwan who first lived in Japan but his family was tricked in going back to North Korea because there it was paradise and everything and eventually his whole family was send to a prison camp for quite a few years. Eyes of the Tailless Animals about Soon Ok Lee who first lived a normal happy life in North Korea with a good job at the government but she ended up in a prison camp unfairly for the simple fact she didn’t accept bribes from an officer who got angry.
Soon I will be able to read Nothing To Envy too, finally, which is about the normal life in North Korea and not about life in those camps which you can find on Google Earth but North Korea still denies they exist.
Wow, thanks for all the info. and yeah i agree with @scircus. its a really messed up place but how can you blame them. All there life they have been taught to live a certain way so in a sense, its normal for them to live that way. its all perspective i guess. but yeah…i honestly hope and pray for those who live in n.korea to be okay because its a terrible thing to live in such a condition.
@Dudie, where can you read these books? We don’t really have this kind of things in a library or a book store here were i live.
By the way, the video is really touching. I always like to know more about north korea. It’s so sad that we live here in liberty but most people don’t appreciate it and in NK they dont have any. I’m really angry sometimes and ask myself why the other countries don’t try to help them. It really can’t be that something like a dictatorship still exists. USA even involved themselves in the arabian world, so why they don’t do anything about North Korea?!!! I really hope that the world tries to help the people there ASAP!
@soo_yun_9 Over here the library did have them in Dutch except Nothing To Envy which I got yesterday for christmas. I mostly buy my English books online at bookdepository or amazon.
I think helping people in North Korea is hard and when the regime falls one day there is this problem that many will have a culture shock. In the books I read so far they have that when they finally escaped. They had to get used to the fact that they have to take care of things themselves unlike in North Korea where some things are taken care of for them.
Yess!! I have so many books about Korea and the North- south conflict at home and it´s so sad…
And really it´s very important but not many people know about it … If you ask somebody about that they only know communism. I think that the North Korea conflict has to be more popular but what can we do about that.
Btw I shared the Link on tumblr … I really want to help and also I am talking with my friends about that. I now it´s not something very big and maybe not very helpful but thats what I can do with 17 years…
Hey ich weiß nicht ob du das bei dir in der Schweiz findest aber ich habe in Deutschland ein paar gefunden die damit zu tun haben . Schau mal vielleicht findest du ja etwas davon…
Martin Guan Djien Chan: Korea, Gegenwart und Zukunft eines geteilten Landes
Du-Yul Song / Rainer Werning: Korea, Von der Kolonie zum geteilten Land
Hanns W. Maull, Ivo M. Maull: Im Brennpunkt Korea
Bernd Stöver: Geschichte des Koreakriegs
Geht halt auch bisschen ins politische auch über aber sind echt gute Bücher
Yeah, I can believe that. I mean they literally do a brainwashing to them in north korea. If the regime ever falls down, they’d have to help the people how to life by themselves. I saw many documentaries and they always just showed the good side of north korea when outsiders came to north korea. There are some swiss people which trying to help and beg them to open their country up. Here, they sell a guided tour to north korea, of course only in the better areas.
Oh danke viel mals!! Werde ich auf jeden fall mal nachschauen! Mich interessiert die Geschickte und Politik von Nord Korea sehr. Würde gern noch mehr darüber erfahren
Geht mir genauso , ich werde mich nach den Ferien auch auf jeden Fall nochmal bei meinem Geschichtslehrer und Politik Lehrer informieren wieso man sowas wichtiges nicht mal in der Schule behandelt. Interessiert mich wirklich sehr . Viel Spaß dir !
Yes strangely enough there are about 4 travel agencies here who offer trips to North Korea and only 1 way overpriced one who offers trips to South Korea. I never wanted to go ‘on holiday’ there and after reading those books I’m kind of like how can you just go there for ‘fun’?! I mean it’s totally controlled and you can’t do anything on your own and you are watched all day. Also they can’t guarantee the travel program since they need to get permission everyday and if not you are stuck in your hotel all day. You need to bring flowers to statues of Kim Il Sung to pay respect and for every picture you make you need permission. One bad move and the guide(s) might be in danger because he/she is responsible for keeping you in check.
You are so right… I saw many pictures and many comparisons between north and south … It is scary. Even if you just look to the windows you can see how bleak living in north korea is. I hope it will change someday and that people wake up and see that there is something really important going on there. you don´t even talk about that in school nobody knows anything about that and I hate it . I have to admit that in Germany the North South conflict in Korea is not even mentioned anywhere except in news very rarely
Yeah I’m agreeing with you. I mean, we had a short introduction to korean history in like 10 minutes in school. I was really sad, but they said it’s not in the plan of learning matter! Oh I was really angry then…
The medias always ingore the problems, so if you ignore it, you won’t think about it and forget it very fast.
