Glimpses Into The Hardships of North Korean Refugees
The LFNKR's foster parent program mainly supplies financial support for the education of orphans from North Korea.
One of the shelters used for refugees from North Korea. One hut accommodates 4 to 5 people. Our group (LFNKR) supplied the plastic sheets.
Dead bodies floating from North Korea. Local Korean Chinese in Musan say they died from starvation.
This shelter is located in a border mountainous area of Changbai, Jilin, where the temperature sometimes plummets to -30 Centigrade (-22 F).
This boy was arrested by North Korean border guards during a trip back home to North Korea with the money he earned in China. At a lockup in Hangyong Bukto, where the temperature was -20 Centigrade (-4 F), his shoes were taken away, and he lost all ten toes to frostbite.
The mother and her daughter left their hometown, Onsong, Hamgyong Bukto, North Korea and went to China, searching for food. The little girl has gone blind from malnutrition.
This man escaped to Vietnam but was arrested and handed over to Chinese authorities. He so feared being sent back to North Korea that he swallowed spoons trying to kill himself. Here, he shows the incision made to remove the spoons. He managed to avoid repatriation and reached South Korea by a small boat.
LFNKR runs a self-reliance program allowing refugees to help generate funds for their own support by knitting colorful covers for "zabuton" cushions. These cushion covers are sold in Japan and other countries.
Another self-reliance project is the creation of hand-carved crosses for sale abroad.
The slogan "Hail to the great Sun in the 21st century, General Kim Jong-il" in Hyesan, North Korea seen from the opposite bank in Changbai, Jilin, China.
A starving North Korean refugee managed to escape from Hyesan to Changbai, but died two days after this picture was taken (in 2000).
The sign says "Trafficking in North Korean females prohibited." It was posted in a village in Helong, Autonomous Region in Jilin, where many Korean Chinese live.
