North Korea Freedom Week Ahead of Chuseok

Ahead of South Korea’s Thanksgiving holiday of Chuseok, flights to popular travel destinations, including Japan and Thailand, have largely been sold out as people seize the opportunity to escape from complicated family affairs and massive ceremonial activities associated with this festival. However, Chuseok marks a season of isolation and despair for many North Koreans who have settled in the South and are unable to visit their famine-stricken hometowns, pay respect to their ancestors or celebrate the festival with friends and families who are still caught in the North.

Meanwhile, for another group of North Koreans detained in China awaiting forced repatriation as the country begins to ease its border controls after years of stringent Covid-19 lockdown, the holiday season ahead could mean facing punishment for defecting in the form of torture, imprisonment, sexual violence, forced labor in prison camps and even public execution.

WHAT IS THE NORTH KOREA FREEDOM WEEK?

In response to the anticipated mass repatriation of North Korean defectors, civic groups on North Korea’s human rights held a rally near the Chinese Embassy in Seoul, calling on China not to send defectors detained in the country back to the North. The rally was held during the North Korea Freedom Week, which is an annual campaign that seeks to raise public awareness of North Korea’s humanitarian situation in Washington and Seoul, alternating yearly. This year’s freedom week ran from September 17 to 23, 2023, in Seoul. 

The first freedom week was held in April 2004, when human rights activists demonstrated at Capitol Hill in Washington, urging the U.S. Congress to pass the North Korea Human Rights Act. The Act was later signed by President Bush on October 18, 2004, to promote human rights and freedom of North Korean refugees by 

1. providing humanitarian assistance to North Koreans inside North Korea; 

2. providing grants to private, non-profit organizations to promote human rights, democracy, rule of law and the development of a market economy in North Korea; 

3. increasing the availability of information inside North Korea; and

4. providing humanitarian or legal assistance to North Koreans who have fled North Korea.

“As we observe the 20th annual North Korea Freedom Week, we recognize the courage of the North Korean defector and human rights community, which continues to speak on behalf of the millions of North Koreans suffering abuses who are unable to advocate for themselves,” commented the State Department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, who also expressed concerns about the estimated 2,000 asylum seekers from the DPRK who are detained in China and at risk of repatriation.

FREEDOM WEEK IN 2023

Advocacy groups kicked off the freedom week this year by joining the opening ceremony held at the Daejeon National Cemetery in conjunction with a memorial ceremony for the 13th death anniversary of high-profile defector and former mentor to Kim Jong-il, Hwang Jang-yop, next month. The Unification Ministry’s Human Rights Division Chief also gave a speech declaring that “If we continue to spread information about the realities about the North Korea human rights situation, the DPRK authorities will be pressured to improve it, and I am certain that it will bring about changes that will lead to improving the abysmal human rights situation there.”

The trilateral relationship among the U.S., Japan and South Korea has significantly strengthened in recent years, particularly in relation to their diplomatic stance towards Pyongyang. As a result, Seoul’s Unification Ministry under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration has, since last year, referred to the freedom week events as sponsored by not only the core members – the U.S. and South Korea – but also Japan. As such, both U.S. and Japanese activists were seen participating in the freedom week events this year, which consisted of various activities including demonstrations against the forced repatriation of defectors, a seminar about testimonies against nuclear tests in the DPRK and an opera focusing on the experiences of women defectors.

North Korean Chuseok Feast, Without the Feast

A Korean Chuseok table

As the Korean Peninsula celebrates the Chuseok thanksgiving festival on September 10 this year, major food shortages sweep across the famine-stricken nation with a 700 percent rise in food prices, according to UN officials. This is leaving North Korean families unable to perform customary duties by bringing food to gravesites to thank their ancestors for an “abundant harvest” for a third consecutive year. Among the two main imported food products, namely sugar and flour, their prices between 2017 and late June 2022 have risen 726.76 percent and 271.84 percent per kilogram, respectively. Faced with the significant price increase in raw materials, food vendors must raise their prices or shrink their portions, but many fear that doing so would drive away customers and ultimately threaten their livelihoods.

