I was expecting a different perspective

Mike Kim was in Seoul a few weeks ago and gave a talk about his book, and I went and heard/saw it.  What he has been able to accomplish is amazing and personally, I was very interested in being able to hear what he had to say about North Korea, human rights, refuges etc.  I have to say though that I was disappointed in his lecture and heard others say they were disappointed in his book.  Before you jump on me, let me explain why:

1) I was expecting, from a self proclaimed former missionary, to hear more about the people, not the author.  Most of what he talked about was about him.  I do realize that the intro to his book and presentation, use phrases like “uniquely personal perspective” and that obviously, this was an almost indescribable part of his life… but… I didn’t want to hear about his life.  I wanted to hear about them, the real people involved in this and not snippets that make for good sound bites – which is what it feels like when you watch the Daily Show video (you know those cliche moments where someone tries to dazzle you with their profound insider knowledge of something, especially cultural differences?)  It not only seemed to cheapen the whole aspect of what he did, it made it too sound bite worthy – as in, people won’t remember the situation, but instead the crazy, fast facts to rattle off.

2)  From what I understand, Mike Kim founded the organization “Crossing Borders” but, as of yet, I haven’t heard of any of his current involvement.  The point I’m trying to make is that he made no mention of where the profits for this book are going.  One would assume that if it was to the foundation, then one would try to plug that as much as possible…  no mention of it leads me to assume that he’s profiting (?)  If you know the answer to that, I would greatly appreciate to hear it.

There was very little mention of Crossing Borders itself.  Is it even still functioning?  Is there a way for your average white girl in the south to help out?  From this lack of information it appeared that he really had cut all ties with the organization and cause, and was more interested in promoting and selling his book.

One question that was very interesting from an audience member was about the following (I wrote some of it down but don’t have all of it).  The question was asking about his impression of South Korean’s attitudes towards the North and his comments in 2 of the local newspapers (which stated that of the 4 continents that he had given this talk, South Korea had the lowest interest level of any of them).  His response was that the South does not have that much interest in human rights of the North due to the fact that the South has its own propaganda and it is hard to separate the people from the regime.

That, that right there, that type of focus, focus on the people and the issue, that’s what I wanted from this lecture and from the book.  It’s not to say that I won’t read the book (but at the talk itself he said it wasn’t available in South Korea yet…) I was just hoping for more.

You can check on Korea Beat and Marmot’s Hole for various write ups and videos (the Daily Show) about Mike Kim and his book Escaping North Korea (various links below).

Seoul train is a documentary about escaping North Korean refuges.  It doesn’t appear to be for private sale but they do accept donations that will assist North Korean refuges.

North Korea – Human Rights the facebook page but no mention of how to actually help beyond adding the page to your groups on FB.

Escaping North Korea webpage.

Escaping North Korea by Mike Kim facebook fan page:

Mike Kim is the author of Escaping North Korea: Defiance and Hope in the World’s Most Repressive Country. Mike is a Korean-American who, in 2003, moved to the China-North Korea border and founded Crossing Borders, a nonprofit dedicated to providing humanitarian assistance to North Korean refugees. On New Year’s Day 2003, he gave up his financial planning business in Chicago and left for China on a one-way ticket carrying little more than two duffle bags. While living near the North Korean border, he operated undercover as a student of North Korean taekwondo, training under North Korean masters from Pyongyang. During his time in China, he learned of the hundreds of thousands of North Koreans fleeing to China through a 6,000-mile modern-day underground railroad in search of food and freedom. He has interviewed hundreds of North Koreans and in his book he recounts their experiences of famine, defection, sex-trafficking, and torture in gulags.

The Crossing Borders webpage. They accept donations online.