Skip to main content

Open door to N. Koreans (Korea Times, January 16, 2013) by Casey Lartigue, Jr.

Open door to N. Koreans

By Casey Lartigue, Jr.

Last Dec. 12, I fired off an opinion piece of about 1,500 words to the Washington Post. It easily could have been 1,600 words, but I deleted all of the curse words. The day before, I had learned that the United States government had rejected visa applications by three of the students at the Mulmangcho School for North Korean refugee adolescents.

Mulmangcho (meaning, ``forget-me-not”) is a small alternative school located in Yeoju, more than an hour south of Seoul. It opened last September with 11 former North Korean children who are orphans or are disadvantaged in some other way. It was founded by former national assembly member Park Sun-young and a distinguished board of directors.

Why were the youngsters rejected? The explanation I got: 1) The U.S. government is concerned that they might not return to South Korea and 2) there was a question about their refugee status because they didn’t have proper paperwork proving they were from North Korea.

North Korean youngsters first live under the boot of the Kim crime family in the North, punished or executed for daring to escape. Those who escape to or are born in China live as stateless people who cannot legally attend school, work, or visit a hospital. Those who make it here struggle to adapt to South Korean society. For some, the U.S. could represent a clean start.

U.S. policy may be catching up to the problem of North Korea’s stateless children. A bill, ``North Korean Child Welfare Act of 2012,” on protecting ``stateless children” from North Korea is expected to be signed by U.S. President Barack Obama. Many of these children are orphans or stateless because they were orphaned or abandoned in other countries, mainly China (including to mothers who were kidnapped or sold to Chinese men).

The law calls for the secretary of state to facilitate ``immediate protection for those living outside North Korea through family reunification or, if appropriate and eligible in individual cases, domestic or international adoption.”

That’s certainly a good start. But the U.S. government needs to have a laissez-faire policy when it comes to North Korean refugees. Waive the rules that split hairs over terms like ``defector,” ``refugee” or ``asylum seeker.” Let them in.

That was the policy of the U.S. government, welcoming the world’s ``huddled masses,” until 1924 with the exception of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. It is literally life and death for some to escape, as it has been before, and the U.S. government has failed before, too. At a press conference in 1938, U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt was asked, ``Would you recommend a relaxation of our immigration restrictions so that the Jewish refugees could be received in this country?” In a response that should live in infamy, Roosevelt answered, ``This is not in contemplation. We have the quota system.”

The U.S. has a ``system” today, too, as the youngsters at Mulmangcho have learned. America’s immigration bureaucracy has demands for proper “papers, please,” but it is often difficult for North Korean adolescent refugees to produce such documents. The North Korean government didn’t process any paperwork or stamp their passports on the way out.

North Korea won’t let North Koreans go. China won’t let them pass through. The United States government should make it easier for them to find freedom at last.

The writer is the international adviser to the Mulmangcho School for North Korean Adolescent Refugees in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, and a member of the board of trustees of the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association in Washington, D.C. He can be reached at cjl@post.harvard.edu.

Original Korea Times link

Previous commentaries and activities concerning North Korea

North Korean refugees in South Korea, TBS eFM 1010.3, January 1, 2013 (radio interview).
Why I won't go to North Korea, The Korea Times, December 27, 2012 (op-ed). 
GSIS Christmas Drive, December 7-21, 2012.  
To be a good volunteer, use your brain, The Korea Times, December 5, 2012 (op-ed).
Asia Pacific International School fundraiser, November 21, 2012 (speaker, organizer) 
IVC charity fundraiser, Yonsei University, November 20, 2012 (speaker, organizer) 
"Balloon launch to North Korea," Sept. 15, 2012.
"Hyeon-seo Lee on Ted.com" August 28, 2012 (co-chair).
"Reasons for Hope in South (and North) Korea," Atlas Experience, Colorado, USA, April 25, 2012, speaker.
Nothing to Envy? Roundtable with North Korean refugee, April 5, 2012 (moderator) 
"Common Sense" on North Korea, Korea Times, April 2, 2012 (op-ed)
Helping North Koreans 'strike the blow', Korea Times, March 22, 2012 (op-ed)
“Freedmen” from North Korea, Korea Times, March 4, 2012 (op-ed)
The Death of Juche? Roundtable discussion about the development of markets in North Korea, Roundtable, September 28, 2011.
Surprise! North Koreans Love Me The Korea Times, July 2010 
I Believe North Korea! The Korea Times, May 2010

