Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Wall of containment
I was watching a History channel program called "Escaping North Korea". In NK people are starving and don't even have enough to eat.The program showed people eating from whatever scraps they could find in the dumps and streets. During a recent famine over 2 million people died.
It is a wall of "darkness"! How good can a place good be if you need to use force to keep people from leaving! We are meant to live in liberty and have life in abundance.
The NK-SK border is impossible to cross given the 700k NK soldiers and 400k SK soldiers at either side of the border with a 40km of demilitarized zone in between. The documentary showed how people had to risk their lives to cross the North Korea-China border. They have to bribe the NK side to come across to China. And once in China they are at risk of being caught and deported back to NK. Lots of young N Korean women often come over looking for a better job but only to enter a life of prostitution.
Once in China many of the escapees are lost for work and risk deportation. But there exist a Christian ministry to help bring such escapees to SK. These fugitives learn about the ministry while in China and contact them in SK via the Internet. Through the Christian network, they are housed in Shenyang and be trained for the ordeal. The escapees had to take a 36 hour train ride from Shenyang to Beijing, then to Kunming. On the train they risk arrest and sit in different cabins to avoid detection and try not to speak as they have no valid travel documents.
Once they are in Kunming, the smugglers then help them to cross the Laos-China border through the thickest of jungle. This will take over a day with leeches clinging to your skin. There are border guards surveillance to avoid. Then they hop on an arranged mini-bus and head for the Mekong river. This is a whole day trip. If they are caught, they will be deported by the Laotian government to NK and likely to be executed. Only the Thai government allows asylum.
To cross from Laos in Thailand, they have to go in a canoe to cross the Mekong river. Once in Thailand they are safe. They will go to the S Korean embassy where they will be granted asylum.
I guess no matter how ill-fated we may feel, I believe there are many worse off than us. Post-war South Korea was in ruins. But it was God who raised the nation up into what it is today and used great men of God like Ps.Cho Yonggi to evangelize S.Korea during those difficult times. S Korea has now probably one of the highest number of Christians in Asia.
It is a wall of "darkness"! How good can a place good be if you need to use force to keep people from leaving! We are meant to live in liberty and have life in abundance.
The NK-SK border is impossible to cross given the 700k NK soldiers and 400k SK soldiers at either side of the border with a 40km of demilitarized zone in between. The documentary showed how people had to risk their lives to cross the North Korea-China border. They have to bribe the NK side to come across to China. And once in China they are at risk of being caught and deported back to NK. Lots of young N Korean women often come over looking for a better job but only to enter a life of prostitution.
Once in China many of the escapees are lost for work and risk deportation. But there exist a Christian ministry to help bring such escapees to SK. These fugitives learn about the ministry while in China and contact them in SK via the Internet. Through the Christian network, they are housed in Shenyang and be trained for the ordeal. The escapees had to take a 36 hour train ride from Shenyang to Beijing, then to Kunming. On the train they risk arrest and sit in different cabins to avoid detection and try not to speak as they have no valid travel documents.
Once they are in Kunming, the smugglers then help them to cross the Laos-China border through the thickest of jungle. This will take over a day with leeches clinging to your skin. There are border guards surveillance to avoid. Then they hop on an arranged mini-bus and head for the Mekong river. This is a whole day trip. If they are caught, they will be deported by the Laotian government to NK and likely to be executed. Only the Thai government allows asylum.
To cross from Laos in Thailand, they have to go in a canoe to cross the Mekong river. Once in Thailand they are safe. They will go to the S Korean embassy where they will be granted asylum.
I guess no matter how ill-fated we may feel, I believe there are many worse off than us. Post-war South Korea was in ruins. But it was God who raised the nation up into what it is today and used great men of God like Ps.Cho Yonggi to evangelize S.Korea during those difficult times. S Korea has now probably one of the highest number of Christians in Asia.
