1.31.2016

My escape from North Korea

TED
Hyeonseo Lee: My escape from North Korea
Summary
The speaker Hyeonseo Lee is Korean. She was very proud of her own country, North Korea where she was born. As her family was not poor, she didn't know that people in her country were suffering. When a huge famine hit in North Korea, she was sent to China separately with her family. It was hard for her to live in China, because North Korean refugees were considered in China as illegal migrants. Some of them seek asylum though many were caught and repatriated to North Korea. They could be tortured, imprisoned, or publicly executed. If her identity could be revealed, she would have those similar experience also. She continued hiding it for 10 years but she decided to risk going to South Korea. Although people who live there were all Koreans the same as her, there was a wide gap between North and South. She didn't have her identity. She, then, had to travel to help her family. Her family was arrested several times for illegal border crossing during travel. She spent her money to help them though her money gave out.
At that time, a miracle occurred. A complete stranger paid the rest of money to help them. He said that he was not helping her, he was helping the North Korean people.
This is the true meaning of helping someone without expecting anything in return.  I wonder where such a person came from and how he received the education.
She has gotten freedom to live but she continues fighting. It means that many Korean people are still suffering like her. She realized that a miracle which the stranger helped the North Korean people is that she has to do. It show her grateful feelings and become the rays of hope. It might change North Korea. Her identity came back in her.
Again, I knew that North Korea, South Korea, China and Japan are the same Asian countries though there are a lot of differences that I didn't know and I cannot be learned in the textbooks for the schools. Incidentally, I think that it is good for me to know this story in English  which the speaker spoke. It is because I could feel that she is the person who's studying English like the same as me. If I read it in Japanese characters, I would not keep it in mind.

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