Collegiate Times

While North Korea?s nuclear testing has gained worldwide attention, the nation?s refugee crisis has come to the attention of several of Virginia Tech students.

Last semester, a group of students at Virginia Tech decided they wanted to get involved with the refugee crisis and began a chapter of Liberty in North Korea, an international, non-profit, non-partisan and non-religious organization based in the Washington D.C. area that focuses exclusively on the welfare of North Korean refugees.

Members are currently trying to plan events to raise awareness and educate other students on the problems that these refugees face. ?We are the only human rights organization dedicated solely to North Korean refugees,? said Hannah Song, associate director for LiNK. There are currently 70 chapters worldwide in cities such as Seoul, London, Brussels and Tokyo.

The organization is planning a free social where students can come and discuss North Korea, in addition to trying to find ways to help end the current crisis. The social will be held during the last week of October, and its location is to be announced.

LiNK will be holding a fundraiser on the Drillfield in mid-November where they will sell baked goods and hot chocolate. Fliers will be also be handed out, informing students about the refugee issue.

Last week, Tech?s chapter of LiNK organized a viewing of a documentary in Squires Haymarket Theatre entitled ?Seoul Train.? The documentary ? composed of a series of home videos made by refugees attempting to attain freedom ? is a graphic depiction of the ongoing tragedy happening in North Korea. Following the film was a drawing in which the group made $115, which will go toward the funding of a safe house in China.

Safehouses in China are secret homes for refugees while they attempt to relocate to more welcoming countries such as Mongolia and Japan. They can be extremely dangerous for refugees because if they are found out, the Chinese government will send any refugee back to North Korea where they would potentially face political prison camps or public execution. China, despite having signed treaties with human rights organizations around the world stating it would help refugees reach more welcoming countries, is accused of sending refugees back to North Korea, thus violating these previous agreements.

?I think there will be more pressure for China to change its policies in the near future because of the 2008 Beijing Olympics,? said Jin Youn, a senior biochemistry major and president of the Virginia Tech chapter of LiNK. ?The problem with China is that they are a world player, and they aren?t doing anything to help the refugees.?

LiNK is also participating in ?Project Safe Haven.? The project, to which Tech?s chapter hopes to contribute $500 to by the end of February, is an effort to supply over 30 safehouses in China with food, clothing and medical care.

?The $500 we plan on providing at the end of February will provide food, clothing and medical care for a safe house containing 50 people for one month,? said Carolynn Shillingburg, a junior history and classical studies major and vice president to the Tech chapter. LiNK?s other major project is entitled ?Project Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds.?

LiNK was created three years ago at the Korean American Student Conference, held at Yale University. The issue of North Korean refugees was the main platform of the conference. ?Students were so moved that they felt they couldn?t leave the conference doing nothing, so they formed LiNK to do something,? Song said.

Since then, LiNK has been met with high success and is moving forward at a rate once thought unimaginable.

Approximately 200,000 people are in political prisoner detainment camps or concentration camps, and it is not difficult to be sent to one. Knowledge of a South Korean pop song or interaction with someone who is not North Korean can cause an individual to be sent to these places. Women are reportedly forced into prostitution or are forced to give themselves abortions, and there are even concentration camps devoted to children, Youn said. Public executions are almost a daily occurrence.

?Little things, such as stealing food, can get you executed,? Shillingburg said.

Just two weeks ago, a public execution tape was released. The woman executed was accused of stealing corn from her neighbor. This tape is only one of many that has surfaced.

Many Korean students at Tech and elsewhere are affected by the treatment of North Korea. In addition, escaping across the 38th parallel is almost impossible due to the extremely high security along the border, which is guarded by South Korean, North Korean and U.S. troops. Therefore, the only way to escape is through China, which isn?t cooperating.

?It is not rare to see people who have relatives in North Korea because of the suddenness of the creation of the 38th parallel,? Youn said. With North Korea?s latest nuclear bomb testing, Song is concerned that the human rights issues will once again be overlooked. ?The consequences of these tests are that the crisis will be overlooked, or it will be treated in an extreme way,? Song said. ?Our hope is that they will be given the attention they deserve, and now that North Korea?s has come into the forefront of the media, it will be an opportunity for human rights to brought to the public eye. We also hope that the two issues will not be linked.?