Funding for the educational materials was provided by The Overbrook Foundation.
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
1. Ask students if they can think of any heavily guarded national borders, either today or throughout history. (Answers will vary, but may include the Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall, the U.S./Mexico border, and the demilitarized zone—or “DMZ”—between North and South Korea; ensure that the latter is mentioned.) For every example given, ask students if they think the border is (or was) guarded to keep people in, or to keep people out. (Answers will vary.) Frame “Worth The Risk?” by telling students that they will now be taking a look at a lesser-known Korean border—that which lies between North Korea and China. Provide a focus for students by asking them what risks North Koreans run by attempting to cross this border. Play Worth The Risk?
2. Follow up the clip by reviewing the focus question: what risks do North Koreans run by attempting to cross this border? (Imprisonment, potentially torture, and possibly even execution.) Ask the class what a person is called when they “illegally” attempt to leave their own country. (A defector.) Frame the next clip by explaining that it describes much of what motivates defectors to try and escape from North Korea despite the risks. Provide a focus by asking students what these motivations are. Play Heaven on Earth.
3. Follow up the clip by reviewing the focus question: what are some of the motivations for North Korean defectors? (The Great Famine, which killed up to 1 million people; economic collapse in the early 1990s and subsequent poverty; Kim Jong Il’s repressive secret police; lack of hope.) Ask students what the twin meanings of “Heaven” are to North Koreans. (Official propaganda maintains that North Korea is itself “Heaven on Earth,” while defectors see the political freedom and material wealth of South Korea and the rest of the “First World” as the Heaven they aspire to reach.) Ask students if they imagine that North Korean propaganda is effective among North Koreans. If so, why? (Accept all answers.)
4. Frame the next clip, “Brainwashed,” by explaining that many North Koreans do in fact believe the official propaganda because North Korea is a closed society; Kim Jong Il and his authoritarian secret police do not allow access to any outside media, let alone travel to other countries, so most North Koreans only know what they’re told by the government. Provide a focus by asking students what the North Korean education system teaches its students. Play Brainwashed. Pause the clip at 00:46, after the Korean journalist says “They teach that the ‘Dear Leader’ is the best, and that North Korea is the strongest and most independent country in the world.”
5. Follow up the clip by reviewing the focus question: what does the North Korean education system teach its students? (That the “Dear Leader” is the best, and that North Korea is the strongest and most independent country in the world.”) What does the South Korean journalist call this type of teaching? (“Brainwashing.”) Frame the remainder of the clip by explaining that it features two sisters: Park Gum Suk, who has already defected to China, and her younger sister Park Un Suk, who has been smuggled out to join her sister. Provide a focus by asking students how Park Gum Suk tries to convince her sister to leave North Korea for good, and how Un Suk responds. Play the clip through to the end.
6. Follow up the clip, by reviewing the focus question: how does Park Kum Suk try to convince her sister to leave North Korea for good, and how does Un Suk respond? (Kum Suk explains that millions have died in North Korea because of “General” Kim Jong Il’s policies, but Un Suk replies that people only died because “they didn’t work hard enough,” and insists that her sister’s criticism of the socialist North in general—and of “The General” in particular—are based on capitalist propaganda.) Ask students if they can imagine themselves so successfully brainwashed. (Accept all answers.)
7. Explain that, like Park Kum Suk, almost all North Korean defectors attempt to escape across North Korea’s northern border into China. Ask students why they think defectors wouldn’t try to cross directly into the “Heaven” of South Korea. (Because that border—also known as the “DMZ,” or “demilitarized zone”—is in fact heavily militarized on both sides, and has been a carefully monitored potential geopolitical flashpoint ever since the 1953 ceasefire which ended the Korean Conflict; technically, North and South Korea remain at war!)
8. Divide the class into five groups and have each group log onto “The Escape Route” website and assign each group one location marker in the sequence. After allowing each group a minute or two to read their location’s annotation, have each group give a brief report about the role their assigned location plays in the circuitous route taken by most defectors from North to South Korea.
9. Frame the next clip, “Flight to Freedom,” by explaining that it depicts an attempt by Gum Hee—a North Korean defector currently living in China—to skip the difficult overland journey and fly directly to South Korea by using a forged Chinese passport. She is planning to leave her son Bo Song behind and have him smuggled out later—assuming she isn’t caught herself. Provide a focus for students by asking them what particular fear Gum Hee has as she passes through the Chinese immigration control. Play Flight to Freedom.
10. Follow up the clip by reviewing the focus question: what particular fear does Gum Hee have as she passes through Chinese immigration control? (That her accent will give her away as Korean rather then Chinese.) Based upon what they learned from “The Escape Route” website, what might Gum Hee’s fate had been if her true identity had been discovered by the Chinese immigration authorities? (As an illegal immigrant, she would probably have been “repatriated” to North Korea, where she would have faced imprisonment or worse.) Ask students if they can imagine themselves taking such a risk, especially with the fate of their own child hanging in the balance. (Accept all answers.) What does this say about life in North Korea or as an illegal North Korean refugee in China? (Accept all answers.)
CULMINATING ACTIVITY
1. Have students re-form their five groups and have each group log on to the “Helping North Korean Defectors” website. Assign each group one of the five organizations listed to research, explaining that after 20-30 minutes they will be expected to make a brief presentation to the class about their assigned organization and the ways in which it is attempting to help North Korean refugees.
2. After all groups have made their presentations, have the class as a whole vote on which organization they feel offers the best opportunity for the students themselves to help North Korean refugees.
3. Either as homework or as an in-class activity, have the class follow through and actually undertake what they decided was the best course of action to help North Korean refugees. (Note that options range from raising awareness in their own community to writing letters to the Korean and/or United States governments.)
