Kaesong and the Choco Pie economy

Kaesong is an industrial city that lies just north of the 38th parallel, presently part of North Korea. Since 2004 Kaesong has been the sight of an industrial complex where 123 South Korean companies produce a variety of goods.  The complex is a win-win proposition for both Koreas.  For South Korean companies there are about 53,000 North Korean employees who are well educated, skilled, speak Korean fluently, and provide cheap labor (about $110/month according to one source).  For North Korea the complex is a source of much needed foreign currency.

But let's step back in history.   Kaesong has not always been the industrial link between North and South Korea.  Way back in 919 it was the capital of all of Korea.  Jump ahead to 1950 and the start of the Korean War.  Kaesong was an entry point into South Korea during the initial invasion.  Five Methodist Missionaries and one German citizen were caught off guard in Kaesong and became part of what has been called "the long march" when they were captured by North Korea and became prisoners of war forced to walk for months through bitter cold winter and near starvation, to a prison camp in China.

Kaesong was the only Korean city to change sides.  Originally a South Korean city, it fell north of the 38th parallel division and was claimed by the north after the war.

Jump ahead again to 2011 when a new Kaesong issue developed.  South Korean companies were giving their workers Choco Pies during break time but not all companies gave workers the same number of the popular chocolate marshmallow cookie treat.  This caused an outcry.  Workers had developed the habit of selling at least some of their now famous Choco Pies on the North Korean black market, thereby boosting their family income.  The North Korean government considered Choco Pies a symbol of capitalism and attempted to have them banned from Kaesong.  Needless to say that was not a popular idea and the distribution of Choco Pies continued.

Fast forward to April 2013 when hostilities between the two Koreas resulted in the unilateral decision  by North Korea to close the industrial complex at Kaesong.  Despite six talks to resolve the issues, the industrial complex remains closed.  Imagine the consternation of the Kaesong workers at the collapse of their Choco Pie economy.  The North Korea government has had no choice but to separate the workers and send the to distant corners of the country where they cannot regroup (or so my sources tell me).

The future of the Kaesong industrial complex and the Choco Pie economy remain to be seen.  Meanwhile Choco Pie withdrawal has become a growing problem in the villages and towns just north of the 38th parallel.

Follow-up on Children Without a Nation

There is always more to the story.  North Korean orphans and abandoned children live a hard life, not that life in North Korea is easy for the average citizen, often trying to survive on the streets.  Most are malnourished and mistreated.  A few escape to China where life is not much easier.

One group was recently in the news.  The group had been staying in a foster home in China that housed up to 18 North Korean orphans.  In China they were in constant danger of being discovered and repatriated back to North Korea.  One of the group, a girl of 16 who looked like a grade school child due to her chronic malnutrition, had already been the victim of sex traffickers.

Nine of the children decided to leave for South Korea through Laos.  Their goal was to reach the U.S. embassy in Laos where they would be safe until they could enter South Korea.  They were under the impression that if they could only reach Laos they would be safe.  Unfortunately they were stopped at a check point.  The U.S. embassy was notified but under international law they had to be physically in the U.S. embassy to be considered under the protection of the U.S. government.

Things got worse.  Somehow they ended up being collected by the North Korean embassy instead of the South Korean embassy.  Back in North Korea they became a propaganda tool for the Kim regime.  At least for now, with all of the international press they have received, the children are safe.  They are too prominent to conveniently disappear into one of the many North Korean prison camps.

The 16 year-old girl who had already been trafficked decided not to leave China with the others.  She remains in foster care there.

This is only one of many stories from North Korea.  Another important group that is severely persecuted is the underground church in North Korea.  Christians are particularly persecuted because they are harder to subdue with fear tactics.  They are also harder to corrupt, making them a threat to a system that relies on a combination of fear and corruption to control all segments of society.

Author Peter Jung recently published his book called "Persecution" about the underground church of  North Korea.  The book is written in Korean, but is due to be translated into English soon.

Next blog on North Koea will address the "choco-pie" economy.  Stay tuned.  Also check out the website: NKnet.org for more on North Korea

Neglected History

What is the purpose of studying history?  That is the question that determines the content of the text.  Do we write history books as a template for teaching future generations, as an admonition against repeating the sins of the past, or as a platform for glorifying ourselves in the eyes of posterity?  Whatever the purpose, historians must pick and choose the content as human history is too expansive for a single text or even a single author of multiple texts.  Certain episodes in human history are bound to be either neglected or conveniently swept under the proverbial rug.