HOW NORTH KOREANS CELEBRATE CHUSEOK

Unlike South Koreans who enjoy the holiday for at least three days, Chuseok is a one-day celebration in North Korea as socialist anniversaries like the birthday of its founding leader, Kim Il-sung, are deemed more important than traditional holidays. However, this does not mean that North Koreans lack sincerity in their preparation for Chuseok.

Traditionally, Chuseok food preparations are taken very seriously and would even begin a month in advance. North Koreans make songpyeon rice cakes two or three times bigger than South Korean ones and fill each half-moon shaped rice cake with boiled red beans or kidney beans, grinded walnuts or stir-fried vegetables. As the weather is colder in the North, a large amount of songpyeon is made during Chuseok, which can be stored and consumed for a long period of time. In addition to preparing their ancestors’ favorite dishes, North Koreans also cook Korean beef radish soup and grilled beef, though beef is extremely rare in the North and is often replaced with pork that they receive as rations from spring to fall which they preserve in salt.

THE NORTH KOREAN WAY TO BEG FOR FOOD

It has never been easy for North Koreans to acquire enough rice to make songpyeon even before the Covid-19 pandemic and recent economic downturns due to its low rice production. This year’s Chuseok is further met with “worse-than-expected food shortages” to the extent North Korea’s leadership ordered officials stationed abroad, including diplomats, trade delegates and smugglers of specialized items, to secure rice, corn, beans and other staple food supplies as much as possible. The authorities issued an explanation to the order: “Agricultural production took a hit following a ban on movement with the emergence of COVID-19 cases during the first half of the year, a time when the nation was supposed to fully mobilize labor into agricultural areas,” and added that the value of grain secured can be offset against their scheduled cash contributions to the Workers’ Party.

According to a source from DailyNK, the authorities called on overseas officials to secure food for the state. Additionally, a request for food by North Korean officials visiting the Indian Chamber of International Business to discuss humanitarian food aid was recently published on Yonhapnews, which DailyNK’s source warned that it could lead to punishments of the officials.

STEALING FOOD FROM ITS PEOPLE

Locally, “corn inspection squads” have reportedly been tasked to patrol areas near rural collective farms to catch “grain thieves” until the harvest season this month. However, sources from Radio Free Asia suggest that this is in fact just an excuse for the government to search and confiscate food from innocent citizens carrying grains. During a crackdown in North Hwanghae province, south of Pyongyang, “Merchants who were targeted by the police lost whole corn sacks” and residents were reportedly enraged by the authorities for “punishing people who trade grain to make ends meet.”

North Korea is in dire need of aid and yet continues to play war games while forcing its people to suffer under their cruel and harsh control.

North Koreans Buy Crystal Meth as Gifts for Lunar New Year

Lunar New Year festivities signify an important time of the year to spend quality time with family, indulge in delicious meals, and give out cash-filled red envelopes and gifts to loved ones.  In North Korea, where drug addiction is becoming increasingly prevalent in recent years, especially among North Korean youths, citizens have reportedly been exchanging crystal meth as presents to celebrate the holidays. It is known locally as “pingdu” which is the Korean version of the Chinese word for “ice drug” and is a popular gift for celebrating birthdays to graduations and special holidays like Lunar New Year. A source told Radio Free Asia that North Koreans use meth as a form of stress relief because “[they] want to forget their harsh reality and enjoy themselves”.  

Due to its accessibility and frequent use as an appetite suppressant, many North Koreans use crystal meth as casually as cigarettes. “A few factors could be driving such a trend.  First, crystal meth is produced inside North Korea, so stoppages of trade at the Chinese border due to sanctions have no effect on the availability of crystal meth within North Korea.  Meanwhile, imported food and consumer goods are often hard to come by due to sanctions enforcement, so it’s possible that more people are relying on domestically produced goods, including crystal meth, for gifts,” commented Justin Hastings, an associate professor from the University of Sydney.

