Such a bittersweet story. It's amazing how this family of four managed to survive a six day, 900 km (roughly 560 mi) journey in a small boat.
"It took a week for us to come here for freedom," they said. "We headed for Japan since South Korea and North Korea have strong security on their borders. We planned to kill ourselves with the poison if we were caught by the North. We want to go to South Korea."
Dude. That's what you call determination. I can't imagine...floating in a teeny boat on the sea for six days straight, with no real guarantee that I'd even make it to any safe shore. And then to carry a bottle of poison with me, in case I decided that my trip had failed.
Bittersweet.
Sweet because it makes me more grateful that I live here, where I have so many freedoms...even if my every action online is being watched, recorded, analyzed. That's so miniscule compared to fleeing for my life, compared to floating aimlessly in a small boat, not knowing if the rest of my family or I would make it out alive.
Bitter because the reality is that there are so many people left behind on the northern half of the Korean peninsula, so many more who will never live to see anything outside of North Korea, so many more who will die miserable deaths after having lived miserable lives.
Yet all I do is sit here and type away at my laptop...
3 comments:
Grateful indeed - sometimes I fall into the comforts of living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, if not the wealthiest, wallowing in a standard of living that trumps most of the world...definitely puts things into perspective.
good job. nice focus. tons of info.
A
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