Dispatches from the Underground Railroad

The Chosun Ilbo ran a very moving piece today, in which its journalists followed a group of North Korean defectors through China, trying to evade the police, but not always quite succeeding:

At 3:40 a.m., a People’s Liberation Army soldier stopped the bus and announced he would conduct a search. The inside lights went on and everyone froze. The defectors, however, covered themselves up with blankets and didn’t move a finger, pretending to be lost in sleep. The press team, too, removed and hid the memory chips from their cameras underneath the blankets.

The soldier came first to Eun-mi and demanded she show her identification. She performed her skit well, handing over the document as if she were rather annoyed, as though this was the first time she had been asked, all the while looking down.

When he received Bu-heung’s papers, the soldier asked, “Why are you carrying a fake identification?” On a real passport, the word “China” is presented holographically, but this did not show up so well on Bu-heung’s forgery.

One hopes that more stories like this might mean better turnout for the next demonstration at China’s embassy in Seoul. Read the whole thing.