INSIDE NORTH KOREA’S CRYSTAL METH TRADE

Historically, the production and use of meth were intended by the North Korean government to help improve its soldiers’ performance. This method was not unique to North Korea, as the Japanese had also utilized this method during WWII. Since the 1970s, many North Korean diplomats have been arrested abroad for drug smuggling. In the early 1990s, North Korea suffered from extensive farm crop failures, particularly in their harvest for poppies, which led to a collapse in profits from opium and heroin production. As a result, the government began producing and trafficking crystal meth for export using state-owned companies, diplomatic facilities and personnel, military vessels, and other state assets in exchange for foreign currency.  It is reported that the government had also formed connections with organized criminal networks outside of North Korea, including Chinese triads across the northern border of China and the Japanese yakuza, in order to facilitate distribution and pocket the proceeds from drug trafficking.  

Kim Kuk-song had worked for North Korea’s spy agencies for 30 years before he defected to South Korea in 2014. Kim told the BBC that he was ordered to set up a production line for crystal meth in order to raise funds for the regime during the famine from 1994 to 1998 under the former leader Kim Jong-il's regime. He described that “[at] that time, the Operational Department ran out of revolutionary funds for the Supreme Leader.  After being assigned to the task, I brought three foreigners from abroad into North Korea, built a production base in the training centre of the 715 liaison office of the Workers’ Party, and produced drugs” to fund the leader’s lavish lifestyle.

At a time when hundreds of thousands of people died from starvation during the famine in the 1990s, North Korean citizens had to resort to their own ways to survive without receiving any help from the government, namely to use meth they had produced to combat hunger. Consequently, domestically-produced crystal meth soon appeared across the country in non-government-regulated production centres, including factories and labs run by individuals. Today, meth acts as a widely practiced solution to tackle the chronic lack of healthcare in North Korea and is sold even in rural and remote areas as “people like [meth] better than opium because [meth] costs less and it is stronger,” said an anonymous source from South Hamgyong province.

CRYSTAL METH PLAYS AN ESSENTIAL ROLE IN NORTH KOREAN SOCIETY

Even though the government began clamping down on drug users (even going as far as interrogating elementary school students), to address the alarming spread of drug use in North Korea since the beginning of 2005, crystal meth trafficking to China has remained unaffected. It is no question that under the law, the production and trafficking of illicit drugs is illegal and drug dealers are occasionally punished, and executed in some cases, particularly during public crackdowns. However, the production of crystal meth remains an important source of income for the North Korean government and society as a whole. Hastings explained that “North Koreans throughout society have gone into business for themselves, through private enterprises, through officially sanctioned businesses – or, if they are state officials, by using their positions to license businesses and extract bribes, or to engage in side businesses of their own”. The government is thus able to indirectly profit from the drug trade using an off-the-books taxation system in order to benefit the elites and fund its nuclear program.

Crystal meth “has been largely seen inside North Korea as a kind of very powerful energy drug – similar to Red Bull, amplified,” commented Andrei Lankov, an expert of North Korea from Kookmin University.  Reports from 2016 also show that construction managers in Pyongyang had been supplying workers with meth in hopes of completing showcase projects faster.  In the social context, Lee Saera from Hoeryong even remarked how “[if] you go to somebody’s house it is a polite way to greet somebody by offering them a sniff.”  Since the pandemic, the number of drug traffickers have skyrocketed as “[residents] have always believed [meth] to be a cure-all drug...people are saying that it can prevent or even cure coronavirus,” a resident of North Hamgyong province told Radio Free Asia.  The source also said that “[people] believe it is true, because fevers, coughs and body aches will all temporarily disappear if a user inhales [meth]”.

While publicly denying the existence of any illegal drug activity within its border, according to Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, Kim Jong-un and his regime may be enabling its people’s addiction. If meth works to “dull[s] the wills and minds of the North Korean people, the government tacitly allows it to go on,” says Greg.

North Korea’s Actual ‘War on Christmas’

Christmas has become a bonanza of commercialization in the west. In the blizzard of sleigh bells and elves on shelves, it’s easy to forget the true reason for the season. We get caught up in the presents and the Christmas parties and it seems like the baby in the manger, the angels and the shepherds get forgotten. 

