Original
article in the Internet Archive
November 23, 2005
NORTH KOREAN LIVES HANG IN THE BALANCE
LIVES ARE HANGING ON SECRETS, VIDEO CAMERAS AND CELL PHONES
North Korean
dissidents give their lives to expose secrets of a cruel oppressive
state
It's getting
dark outside. A man on the Chinese side of the river that is the border
between China and North Korea, a man called a "finder", is preparing to
risk his life crossing the river to find a certain person in Communist
North Korea. He was hired by a former North Korean to smuggle a cell
phone across the border river to a family member inside North Korea.
The finder arms himself with two cartons of cigarettes and the cell
phone. The cigarattes will be used to bribe the border guards and
the cell phone will be smuggled in so the person he "finds" will be
able to communicate back out of the oppressive country's confines.
The man is
willing to die to give someone else inside the borders of North Korea
the rare and coveted ability to communicate truthfully out of the
oppressive country. If the finder is caught crossing the river
with an illegal cell phone, the sentence could easily be death.
This is at the
crux of what many dissidents in North Korea are putting into motion
using new technologies not available 10 years ago. It's all about
truth and uncensored communications about what is going on in the
country, and getting uncensored dvd's into the country. South Korean
soap operas are a hot item.
Sometimes a
person never knows what will grab his or her attention. I was
casually channel surfing on Sunday night when a CNN newscaster said a
special program would be aired exposing the horrors of life inside
North Korea. That caught my attention. It was on CNN Presents, titled
"Undercover in the Secret State".
The show opened
with a hidden camera viewing a public execution in a village. The
victim was being made an example of. His crime: communicating
with the outside world. It was a powerful image. As an EMT many
years ago, I saw many untimely deaths in real life. I can't speak for
others, but for me, those many experiences seem to have sensitized me
to scenes of death whether they are in fictional movies or real life
scenes. Too many bad memories I suppose. So when I watched these brave
people go out on camera, it affected me deeply as death scenes always
do.
I couldn't get
over the concept of risking death so that the truth could be seen by
the world. As I watched the first few minutes, I was wishing my
daughter, a college student, and my wife were watching this too.
At a commercial break I went to CNN's website and saw that there were
two more airings of the show that night. I set the VCR to capture
the second airing. I told my daughter and wife, both of whom are
interested in world events, that this would be required viewing.
To settle myself
down a little after the first viewing, I took my daughter down to
Toni's in Arcata where we both got a milk shake and an order of
fries. It put me in a better mood. We went home and watched
it again.
This time
instead of being shocked with empathetic grief over the death scenes
and plight of the citizens of that country, I found myself reacting
angrily to the regime in control of North Korea. The three of us
discussed what is going on there, and what came out of my mouth
surprised me a little. It was all aimed at Kim Jong-il.
It didn't end
there. Before I saw this the first time, producer Sarah McDonald
was interviewed on CNN. She said that before going into North
Korea, she was thinking about things like the nuclear issues and other
political things. After arriving and witnessing what went on there, she
said she was completely shocked into reality not so much by the public
executions, but by the mundane realities of life, like when a train
stopped. The passengers spotted a freight car leaking dry
fertilizer onto the ground. The passengers rushed outside to
collect bits of the stuff off the ground to sell for small amounts of
money. It was a scene of grim desparation. Two and a half
million people starved in North Korea in the famine of 1997, and it's
happening again now.
I found a
captured chat session online on Channel 4's website in the U.K., where
Sarah McDonald was participating. That's where it aired 2 weeks before
CNN got it. It was very interesting reading and is not hard to
find. If I could speak to her, I'd tell her she really did a
fantastic job putting this together. Thanks Sarah.
(Robert
Reed is a columnist for The Eureka Reporter. Views and opinions
expressed in this column do not necessarily represent those of The
Eureka Reporter, its management or staff.)
