{"id":19126,"date":"2012-11-27T08:40:40","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T12:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=19126"},"modified":"2015-08-17T09:55:46","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T13:55:46","slug":"escape-from-north-korea-the-untold-story-of-asias-underground-railroad-by-melanie-kirkpatrick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/escape-from-north-korea-the-untold-story-of-asias-underground-railroad-by-melanie-kirkpatrick\/","title":{"rendered":"Escape from North Korea: The Untold Story of Asia’s Underground Railroad by Melanie Kirkpatrick [in Christian Science Monitor]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Escape<\/a>Please allow me to share a so-called North Korean political joke: \u201cKim Jong Il and Vladimir Putin … decide to … see whose bodyguards are more loyal. Putin calls his bodyguard Ivan, opens the window of their twentieth-floor meeting room, and says: \u2018Ivan, jump!\u2019 Sobbing, Ivan says: \u2018Mr. President, how can you ask me to do that? I have a wife and child waiting for me at home.\u2019 Putin … apologizes to Ivan, and sends him away…. Kim Jong Il … calls his bodyguard…. \u2018Lee Myung-man, jump!’…. Lee … is just about to jump … when Putin grabs him and says: \u2018\u2026 If you jump out this window, you\u2019ll die!…\u2019 Lee … tries to escape Putin\u2019s embrace and jump…: \u2018President Putin, please let me go! I have a wife and child waiting for me at home!\u2019<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Ghastly humor aside, the tragic joke barely disguises the inhumane policies of the world\u2019s most secretive, repressive regime. In\u00a0Escape from\u00a0North Korea: The Untold Story of\u00a0Asia\u2019s Underground Railroad,<\/em> former\u00a0Wall Street Journal\u00a0<\/em>journalist<\/a> Melanie Kirkpatrick<\/a> documents the desperate, dangerous flight of North Koreans toward an uncertain new life. Drawing parallels with American slaves seeking freedom 150 years and continents apart, Kirkpatrick traces North Korean journeys through a network of clandestine routes, safe houses, and courageous individuals willing to compromise their own safety to help others.<\/p>\n

For North Koreans attempting to escape starvation, torture, repression, and worse, the \u201cnew underground\u201d begins just over the border in China. Because of China\u2019s official political support of North Korea, the Chinese government refuses to recognize escapees as refugees (even though China has signed the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees). Nor does China allow the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to operate in the country.<\/p>\n

North Koreans in China live constantly under threat of arrest and repatriation. Women are often trafficked, sold as \u201cbrides\u201d in response to a shortage of partners in China (due to that country’s history of male preference that has created a \u201csex imbalance \u2026 [of] epic proportions).\u201d The children of these North Korean\/Chinese unions perhaps suffer the most, trapped in stateless limbo: The fear of exposing a North Korean mother\u2019s illegal status prevents a Chinese father from officially registering the child who, in effect, doesn\u2019t exist and therefore has no access to education and healthcare.<\/p>\n

Within and beyond China, remarkable heroes extend the escape networks into numerous Asian countries as they work to send North Korean escapees to freedom in South Korea and beyond. These heroes include: Steve Kim, founder of 318 Partners<\/a> (named for Article 318 of the Chinese criminal code which sent him to jail for aiding North Koreans in China); \u201cMary and Jim,\u201d a retired couple, who run orphanages in China for mixed children abandoned by missing North Korean mothers and desperate Chinese fathers (the undocumented status of these children makes them ineligible for adoption); and \u201cMr. Jung,\u201d who has undergone face-changing surgeries to repeatedly fool Chinese authorities while rescuing South Korean prisoners of war held illegally in North Korea since 1953.<\/p>\n

The tenacity of such brave individuals is sharply contrasted with the failure of the world \u2013 especially South Korea, the United States, even the United Nations \u2013 to confront and combat North Korea\u2019s atrocities. Kirkpatrick convincingly argues that escaped North Koreans \u2013 from starving children to highly-placed officials \u2013 will prove to be the best weapon against toppling the despotic, third-generation Kim regime.<\/p>\n

Kirkpatrick is a methodical writer, and Escape from North Korea<\/em> is a solid, matter-of-fact title that falls somewhere in between the unrelenting brutality of Blaine Harden\u2019s recent Escape from Camp 14: One Man\u2019s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West<\/a><\/em>, and the flowing narrative of Barbara Demick\u2019s lauded 2010 National Book Award nonfiction finalist<\/a>, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea<\/a><\/em>. As literature, Escape from North Korea<\/em> is efficient at best; it reads like a series of separate articles patched together. Certain details are unnecessarily repetitive (such as explaining yet again who North Korean founder Kim Il Sung is, two-thirds through the book). Other details seem oddly missing and sometimes surprisingly inaccurate. Kirkpatrick refers to the underground railroad-multiplying organization LiNK (Liberty in North Korea) <\/a>as \u201cfounded at Yale University in 2004 by two Korean-American students,\u201d but identifies only one founder (whose story is one of the book\u2019s most inspiring). Meanwhile, however, Kirkpatrick neglects to tell readers about the never-named co-founder who was actually already a California college graduate when LiNK began.<\/p>\n

Quibbles, inaccuracies, and typos aside, Kirkpatrick undoubtedly offers an eye-opening opportunity to explore an overlooked, pressing topic. She shares with readers the harrowing testimonies, the wrenching struggles, and the inspiring successes. Regretfully, in its current incarnation, Escape<\/em> reads like a powerful draft waiting for a diligent editor\u2019s transformative prowess.<\/p>\n

Review<\/strong>: Christian Science Monitor<\/em>, November 26, 2012<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Please allow me to share a so-called North Korean political joke: \u201cKim Jong Il and Vladimir Putin … decide to … see whose bodyguards are more loyal. 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