One such incident occurred on Jeju island.  Korean historians often refer to historical events by a significant date.  This one is referred to as the 4-3, or April 3rd, incident.  The incident did not really start on that date, and ended much later.

When Japan was defeated at the end of World War II the Japanese occupation of Korea ended only to be replaced by the joint occupation of the United States and the Soviet Union.  The two World War II allies were no longer friends so instead of cooperating to rebuild the Korean Peninsula, the two occupying forces divided the country.

Meanwhile in Jeju, there was unrest on several levels.  Returning soldiers who had been drafted by the Japanese army returned in droves to find no jobs.  There was overall resentment towards a new occupier that was too wrapped up in self-interests to deal with local concerns.  Finally, the people of Jeju were strongly opposed to the division of Korea.

Demonstrations resulted and on March 1, 1947 six Jeju residents were killed.  In response, the U.S. Military Administration sent in police and youth corps to suppress the uprising.  The brutality of  these agents towards the residents of Jeju continued but did not end the strikes.  On April 3, 1948 the Namdo party of Jeju rose up in protest against the continued targeting and torture of Jeju citizens.

Meanwhile, a presidential election was held that cemented the division of Korea.  Several Jeju districts abstained from the election in protest of the division of Korea.  Some Jeju citizens were actively involved in Athens a unification movement.  Others joined armed bands to actively resist the police and gang violence.

Martial law was declared on September 11 prior to which a military order was given that any person, regardless of age or gender, found in the middle area of Halla Mountai, located 5 km from the coastline, would be regarded as rebels and should be shot on sight.

Many villagers living in the area had no idea why they were being persecuted.  They fled to the caves in the mountains.  Many died when their villages were burned before they could flee.  Others were discovered in the caves and executed.  Others tried to get away by fleeing from the caves when the army approached, but they were often tracked by their footprints in the snow.  Others were captured and tortured only to be executed without a trial when the Korean War was declared on June 25, 1950.

Altogether the 4-3 incident lasted for seven years and seven months until September 21, 1954.  It is estimated that between 25,000 and 30,000 men, women, and children were slaughtered by order of the U. S. and South Korean military command for the crime of " opposing the general election and the formation of a South Korean state" and for demonstrating against oppression by police and military supported Northwest Youth Association.

The Jeju 4-3 Research Institute was established in 1989 to learn more about what happened during the seven years of persecution and systematic killing of Jeju citizens.

The film, JiSeul, depicting the 4-3 incident won the the Best Picture Award at the 2013 Sundance  film festival.  I haven't seen it yet, but it just moved to the top of my "must see" list.


Jeju is a small island crucially located half way between korea and Japan.  The location makes it crucial to Northeast Asian politics and defense policy, but the island people have always fought for peace.  They oppose the use of their island for military or political purposes.  They prefer to preserve the natural beauty of the island land and sea-scape while continuing to cherish their unique culture.

Gwangju Love Story (part two)

One night Miss Oh was sleeping in her apartment when the phone woke her.  It was Mr. Lee calling from Korea where he was doing some organizing.  Still half asleep she grabbed a pen and some paper to jot down the tasks she was sure he was about to assign her.  Instead he said, "will you marry me?"
She was still half asleep.  Was she hearing him right?  She asked him to repeat what he had said.

The couple lived in various parts of the United States, always working for democracy in Korea, until it was finally safe for them to return to Korea in 1994.  They lived in Gwangju, working for an NGO to keep the memory of the May 18 massacre alive and promoting justice and democracy.  There was still a lot of work to do.

Miss Oh lives alone now.  Mr. Lee died in 2011.  His grave is at the May 18 memorial site with the martyrs of the massacre and others who survived to continue their struggle.  Miss Oh visits his grave there.  She also hosts visitors who have a common cause.  She and a colleague want to start a school. Their school would be different from most schools that teach to the tests to enter prestigious universities.  Theirs would be a school to promote justice and train peace activists towards a more democratic world.  They are looking for seed money to make their dream a reality and to honor the memory of the freedom fighters of May 18.

Gwangju Love Story (part one)

This is a true story, but I have changed names and may have a few of the details confused as it was told to me in bits and pieces of conversation and my Korean is not perfect.
To set the stage for this story we need to go back a little in history.  Gwangju is the major city of the south western part of Korea.  Is is primarily an agricultural area, but is the hub of government and educational activities in the area.  During the late 1970s under the military dictatorship of Park Chyng-hee, there was a lot of attention on industrial development.  Unfortunately the interest was primarily interest in the large industrial monopolies at the expense of smaller business and agriculture.  Agriculture prices were kept low and workers wages were low in order to fuel the industrial growth.  Many of the workers were young girls because they could be paid low wages and were easier to control.  The means of control was intimidation.

