Posted on 06/09/2015 4:20:54 AM PDT by NYer
In Korea, the only "god" he knew was the country's leader, Kim Il-Sung, and any perceived blasphemy against him could land a person in a prison camp.
So when Joseph Kim finally crossed the Tumen river into China, he did what he was told—follow the cross—even though he didn't know what a cross or a Christian was.
Kim tells his story in a new book, Under the Same Sky: From Starvation in North Korea to Salvation in America (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), and at a time when North Korea occasionally surfaces in the headlines for its continuing beligerence towards the West, the tale gives some insight into life in the largely hidden society.
And a harrowing tale it is.
Kim and his family led a relatively normal life until the death of Kim Il-Sung, followed by Russia's cutting off foreign aid to North Korea. Combined with severe weather events, the political move left the socialist country open to a severe famine. Kim recalls filling his belly with whatever his parents could scrounge up but having the feeling that his body was not getting enough nutrition. Eventually, a handful of weeds was about the only thing the family had each day. On some days, it was only a few sips of water.
Death and misery were rampant throughout the country. Kim's own father died, despite heroic efforts to feed his family. His mother finally decided to engage a broker who could smuggle her and her children into neighboring China. She was caught and sent to prison. Before she was arrested, she had sold Kim's sister to a Chinese man. Alone now, the 12-year-old Kim lived with relatives and finally landed in a detention center, which had its own set of horrors. Finally, by age 15, on a cold winter night, he snuck across the frozen Tumen River.
Safely on the Chinese side of that natural boundary, Kim followed the "sign of the cross" to a church, and was eventually plugged in to a Christian underground network. A pastor helped him blend into Chinese society, and a missionary offered Kim a way to get to the United States. As the New York Post's Maureen Callahan relates it:
Catholic ping!
This is a very touching story - and one that brought tears to my eyes. God help us if we lose this great country to a bunch of idiots who think their sh** don’t stink and who embrace communism. America is the only hope some will ever have and if she goes down - all go down.
Bump
Hard to believe that North Korea is a ROLE MODEL for Democrat intentions...
Makes me want to take someone in.
Are we blessed to be living in this country or what!!!
Whenever I hear pleas to feed the hungry in the US, where 46.2 million Americans on food stamps , I can't help but be offended. We live in a country of plenty! Our outreach should be directed to those who are being starved to death in countries like North Korea or Syria where ISIS has stripped them of all their financial resources. Shame on the US!
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