Popular posts from this blog

Walter E. Williams hosting Rush Limbaugh tomorrow

Check your local listings! By the way, my co-host Eliot Morgan and I interviewed Professor Walter E. Williams on the Casey Lartigue Show on April 28 and June 9 . We discussed reparations for slavery and the minimum wage mandate. To access the clips above at rapidshare: 1) scroll down to the bottom, hit the "free" button. 2) scroll down to the bottom, type in the password, hit download, then listen... Or, you can download the clips from yousendit, available for one week: June 9, WEW, segment 5 http://download.yousendit.com/F8A128C94CEAD09C June 9, WEW segment 6 http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=9800ABE6204647B3 April 28 http://download.yousendit.com/72FB5F4718BC06A1 CJL

2014-02-14 Yeon-Mi Park`s debut

Yeonmi Park, February 14, 2014, making her debut! Yesterday I was one of the speakers at a special session on North Korean refugees at the Canadian Maple International School. Wow, it was a wonderful time! * Yeon-Mi Park delivered her first major speech in English. She was wonderful! She told her story (35 minute speech without notes), discussed different aspects of North Korea, and then handled questions from students for more than an hour. She did seem to be nervous at the beginning-she took a deep breath just as she started, looked at me, then told her story from her heart. * Returning from the speech, I told Yeonmi that she had star potential. She told me that she didn't believe it, but I told her that the way she handled Q&A and told her story, I would be lucky to have her still returning my phone calls within a year. * The students had many questions. They have been learning about North Korea. They are now reading "Escape from Camp 14" featuring Shin Dong-h

2020-05-21 Goodbye, Katty Chi

I had heard through the grapevine and now it has been verified: Human rights activist Katty Chi has passed away. She is one of the first people that I met when I got involved in this cause. The first time was in 2012, at an event at the South Korea's National Assembly. She was super cool, one of my favorites as I used to say even when she was alive. And that is the important time to say such things, when people are alive. Whenever we met, I would say to her, "You know what happens when you meet me?" She would say, "Yeah. Time to take a photo?" I'm glad we did. And from Hyun S. Song, a close colleague of hers: And from Liberty in North Korea, the definitive announcement, August 4, 2020

2018-06-17 Jang Jinsung at TNKR Donor Appreciation Night

What’s better than having a well-known North Korean refugee author speak at your event? Having TWO well-known North Korean refugee authors speak at your event! TNKR held a special "Donor Appreciation NIght" featuring author Jinsung Jang. To make the night even more incredible, author Kang Cheol-Hwan 강철환 also joined the session. It was like a North Korean refugee superstar session. * Mr. Jang is author of several books, including "Dear Leader." * Mr. Kang is author of The Aquariums of Pyongyang. We were delighted to hold this session, co-sponsored by UniKorea, for donors and fundraisers who help keep TNKR alive. TNKR will be holding more events like this, set up a fundraiser so you can also get invited. https://give.lovetnkr.com/en/fundraisers Support TNKR: http://lovetnkr.org/donate/

Kakao Story character in blackface

Kakao Story is a popular app made by Kakao Talk (a wildly popular instant messaging system in South Korea). Scrolling thr ough my Kakao Talk updates, I came acros s t he following and figured out how to snap a photo of it. * Today is "Black Day" in Korea. That's the day that people who didn't celebrate "White Day" on February 14 (when women give men gifts) or "Valentine's Day" on March 14 (when men give women gifts) eat black noddles to mark their loneliness. I suspect the NAACP would not be amused by this Kakao Talk character--CJL