The Gwangju area was left behind for two reasons.  First it was not an industrial area.  Second it was an area known to support Presidnt Parks opponents so was not given preferential treatment in terms of economic opportunities.  As a result the farmers and workers alike experienced a decline in their standard of living.

Students and other young people in Gwangju began working for democratic reform.  Some joined the Christian ministry to improve the lot of laborers.  Other, like our subject (we'll call him Mr. Lee), worked diligently to establish a night school for workers.  The school provided them with basic education as well as instruction in labor laws and the rights of laborers.

On May 17, 1980, the military decided to enforce the new stricter statutes of martial law curfew by entering the night school and savegly beating students and teachers.  The next day, students from the local universities took to the streets to protest the beatings.  The military response was brutal.  Many we're killed.  Soon the citizens of Gwangju, enraged by what had happened joined the students in the streets.  Women behind the lines cooked, cared for wounded, and prepared the corpses for burial; but the also organized the communications for the insurrection, supplied rocks and Molitov cocktails to the front lines and even helped raid the local police and military units to supply arms to the fighters.

At one point they were successful in rousting the army from Gwangju, but they knew their victory would be short-lived.  The military refused to accept the demands of the citizens of Gwangju  and returned in force.

Our Mr. Lee was not among the 415 insurrectionists who were captured, tortured, and later sentenced by military tribunal to either death or life imprisonment.  Nor was he among the dead.  But her knew that his name was on the list.  His days were numbered.  An unusual number of his former associates were suddenly dying of mysterious accidents or were being arrested.  He found his way out on a ship bound for the United States.  Landing in Seattle with no legal documents he headed for L.A. where it was easier to hide among the many Korean-Americans.

Meanwhile, another Korean was also making her way to L.A.  Miss Oh worked for a grassroots organization working for Korean democracy by raising awareness and money among the many Korean Americans in the United States and Canada.  Miss Oh had never been to Gwangju, but she knew what was happening to the young Korean women working in the factories and she wanted to do her part to make changes.

It was in L.A. That the two kindred spirits met.  There was no love at first sight.  Mr. Lee had made a vow to never marry.  He intended to dedicate his life to the cause.  Miss Oh was not a frivolous girl.  She was a woman with a mission.  She was past the age when most girls marry and was quite satisfied with her life.  She did not regret never having married.  Still, there was an instant bond between the two.  Had they been in different circumstances they might have thought they were falling in love, not that the thought didn't cross their minds.  It was very hard for Mr. Lee to even admit he had feelings for a woman.  He was a man of his word.  He never went back on his promises.  This was truly a struggle for him.

Children Without a Nation

Children do not choose their parents or the circumstances into which they are born but they often are the unintended victims of all that is wrong in the world.  Two examples have come to my attention in the last week.

The first are children of immigrant women in South Korea.  Because of historical per-birth gender selection, there is a shortage of women in South Korea, particularly in poor and rural areas.  The void is being filled, at least to some extent, by "mail order brides" from poorer countries.  Unfortunately the children of these unions often face prejudice, discrimination, and bullying. In the Korean movie "A Wonderful Moment" (English title) one little boy has a happy ending.  But happy endings can be hard to find.  The Sarang school in Seoul is a relatively new international school created to give these children a refuge and an education.  The renounced violist, Richard O'Neil (himself of mixed race) has used his musical talents to create an orchestra made up of mixed race children in South Korea.  These are small steps, but changes in attitude are slow.  There is a long way to go before these multi-culture children are accepted into the mainstream.

Life can be even harder for mixed Korean children in China where escaped North Korean girls and women are often trafficked for sex.  The Chinese government works closely with North Korea to repatriot escaped citizens.  The women not returned to North Korea are subject to imprisonment in China, leaving their children alone or with Chinese relatives who may not want them or be equipped to care for them.  Because they have a Chinese father, even if he is unknown, the children cannot enter South Korea as refugees.  They are left in a state of limbo, often without Chinese papers and with nowhere to go.  Many are homeless and without a country that will claim them.

Helping Hands Korea is an organization that works to help North Koreans in crisis.  (http://www.helpinghandskorea.org/). They have been able to help a number of the needy and abandoned Korean-Chinese children, but for every one they are able to help there are probably thousands more who need their help.  One of the biggest frustrations for the group is the lack of support they receive from South Korea and even from the United Nations.  Their work is dangerous because it is not sanctioned by China or North Korea.  The U.N., government, and many private agencies are afraid to step on Chinese toes even though they are aware of the incredible human suffering endured by the people of North Korea.