Thankfully there are brief moments when Christmas carols like “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” hit the airwaves or we catch a glimpse of  a nativity scene in our neighbor’s yard that serve as good, albeit fleeting reminders. Even in a secularized country like the U.S., it’s hard to remember that Christmas is about God’s amazing and miraculous gift to us in Christ. Not so in North Korea where the holiday is almost completely eradicated.

For most North Koreans, Christmas is another winter day. Of course, there are celebrations in the state-controlled churches (which exist mainly for the benefit of sightseeing foreigners). Most North Koreans are completely unaware of the holiday. The North Korean government has a stranglehold on information and the regime is  particularly hostile to any form of religion.

For North Koreans, Kim Jong-un and his family function as gods. Other religious figures or beliefs are strictly forbidden, as they might interfere with the undying loyalty of citizens to the Kim family. In fact, in 2016, Kim Jong-un mandated that the nation celebrate his grandmother’s birthday on December 24, to further suppress any attempts of celebrating anything else. All citizens were required to pay tribute to the deceased royal grandmother while much of the world was celebrating Christmas Eve.

In the U.S. and other countries, the “war on Christmas” is a figurative controversy. In North Korea, it is literal. At one point, South Korea erected a sixty-foot-tall Christmas tree near the border with the north and lit it up at Christmas. Its purpose was to show solidarity with North Koreans who still wished to celebrate the holiday. The North Korean government threatened to shoot it down, claiming the Christmas tree constituted “psychological warfare.”

Since the threat of punitive action from the regime is ever present, Christians in North Korea who do seek to celebrate Christmas have to do so in secret. A family may meet for quiet prayer inside their house or on rare occasions it may be “possible for Christians to go unobtrusively into the mountains and to hold a 'service' at a secret location. Then there might be as many as 60 or 70 North Koreans gathered together.”  

For a part of the world once known as the “Jerusalem of the East”, this is a dark reality for the North Korea of today. In an interview with author and blogger Tim Challies, Joel Kim, President of Westminster Seminary California, shared that “Pyongyang was the site of a number of Christian schools, including the first Presbyterian seminary in Korea [in 1901].” This seminary would go on to become ground zero for much evangelical activity in Korea. It is shocking and disheartening to see how far North Korea has fallen in the span of a century.

Even where celebration of Christmas is possible, it will be subdued and secretive. There are no festivities—Christmas in North Korea will certainly not have eggnog, Santa Claus, carols or even presents. In 2017, Kim Jong-un actually prohibited “gatherings that involve alcohol and singing.”

Such festivity would imply that there is something other than the North Korean government and leaders that is worth celebrating. It would communicate that someone other than the Kim dynasty is able to give good things to its people. The Kim regime has worked hard to make citizens dependent on their government, to look to the Kim family alone for leadership and all good things. In countries around the world this December, Christians will celebrate God’s miraculous gift of salvation and hope to the world in the person of Jesus Christ. But for the North Korean government, this gift constitutes a threat to their supremacy and exclusive control over its people. For many North Koreans this year, it will be an act of courage to celebrate Christmas at all.

As we open our gifts and gather with our family and friends, let us remember the wonderful gift we have as we celebrate Christ in freedom this year. Let us also remember those who risk their lives to celebrate in secret.

A Painful Chuseok - A Thankful Heart

Chuseok is one of the biggest national holidays in both North and South Korea. It falls on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. This year it will land on September 21 and celebrations typically span three full days starting on the day before the actual holiday. The celebration is focused around the harvest and is similar to Thanksgiving in the US but culturally, the holiday has the importance of Christmas in the West. 

During Chuseok the entire peninsula shuts down and people return to their hometowns to celebrate. Festivities include a large, traditional meal and the most traditional observers pay homage to their ancestors by visiting their gravesites. For a second year, we expect celebrations on both sides of the DMZ will be muted as COVID-19 restrictions will impair the movement of people in both countries. 

There is one population who will not be visiting their hometowns during Chuseok: North Korean refugees. These people are permanently severed from their families and friends who are still caught in the country. They cannot call or write into North Korea. There is no form of Zoom or Facetime they can use to virtually join these celebrations. Most ties are all but severed.

