INSIGHT: Into North Koreans

As part of my journey to help others embrace those different from themselves, I was given the opportunity to share my story in a brand-new documentary titled, “INSIGHT: Into North Koreans”. The documentary attempts to steer away from the political narrative on North Korea and focus instead upon North Korean’s humanity and person-to-person interactions between North Koreans and foreigners. As the film brings a human face to North Korea, it is a much-needed documentary in our currently politically polarized world.

On June 4th, the film’s premiere screening took place in Seoul, Korea. Reconnect NZ, a non-profit organization founded by Korean expats from New Zealand, produced the documentary with sponsorship from UniKorea Foundation. The premiere provided a critical avenue to network with other organizations working for unification on the Korean Peninsula.

After the premiere, I was given the unique privilege to speak. Here is what I shared:

Speaking at the Premiere of “INSIGHT: Into North Koreans”

As the Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie states, there is danger in a single story. One big reason the Korean peninsula has for decades been one of the most dangerous situations in the world is because fear has dominated all sides – North Korea, South Korea, and the U.S. Fear creates policies of fear, such that Americans rarely travel into North Korea and the average South and North Korean cannot cross the border, meet, share a meal, or even see one another up close.

It is for this reason that North Korea is one of the most misunderstood countries in the world. Therefore, this documentary is about helping us see multiple stories about North Korea, about people who care about other people, about giving us hope that when our “single story” is stretched, a new future is possible.

More than we know it, the media and political agendas shape our understanding of the world causing a greater divide between contrasting worlds. This is perhaps especially true on the Korean Peninsula. Having grown up in South Korea and also lived in North Korea for more than ten years, I am familiar with both the South Korean and North Korean worldview.

I was prepared for the North Korea worldview when I first entered the country, but what I wasn’t prepared for were similar one-sided views outside the country once I left North Korea. I have discovered that no matter where we grow up or where we are from, oftentimes much of our worldview is tainted by how we are taught and what information we are presented.

North Korea has always been a land of controversy. International media focuses on North Korea’s human rights issues, nuclear weapons, and economic hardships. Highlighting North Korea in a negative light brings our focus on these issues. Therefore, these are the fixed images that come to mind when we think of North Korea. But is that really all there is to see? Before I came to North Korea, I also only knew the country from that perspective. But the more time I spent there and the more I got to know the people, the more I was challenged to see North Korea in a different light.

Despite popular opinion, the world does not have to be viewed from a political point of view. In fact, we have more in common with North Koreans than we may think.

In April of 2007 when I first entered North Korea, I felt like I had stepped back into time. The North Korean landscape reminded me of the Korea I once knew long ago as a child. It was a landscape of simple, daily life, just like many other rural villages in Korea.  

When the two governmental officials came to greet me at immigration, my first impression was, “He’s so handsome!” Our guide had a boyishly good-looking appearance. After all, he was just a person, like you and me.

The people I met in North Korea were kind-hearted and generous. I was warmly welcomed, even though I was an obvious foreigner. On my first visit to the local market, I tried greeting the local vendors in Korean, and they burst into laughter. Children in the market also looked at me and hid behind their mothers’ skirts. They were shocked to see my foreign face. Some looked at me with suspicion, but many others greeted me with a smile. On that first trip, everything in North Korea seemed unfamiliar.

But as time went by, that initial tension was transformed into a great harvest of good memories with the people living there. The friendly countryside that I remembered as a child in South Kora with people laughing and living their lives is in the North as well. My time in North Korea has changed my heart and life forever. In place of fear, my heart has opened up to deeply loving the North Korean people.

Today, when I close my eyes, the faces of North Korean children, with their tanned skin and playful smiles, come to my mind. Regardless of politics, their sparkling eyes turn to greet me. I miss them. I miss the bright smiles of the children in North Korea.

Throughout our time in the North, many North Koreans have been surprised to get to know my husband and I and interact with us. Their attitudes about Americans have changed from fear and hatred to openness and warmth for their newfound friends. The more my husband and I understood North Koreans, the more we learned to work together with positive results. And the more we learned to trust them, the deeper our relationships with them became.

To my surprise, I discovered joy in building relationships with North Koreans. This journey of discovering who North Koreans are also taught me about who I was. I had my own preconceptions of who they were, and not all of it was true. It was only when I engaged with them on a human-level in their own world that I began to expand my understanding of not only North Koreans but also myself. This journey into North Korea led to a paradigm shift in my heart and mind, bringing about a brand-new worldview, and I personally discovered joy in who I became from my ten plus years in North Korea.

North Korea has a strong drive for reunification. This is a soft spot perhaps for all Koreans, but particularly for North Koreans.

Through Ignis Community’s medical work in North Korea, we have been able to bring North Korean doctors abroad for medical training. Through one such training in China, North and South Korean doctors were able to collaborate together. When the training first began, distrust and skepticism were high between the North and South Koreans. But by the end of the training, they were holding hands and smiling. North and South Koreans unified over the song, “Our Wish Is Unification”. There was not a dry eye in the place! Even the most stoic of doctors found themselves shedding a tear or two. 

Unity is found on common ground. In this case, the North and South Korean medical professionals were united over treatment for children with developmental disabilities. But these doctors learned much more than just medical knowledge. They learned that humanity can be found in all people: in the disabled, in our next-door neighbors, and even in the most separated and broken of relationships!

Production Team and Interviewees for “INSIGHT: Into North Korea”

This is my hope for you. As you have the opportunity to watch the documentary, “INSIGHT: Into North Korea”, I hope it provides new insight into North Korea. May you also discover for yourself a new way of looking at the world, particularly a new way of viewing your neighbors to the North. May you, also, discover newfound love for your brothers and sisters in North Korea, just as I have. As you encounter the people of North Korea through the lens of those who have first-hand experiences with them, may your picture of North Korea broaden, leading to a new understanding of your family, your people, and the entire Korean Peninsula.