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Boy Spends
Life in Hiding,
Finally Shot to Death
Chinese
Guard Kills NK 17-Year-Old
Refugee
Right at Mongolian Border
On
April 20 this year,
LFNKR received reports that a 20-year-old man was fatally shot
when Chinese border guards interrupted an escape attempt by 24
North Korean defectors as they were crossing the border into Mongolia
from Manzhouli, China.
Now RENK, a Japan-based NGO, has revealed that
the North Korean male killed on April 2 was not really 20 years
old, as reported by the Chinese authorities. In fact, he was only
17, and the Chinese authorities hurriedly cremated his body immediately
after the shooting. The boy’s ashes accompanied the other
23 NK refugees when they arrived in South Korea on May 18th.
To
date, the South Korean government has refused to allow
the dead boy’s father or his younger sister to speak out
publicly.
1998
-- Chol-hun and his young sister met Mr. Lee Young Hwa (RENK’s
representative)
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Feb. 1999 -- Back together after
going through the arrest and release in China |
Aug. 2000 -- Chol-hun still bears
scars from the third escape from North Korea following their
repatriation. |
Early 2001 -- Moved to a Korean-Chinese
village in Heilongjang, looking for a safer place to hide.
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Apr. 2003 -- With their father
in the village of Heilongjang |
Mid-March 2004 -- In his last hiding
place. He has grown into a young man. |
Mid-March 2004 -- At a Chinese
restaurant on the way to Mongolia. He ate two big bowlfuls
of Chinese noodles. Just after this photo was taken, his
father recalls telling him that they would finally be reaching
South Korea soon, and Chol-hun gave his biggest smile. |
Glimpses
Into The Hardships
of North Korean Refugees
This boy was arrested by North Korean border guards during
a trip back home to North Korea with the money he earned
in China. At a lockup in Hangyong Bukto, where the temperature
was -20 Centigrade (-4 F), his shoes were taken away, and
he lost all ten toes to frostbite. |
The mother and her daughter left their hometown, Onsong,
Hamgyong Bukto, North Korea and went to China, searching
for food. The little girl has gone blind from malnutrition.
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Dead bodies floating from North Korea. Local Korean Chinese
in Musan say they died from starvation. |
A starving North Korean refugee managed to escape from
Hyesan to Changbai, but died two days after this picture
was taken (in 2000). |
The slogan "Hail to the great Sun in the 21st century,
General Kim Jong-il" in Hyesan, North Korea seen from the
opposite bank in Changbai, Jilin, China. |
One of the shelters used for refugees from North Korea.
One hut accommodates 4 to 5 people. Our group (LFNKR) supplied
the plastic sheets. |
This man escaped to Vietnam but was arrested and handed
over to Chinese authorities. He so feared being sent back
to North Korea that he swallowed spoons trying to kill himself.
Here, he shows the incision made to remove the spoons. He
managed to avoid repatriation and reached South Korea by
a small boat. |
The sign says "Trafficking in North Korean females prohibited."
It was posted in a village in Helong, Autonomous Region
in Jilin, where many Korean Chinese live. |
This shelter is located in a border mountainous area
of Changbai, Jilin, where the temperature sometimes plummets
to -30 Centigrade (-22 F). |
The LFNKR's foster parent program mainly supplies financial
support for the education of orphans from North Korea. |
LFNKR runs a self-reliance program allowing refugees
to help generate funds for their own support by knitting
colorful covers for "zabuton" cushions. These cushion covers
are sold in Japan and other countries. |
Another self-reliance project is the creation of hand-carved
crosses for sale abroad. |
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