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.

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.

Prayer for North Korean Refugees: Freedom

How do you think North Korean refugees envision freedom? Take a look at your schedule today, only two days from the 4th of July - a holiday when we celebrate our freedom as citizens of the United States.

What is it filled with? Work to complete? Errands to run? We are all so busy these days. If our jobs aren’t taking more than 40 hours a week, our social lives or families are. None of us are trapped or persecuted by authorities. But many may feel oppressed and stuck in the hectic cycle of our day-to-day lives.

On Saturday, the New York Times printed a fascinating column about this. Author Tom Kreider spells out the pitfalls of modern American busyness.

“Almost everyone I know is busy,” he said. “They feel anxious and guilty when they aren’t either working or doing something to promote their work. They schedule in time with friends the way students with 4.0 G.P.A.’s make sure to sign up for community service because it looks good on their college applications.”

And what it all adds up to, according to Kreider, is a pile of work to cover up the fact that our lives are often empty.

What does it mean, then, if even our scheduled leisure time, our rigorously organized holidays and days set aside for exciting activities add up to empty lives? If freedom is not found in barbecue or fireworks or all the leisure in the world, where do we stand as a people who are "free"?

The Word tells us quite simply in 2 Corinthians, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."

As followers of God, our calling is not to only to celebrate freedom in rights or in leisure. Our calling is to celebrate having freedom in salvation. Because of the work of Christ, we live in the Spirit's satisfaction. We are made whole and overflowing. We live free of fear, of condemnation, of death.

However, we acknowledge still that North Korean refugees, and many around the world, struggle in fear. They are not only politically imprisoned, made slaves of hunger, poverty, and fear. They are not free to hear the gospel. They are not free to access the freedom God extends to them through the Spirit. It is for these reason that Crossing Borders works to reach them, beyond the borders of oppression, starvation, and pain.

So this 4th of July, please help us to thank God for the freedoms we enjoy, not only for our privileged lives and civil liberties, but for the Spirit. Most importantly, please help us to pray for and serve those who need this same freedom. Help us to provide for their material needs and most importantly, for their spiritual hunger.

Bernard Malamud, author of “The Natural” once wrote, “The purpose of freedom is to create it for others.”

The apostle Paul writes in Galatians 5, "For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."

Today, as we pray, let us ask God that this freedom that we celebrate would not be wasted. Let's pray that the freedom of the Spirit would be delivered in the healing and empowerment to North Korean refugees in China and the oppressed around the world.