The Comfort Women

There are only 58 known comfort women or halmonies, as they are called, still living in South Korea.  These old women are all that is left of the some 200,000 women and girls kidnapped or tricked into sexual slavery during World War II.
Their story is tragic, but it is also a story of bravery and perseverance as the survivors continue to fight for justice, not only for themselves, but also for oppressed and exploited women around the world.  These women overcame the pain and the shame of their past to step up and challenge the Japanese government, telling their stories to the world.  They still have not even received an apology or acknowledgement from the Japanese but that doesn't stop them.  They demonstrate in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul every Wednesday at noon.  every Wednesday one of the frail halmonies gets up in front of a crowd of supporters to encourage young people to work hard for justice.  They raise money for women in the Congo who have also experienced rape as a weapon of war.  The halmonie who spoke today is old and frail.  Two people helped her onto the platform to speak but once she got there her voice was clear and her words ere powerful.  She encouraged the students there to study hard and make the world a better place.
The students in attendance paid tribute to the halmonies with banners and signs demanding justice.  Many gave speeches.  Some sang.  A large group of Korean-American teens from California played traditional Korean music and sang. It was very touching.  Afterwards many had their pictures taken with the comfort women memorial statue that will soon be on tour in the United States.
Rape as a weapon of war goes back much farther that World War II.  During the Japanese invasion of Korea that started in 1592 many Korean women and girls committed suicide rather than be raped by the Japanese soldier.  Korean women were captured and taken to camps.  There were reportedly up to several hundred women per army unit.  The Chinese soldiers of the Ming dynasty who came to Korea to help expel the Japanese were no better.  Many more Korean women jumped from cliffs or drowned themselves to escape. At other times during Korea's long history, invading powers demanded payment in young girls.  Sometimes thousands of girls were sent to China or Japan almost as a form of tax payment.

• Today the countries involved in sexual slavery may be different, but the practice of waging war on women's bodies continue in many forms in many different parts of the world.  Unfortunately the perpetrators, like the Japanese soldiers during World War II go unpunished.  Without consequences the war crimes continue.

Changing Korea

People keep telling me that Korea is changing - and they are not talking about all the new construction or the faster Internet, they are talking about the culture, the people.  The older people say that the younger generations don't understand what life was like before.  They don't know how to live without a hot shower everyday.  They don't understand the suffering of the generations before them.  But the younger generations have their own problems.  TV programs warn of impending neck problems from texting and too many hours at the computer.  They complain about their tiger moms who don't understand their desire to free themselves from the burden of high expectations...
But there are tell tell signs that all has not changed.  The punk rockers with their Mohawk hair and spiked leather jackets bow to the audience before their performance, totally negating their credibility as true "bad boys".  The scripture may be read from the screen of a cell phone and the music projected from a MacBook, but the service still goes on until it is over without any apparent regard for time or schedule.
Change is inevitable.  It keeps life from getting stale or predictable.  How can we grow if we cannot change? How can we find a better way if we do not experiment?  The major change and growth of  Korea in the 1970s and 80s came with a horrible price.  The younger generations did not pay that price, but they bask in the benefits.  It is their time now.  They must be the catalysts of change and they must bear whatever consequences come with that change.
Those of us who are old enough to remember the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States can certainly remember our own youthful desire to change the world. Power to the people- right on.

Special Food

Korea has 3 special summer days that mark the hot season.  The days are marked by special foods. The one served at my house today was one that I had seen on a cooking show this morning while having breakfast from Dunkin Donuts.  The dish is a soup with broth made from chicken feet.  Each bowl of soup has one small chicken (or at least the greater part of one) stuffed with rice, ginseng, and dried fruit.  The rice has a distinct ginseng flavor to it. According to the TV roast duck is also a traditional dish of the day.
I'm looking forward to finding out what we get to eat on the next special day that marks the middle of the summer heat.

Arrival in Korea

A trip half way around the world is never easy.  This time we came to Korea via Toronto and Beijing.  Of course there were delays, but we made all of our flights and were only about 2 hours later than expected getting in (2:30 am instead of midnight).  Luckily the we had reservations at the spa at the airport where, for $30 we were able to get a bed and a wonderful hot shower as well as two lockers: one for shoes and the other for our clothes and valuables.  There was a cheaper option for the shower and a space to sleep on the floor but we opted to pay extra for the private space.then this morning went to Dunkin Donuts for coffee and took the subway to the apartment.  I haven't quite figured out how to upload pictures from the iPad yet, but will post some later if I figure it out.