Consider what it might feel like to be alone on Christmas as the world around joins their families to celebrate. North Koreans already feel isolated in South Korea but this shared holiday highlights this cold reality.

North Korean refugees in South Korea typically gather with fellow North Korean friends and engage in heavy drinking, according to our staff in South Korea. In the absence of immediate family, they gather with people who come from the same hometown in North Korea. Some celebrate with people who they came into South Korea with, people they can share their earliest memories of their new country.

The holiday starts with families visiting the gravesites of their ancestors to pay respect, something that is impossible for North Korean refugees to do. Chuseok celebrations then focus on food, specifically songpyeon, a rice cake with sweet fillings such as red bean, chestnuts, dates or honey. But for North Koreans, reminders of how food ran dry during the famine often pepper their feelings of nostalgia with pain.

Elim House resident “Kristine” remembers when she was a little girl in her hometown eating songpyeon and traditional Korean vegetables such as bean sprouts. In North Korea before the famine, Kristine’s family made a large amount of songpyeon and brought it to her grandparents' tomb.  After bowing three times, she remembers sitting around and feasting. The famine changed all of this, she said.

When the famine took hold in the late 90s, there was nothing to eat and no more rice cake to make on Chuseok. This is when she decided to make the dangerous journey across the river to China.

This Chuseok, our South Korea team will celebrate with our Elim House residents  and enjoy traditional food and activities together like a family. The celebration will be centered around God’s goodness in the lives of the refugees. Though this holiday is often a painful reminder of the homes and families they left, there is much to be thankful for: a safe place to stay, people who are there to help them rebuild their lives, and the love of their Heavenly Father.

Children’s Day in North Korea

The contrast of life between North and South Korea could not be greater. Even childhood is a profoundly different experience in the two countries. South Korea recently celebrated Children’s Day on May 5 as a national holiday of no school, tasty treats and a showering of gifts. Today is North Korea’s Children’s day, a holiday in which childhood is celebrated in vastly different ways.

Songbun

A baby born in North Korea is given a social status at birth, which determines much of his or her future. Known as songbun, based on the status of his or her father, an infant is officially classified as  “special”, “nucleus”, “basic”, “complex” or “hostile”. Songbun translates to “ingredient” and dictates what area this family will be allowed to live, which university this child will be able to eventually enter, where she might work and whether she will have the privilege to join the Korean Workers party. According to Fyodor Tertitskiy of The Guardian, “becoming a party member is the only way to aspire to a high social position” in North Korea.

Education

Kindergarten begins at the age of five in North Korea. Secondary schooling, which is called “middle-high”, continues from the ages of ten to sixteen. Military service is required for both North Korean men and women at the age of seventeen where women serve until they turn twenty-three and men serve for ten years.

All children between the ages of seven and thirteen are required to join the Korean Children’s Union. It is one of the many unions North Koreans will join in their lifetime of indoctrination and forced loyalty to the Kim dynasty. Each child reads an oath of allegiance during an admission ceremony which reads something like this:

“I join the ranks of the Korean Children’s Union, founded by the Great Leader Generalissimo Kim Il-sung and shined upon by the Great Guide Commander Kim Jong-il, do hereby swear to always and everywhere think and act according to the teaching of the Generalissimo Kim Il-sung and Commander Kim Jong-il and to become a good reservist of the brilliant cause of constriction of Communism, which is carried along from generation to generation by the great revolutionary deed of Juche.”

Some find it disturbing to see the purity and joy of childhood so grossly corrupted in North Korean children.

North Korean Children’s Holidays

North Korea observes two official holidays in June for children: June 1 as Children’s Day and June 6 as Children's Union Day. Children’s Day in North Korea mostly targets preschoolers and is a day of festivities and games. A few days later, June 6 celebrates the establishment of the Young Pioneer Corps in 1946. On this day, newly initiated Union members are presented with a red necktie from their teachers before repeating the above oath of loyalty in front of portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

In 2012, on the 66th anniversary of Children’s Union Day, Kim Jong Un said before a gathering of 20,000 members of the Children’s Union that they were the future masters of "a most powerful country where every home will be full of laughter and everybody lives in harmony."

