Time Asia on the Underground Railroad

My biggest regret of my recent trip to Korea was that I wasn’t able to sit down and talk with the Rev. Tim Peters at length. Tim is one of the kindest, most selfless, most sincere people I’ve met in my life. He told me to watch for this piece in Time, which begins with this refugee woman’s description of the guard who killed her unborn baby:

Hwang, Kim says, referred repeatedly to the baby as “the Chink,” because the father was a peasant from northeastern China, where Kim had fled earlier that year. As she lay on the prison floor, Hwang demanded that she abort the fetus herself. Kim refused, so the guard began kicking her over and over again in the stomach. Then he beat her, and continued beating her as her sister screamed, until Kim Myong Suk blacked out. When she regained consciousness, she says, she “was taken to a clinic in the camp, and in the most blunt manner, they removed [the fetus] from my body.”

The rest of the piece focuses on how refugees are smuggled out of the North, and China. It gives fresh insight on “defection brokers,” who are often villified by the South Korean authorities. Must reading, and a great graphic here. You can visit the Family Care Foundation, which helps fund the underground railroad, here. I have zero qualms about endorsing this one.

(Photo Cred: PHILIP BLENKINSOPÑAGENCE, TIME)