by Divya Kumar
News Editor
Little is known to us in America about the situation in
North Korea, the most isolated country in the world. On Friday, Feb. 26th, members of the Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) association came to the high school to speak to IB students about the perils of this secretive country.
Members of this organization emailed out several schools, asking to come speak to students regarding the situation. IB sponsor Jeb Puryear was one of the many emailed, and organized the event at the school. Due to the sheer haste of the whole situation, the presentation wasn’t able to be shown to the entire school.
“It’s not every day that you get someone that’s so in tuned with such an important issue come to talk,” Puryear said. “I saw it as a good opportunity for people to learn.”
The presentation started off with the airing of a National Geographic video, which showed what life in North Korea was like, secretly taped by reporters who traveled to the country under the facade of being doctors. Shocking images were shown – such as the perils that certain citizens must go through to escape and life for those who are unfaithful to the dictator of the country, Kim Jong Il.
“[The video] was actually one of the more eye-opening things I’ve ever seen,” IB junior Jeanne Feng said. “After the doctors performed 10,000 eye-surgeries, the first thing that the people would do was walk up to the picture of Kim Jong Il and thank him profusely, rather than thanking the doctor. Some of the things we saw were so difficult to fathom.”
The video depicted the unwavering loyalty that the North Koreans had towards their leader and the way that most citizens there wouldn’t answer the question as to whether their Great Leader could do anything wrong, not because they didn’t want to – but because they couldn’t even understand such a question.
Following the video, the two LiNK representatives at the school, Leah Garrard and Kat Key, both recent college graduates, explained the program to the students. These “nomads”, as they call themselves, are interns for the program who travel around the country to speak to various colleges and high schools during a 10-week tour to shed light on the North Korean crisis. The current tour started a week before the presentation, so the nomads were rather well-versed in their information.
The organization is founded around not only making people more aware of the situation in North Korea, but also around those of the “stateless children”. These children are the product of North Korean defectors – or refugees – who have fled to China and continued on with their lives. They neither belong to China, since they lack the proper paperwork, or North Korea, for they are no longer purebred, and therefore are deemed “stateless”. These children are placed in shelters, with no hope for future adoption, since it is not an option.
“Life for these children could be so much better if they only had the option of being allowed to be adopted,” Key said. “And that’s what we’re trying to do; since we can’t do anything in China or North Korea, we have to start at home, in the United States.”
The LiNK representatives urged students to write letters to local senators, asking them to pass legislation allowing adoption for these stateless children. Upon the end of the presentation, the floor was open to questions regarding the program. Most questions, it appeared, were centered around starting up a LiNK chapter at the high school, which IB students are now looking forward to doing.
“Since it’s required to do an international project for IB anyways, it would be so cool if we could choose this one for ours next year,” IB junior Lily Choi said. “We’re all aware of the situation and ways to help it, and if everyone votes on it, this is something we could look forward to fundraising for in the future.”
The presentation clearly seemed to succeed in its attempt of having a lasting impact upon the students. IB members, now rallied up, immediately began work towards starting up a chapter. More concrete details are to come up in later months.
“When you’re looking for a humanitarian crisis to help, North Korea has it all – starvation, malnutrition, and more,” Key said. “And it’s almost unheard of and there’s a need for awareness. We exist so that one day the humanitarian crisis in North Korea will not.”
To learn more about LiNK, visit the website http://www.linkglobal.org.
