 |
By William R. Jones
Our friend Casey Lartigue recently opined "What's your mission for North Korea?" in The Korea Times with the public's interrogative: How can I help or get involved? The finalized response was "fundraising and donating" and the setting up of the "How to help North Koreans" project. My beginning stance was to purchase a copy of "Greenlight to Freedom," an unsilenced autobiography. Having read it, I'm glad of my outlay and I'm in agreement with writer John Ruskin: If a book is worth reading, it is worth buying.
The inside and outside of North Korea personal account of the life of Han Song-mi defined reality and depicted that her life did not get altogether easier due to lingering trauma and the need to find the real version of herself.
As her story unfolds, she experiences many rock-bottom lessons arising because she was the product of unbelievable abject poverty and a broken home. By the time she arrived for a 3-month stay at the "Settlement Support Center for North Korean Refugees" a.k.a. Hanawon in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, she felt almost unable to continue, but she had a long-continued hope and desire. That was, to see her birth mother again, who did escape North Korea when Song-mi was but a child. Her mother "worked her fingers to the bone" and risked her capital to various brokers who guided Song-mi through anguishing, harrying and evasive maneuvers to China, Laos and Thailand.
Even after the elative reunion with her mother in South Korea, Song-mi required professional and psychological consultation. Sensitive and emotional, the want and destitution that threatened life itself through starvation and exposure, and other noxious adhesions and subversions had subconsciously taken its toll upon her. In April of 2018, she posted on social media "Now I am zero," a person of little consequence or significance. Indeed, she felt like an empty quantity. Suicidal thoughts were incurring. She only wanted three things: (1) to discover what she was really like and what she wanted to do (2) an improved mother/daughter relationship, and (3) freedom from uncertainty to expect and make ready for a progressive future. The mental and emotional hygiene counseling proved to be conducive to her well-being.
Overcoming so many cultural barriers, Song-mi endured the bad in order to live to see the good, gaining many friends along her path. She had a story to tell; that story was the reason why she was the way she was. As a refugee, she realized that life didn't get easier, but that she had gotten stronger. She did nothing wrong in her past life and she reinvented her smile. Under favorable conditions, every day, in every way, she is getting better and better.
"Greenlight to Freedom" will engage your interest, and too, tell of abominable and detestable human actions and responses that will forcefully work upon your imagination and impinge upon your mind as you read. In the same vein, I would be remiss if I did not mention the great and wonderful men and women whose actions, responses and commitments have helped so many in finding their way. Kudos to all.
The author (wrjones@vsu.edu) published the novella "Beyond Harvard" and presently teaches English as a second language.
![[INTERVIEW] Virtual K-pop group MAVE: is more than just pretty pixels](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/bcc387606cf7451c94f51a5978960c9f.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
![[INTERVIEW] 'Cobweb' director questions meaning of cinema](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/a029c9ea411f4aef94c6310f6a7c3c54.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
![[INTERVIEW] Seoul's increased art market momentum brings Sotheby's back to Korea](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/3439cc1e2d744b85ab81fdcf6f045ba5.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