Children’s Day in South Korea

Children and families in South Korea celebrate Children’s Day (어린이날) on May 5, a national holiday that appreciates and celebrates children. It has been celebrated since 1923 and was officially designated as a public holiday in 1975. Children’s day is often spent doing fun activities as a family and also involves eating out and giving gifts to children and can feel like a second birthday celebration for kids.

Power to save

The sad reality of the stark difference experienced between children of North and South Koreans feels all the more tragic on a day like today. Though we may feel powerless even as we wish for change, we’re thankful for the opportunity to help North Korean refugees and their children in China and South Korea. They give me hope and serve as a reminder that God is always at work, even when the truth of their realities appear bleak.

Enduring Love - Honoring North Korean Moms

As we honor and celebrate moms on Mother’s Day, we pause to recognize a few moms we have encountered in our years of helping North Korean refugees. While their stories don’t always have happy endings, we pray for the day when restoration and healing can take place for these moms and their children.

Crossing Borders has shared stories of children who have been separated from their mothers, oftentimes violently. Children who lose their mothers are profoundly affected. Their whole lives are upended and even their development is slowed by this traumatic event. Add on top of this the devastating realization that their mothers might be suffering in a North Korean prison camp.

On this Mothers Day, we remember the enduring love of these moms who will do whatever it takes. We also remember their children whose lives have been profoundly changed by these separations and yet have shown so much promise. Despite the inherent challenges this situation might bring, some North Korean children in China have found the will and strength to carry on while waiting to see their moms again one day.

YA and Kyung Tae

Our first story is about Kyung Tae, whose mother repeatedly attempts to reunite with him after being captured in China and repatriated to North Korea.

Read Part 1 - Escape from North Korea, marriage and a police raid

Click to read part 1 of Kyung Tae’s story

Read Part 2 - Betrayal in North Korea and hope for Kyung Tae’s future

We pray that YA and her son Kyung Tae will have a chance to be reunited again.

Pyunwa and her mom

Our second story comes from 2011. It is disheartening to see an entire decade later how little things in North Korea have changed.

We thank God for his hand of healing in both Kyung Tae and Pyunwa’s life. While we hold out hope that their mothers will escape to China again, we continue to support these children through their post secondary education and most importantly, we share the hope of the gospel with them. Find out more about how we support North Korean Orphans.

Kristine and her sons

Finally, we want to share an update about one mother who is currently with us at Elim House. “Kristine”, as we call her, has two teenage boys, 12 and 17. She came to us with her boys several months ago to escape her brutally abusive South Korean husband. They recently had a run in with him that left her and her oldest son severely beaten. The future of her situation is still uncertain as Kristine and her sons try to find legal protection from her husband. But time at Elim House has enabled Kristine and her sons, who have suffered the entirety of their young lives, to start receiving professional counseling.

Kristine shared recently that for the first time in their lives, she had a chance to tell her oldest son that she was sorry for all that she had done and for the pain that he had to endure until now.  Her son began crying and also apologized to his mom. They said they loved each other for the first time in their lives and hugged.

Looking ahead with hope

There are many complexities of Kristine’s situation that will take time to untangle and to finally allow her and her sons to live a life free from fear and violence. The road may be long but we will continue to support and love her. As we honor moms this month, we recognize the hardships moms like Kristine endure. We also celebrate the victories that God provisions, however small or big they may seem.

Crossing Borders has very little control over the horrific occurrences in these people’s lives. We could not stop the Chinese police from repatriating Pyunhwa and Kyung Tae’s mothers. But what we can focus on is the emotional and spiritual healing of the refugees and orphans who have to live with the terrible aftermath of these events.

This is why Crossing Borders offers North Korean refugees and their children opportunities to thrive by providing physical care, emotional healing and spiritual guidance in a safe community.

Though the chaos of this world is often outside of our control, we work to help shape the path forward for these people. And though their past is often riddled with tragedy, we see their future as full of hope.