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Good Morning from South Korea!
A quick good morning from South Korea to my friends and readers at Ricochet! I wanted to file a quick post to say hello from the future — it’s Monday morning here — and I’m up at 4:30 AM thanks to jetlag and mom worrying. (Last night, I saw my middle son puking on my unfortunate friend who agreed to watch my kids this week before I went to sleep).
For those who haven’t heard on LadyBrains or That Sethany Show, I’m here in South Korea for the week with my friends from Liberty in North Korea, an organization that helps North Korea refugees who have escaped over the border into China get to freedom in the West. Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) operates an underground railroad, shepherding refugees over the 3,000-mile journey from the China-North Korea border into South Korea. Almost all of the refugees remain in South Korea, where they enjoy citizenship. If they remain in China, they risk repatriation (usually to a gulag) in North Korea or sex trafficking in China.
Liberty in North Korea produced a video about the experience of one of those refugees that’s worth a watch:
I was interviewed by the great Kathryn Jean Lopez at NRO about why I became involved in the organization five or six years ago. I’ve been fundraising for LiNK using social media and have raised over $100,000 over that time; enough to rescue over 35 refugees. I’ve been actively fundraising in honor of this trip as well, and hope to raise to rescue 20 refugees in 2018.
Today we’ll be touring all around Seoul, visiting the Gwanghwamun Square (광화문), Gyeongbok Palace (경복궁), Samcheongdong (삼청동), and Insadong (인사동) and going on a river outing with some of the North Korean refugees living in Seoul currently.
I’ll be posting here hopefully every day about the North Korean people I meet along the way, along with a few tourist shots shared from my Instagram account, where there will be a lot more photos and videos shared (feel free to follow there).
Ricochet members: If you have suggestions for my trip, questions you’d like me to ask North Korean refugees/defectors or anything else, please leave comments! I’ll be tagging every post from this trip, hope you’ll enjoy following along!
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Well done to you! Heartfelt appreciation from this lover of freedom.
I don’t know if you have any time for “touristing” while in South Korea, but if you do a trip to Kyoung-Ju (sp?) the ancient capitol is well worth the time. Some wonderful scenery on the way down there, also. Blessings for the work you are doing. I have great affection and admiration for the Korean people, though I haven’t been there since the mid-80s.
How far is that from Seoul?
God Bless You, Bethany, for your fine work!
Wow – good luck and enjoy your trip.
You will probably cover this, but lest it slip your mind . Ask the North Koreans what the average guy/gal on the street in the North thinks of their country, leader, predicament ? (those still there). Also what they think of Trump, America, SK and the West in general ?
Bethany, great work you are doing!! Thanks so much.
We work with a group of self supporting helpers from the US and Australia. We support some of the house churches further south who assist refugees to travel to eventually get to that place where refugee visas are available.
Your work is a very critical part of the efforts to aid North Koreans to be able to gain freedom and often to be reunited with long lost family.
Wonderful!!
You are doing incredible work, Bethany. I’m so grateful that there are people like you, helping the North Koreans find new, safe homes. Bless you.
Bethany, it’s about 180 – 200 miles as I recall via SKorea’s wonderful railroad system.
Bless you for your service and actions for this cause.
I’d love to hear from those who escaped North Korea:
1. How long between when you wanted to flee, before you took action to leave?
2. Was there a specific event that caused you to flee?
3. What thoughts or beliefs gave you the courage to flee?
4. How did you prepare to flee?
Thank you again for what you are doing.
Thanks for the good work! I live in Thailand, the southern terminus of the North Korean “underground railway” through China and Laos. For the past few years, Thai authorities have generally treated North Korean migrants favorably and allowed them passage to South Korea. However, the current military regime is pushing closer ties with China and has already deported Uyghur asylum-seekers back to China and refused entry to Thailand to Hong Kong democracy advocates. I am concerned that the next step will be to crackdown on North Koreans here and the underground railway will be closed.
That’s terrible. Our administration should address this.
Greetings from Hwasong Flyover Country, a/k/a Japan!
Yasher Koach to you, Bethany, for such wonderful work!
As far as I know, the informal agreement between Thailand and South Korea to bring the refugees to South Korea is still being upheld, but as China extends its grip over Southeast Asia, who knows what will change. If that were to change, I hope the US would take a stand.
Great work!
As for suggestions, pay a visit to one of the DMZ checkpoints. Ask the guards if anything has changed since the Trump-Kim meeting.
Wow! God bless you and your team’s work and steps! Do those you rescue have any real information outside of the propaganda and are they aware of what has transpired recently between our world leaders? You also highlight the truth in what goes on in China – where their leader just signed an agreement with Pope Francis, yet Christians are still persecuted, and churches destroyed. Will pray for your mission.
If you have time a tour up to the Joint Security Area on the DMZ.
We were supposed to go but it’s closed because they’re still holding talks there :(