N K School Textbooks Attracted Crowds During 2-Day Festival

LFNKR an exhibitor at One World Festival, Osaka, Japan (Feb. 3-4, 2007)

More than 100 NGOs and NPOs in Japan joined the One World Festival held for two days at Osaka International Communications Center (Feb. 3rd and 4th). Many groups participated in the event under the theme “Bringing the world closer through education, interaction and mutual assistance.” The groups are working to help resolve today’s global issues of environmental destruction, poverty, repression of human rights, ethnic conflict, and refugees. Approximately 12,600 guests visited the exhibition during the 2-day event.

Our group, Life Funds for North Korean Refugees (LFNKR) displayed a number of items from everyday life in North Korea and continually played documentary videotapes featuring several of our foster children as well as North Korean orphans or street children. We also played and sold the Japanese version of the Seoul Train documentary DVD.

LFNKR members staffing the booth were surprised by the high degree of interest in the near-crumbling school textbooks from North Korea. The books attracted consistently large crowds, and many of the visitors requested permission to photograph the books (see photos below).

The textbooks shown below were received from several North Korean refugees whom LFNKR helped reach Japan. Until the 1980’s the country used ordinary pulp paper to print textbooks, but when the government could no longer afford pulp they began using paper made from corn husks (excluding the outermost husks). The ink used for printing is of extremely low quality. The textbooks are re-used for many years, thus the serious worn and tattered condition. Visitors had to handle the books very carefully to keep the books from coming apart.