“WHERE FOOD IS NOT CHOSEN WITH CONSEQUENCES”

North Koreans, under the dictatorship of the

‘Kim’ family, have been suffering as emigrants for decades.
It is a sad reality to know the situation inside North Korea
with their leaders thinking that their country alone can
survive even with all the severe persecution happening
inside their territory. By watching the documentary, I have
also realized that even the natives of North Korea wanted
to emigrate so badly by the fact that they wanted to leave
behind their own land and live permanently in a safe,
peaceful, and economically stable country. The current
situation on that side of the border was inflicted even after
the Korean War. While it is true that the two Koreas; the
North and the South sign a ceasefire of the war in 1945, the
agreement never assured peace and unity and thus,
dubbed as “allies in name only” and created what we now
know as the Demilitarized zone and a dangerous borderline
between the Korean Peninsula. From that day forward,
North Korea has been shaped to a political ideology called “self-reliance.” They established a
relatively tight and restrictive economy that violates privacy and democracy at its finest. Seeing
how the issues of migration and territorial conflicts in the Korean Peninsula, especially on what
has been deemed as “restrictions” in North Korea, is a frightening and unbelievable reality, and
the relationship between these two issues weigh in with each other. Political conflicts make
separation; whereas it makes an unsettled and crucial border; could possibly make two
countries, and post parties may declare a war on each other or be rivals forever. When war or
crisis sparks upon a country because of their selfishness and unsettled conflicts, the same
people from that side will experience the effects of “self-reliance” such as economic instability
and incredibility, war with neighboring countries, and the vision to have the most nuclear
bombs in the whole world; and when an economy falls, the people flee that place (what we call
as migration) in order to survive well and escape the defects of a failing economy. The
documentary we have watched a few weeks ago is a perfect example of emigration in an
extraordinary case. Women and children are trying to escape hardship because of dictatorship.
They all came to realize that they are starving for love of country and peace of mind. Seeing
their perseverance to exit North Korea is their thirstiness of a peaceful and organized country
where food is not chosen with consequences; where sleeping is not a sin; where adoring God is
not against the commandment; and where peace is not attained by crossing borders. For the
love of humanity, let us pray for North Korea and all those who are suffering because of conflicts
around the globe. At the time we are asked to stand up for them, let us do so considering their
hardships as part of our fraternal care for them—no matter what race and religion.

Written by: Ibanez, Banjo P.