NorthKoreanRefugees.com

Boy & Girl Suffering from Tuberculosis

Life Funds for North Korean Refugees (LFNKR) is currently caring for a number of North Korean orphans living in the caves of Chanbai Mountain in China’s Jilin Province. Recently LFNKR received a report from our local staff that two of these North Korean orphans are suffering from Tuberculosis.

The report makes clear their urgent need for prompt medical treatment. For this purpose, we need to take them to a safe third country as quickly as can be arranged.

The expenses of getting them to a safe country will run US$ 2,000 per child. Their current status in China is illegal; thus, if it is discovered by authorities that they have tuberculosis, they will be arrested and deported directly back to North Korea. They cannot hope to receive medical examination or hospitalization in China officially, because tuberculosis is listed as an epidemic by the Chinese Public Health Ministry. Specifically, if a Chinese hospital reports them to the authorities (which they are required to do by law), then they will be forcibly deported back to North Korea, where they will receive severe punishment by the authorities. Being punished rather than treated will mean their deaths.

Their only hope is to reach a third country where they can receive medical treatment. This will not happen in China.

To help save these two lives, LFNKR is organizing a joint rescue operation to help them reach a South Korean Embassy for protected passage to a third country.

We invite you to help us in this rescue project.

Life Funds for North Korean Refugees

Choi Yung-jun

Name:  Choi Yung-jun (Name Changed for Security)
female
Date of birth:  xxday, xxmonth, 199x year
Plate of birth:  Onsong, North Hamgyong
Parents:  Father dead; mother (alive or dead, unknown;
whereabouts, unknown)

My mother left us six years ago, and I lived with my father, but he remarried. My step-mother hated me from the first, but I managed to stay for a year. Finally I left home and stayed with some of my relatives, including my aunt, my uncle and my grandmother. However, there were many problems there also, and it was not easy to stay with them. Eventually, I decided to live on the streets as a Kkot-jebi (homeless child).

Once, while staying with my grandmother, she told me that my mother had left North Korea and escaped into China. This is why I eventually went to China; I wanted to look for my mother. I really miss her.

However, China is too big, and I became lost. In Yanji, I met a kind South Korean, who helped me.

I have been suffering from stomachache and diarrhea almost every day. I often have headaches and chest pains. From April of this year, the pains have become more serious, and a doctor has told me that I have tuberculosis in my lungs. They say that I will die if I do not get medical treatment.

In China, if I go to a hospital for the treatment I need, my identity will be discovered, and I will be returned to North Korea where I would be forced back into the Kkot-jebi life. That is why I cannot go to a hospital in China.

I do not want to go back to North Korea without finding my mother. I have to stay in China to keep looking for her, but I will not be able to do that if I die. So, I wish to go to South Korea to receive the medical treatment. As soon as I recover my health, I want to go back and find my mother and live with her.

Won’t you help me?

Sim Su-man

Name: Sim Su-man (Name Changed for Security)
male
Date of birth: xxday xxmonth, 199x year
Place of birth: Ryanggang-do

My parents were divorced when I was still very young, and I lived with my father for 17 years. When I was 17, however, my mother died. After that, my father changed into a different person and became indifferent to me. My father remarried, but my new step-mother was constantly cruel to me so I left home. I drifted around in Hyesan, Yanggang-do, living as a Kkot-jebi (homeless child).

Becauuse there are many vagrants in Hyesan, helpless Kkot-jebi find it hard to survive. One day, I was just sitting, weak and starved, with almost no will left to survive, a boy suggested we go to China together. I had no idea what would be waiting over there, but when he said, “you’ll be able to fill your stomach in China,” that was enough for me and I went with him.

He and I crossed the Yalu River and entered Changbai where we asked Chinese people for food. After that, we often crossed the Yalu River back and forth just to stay alive.

I decided to stay in China in August 2011, and began living there with other orphans like myself. Then I got sick and started having a hard time breathing. A very kind missionary from xxx Church took me to a hospital, where a doctor said that there is a hole in my lung. I took the medicine the doctor prescribed, but my chest continued hurting. These days, my chest hurts badly and I often cough up blood. I often cough so much all night long that I cannot sleep.

I wish to go to a hospital to receive proper medical treatment, but if the doctors find my lung tumor, then the hospital will be required to report me to the related authorities because it is contagious. And, at that point, with the authorities knowing my identity, I would be sent back to North Korea. The only way for me to survive, I believe, is if I can escape to South Korea.

Please help me.