Mike Kim, author and founder of Crossing Borders, an NGO providing aid to North Koreans, will deliver the weekly Carleton College convocation on Friday, Feb. 25 at 10:50 a.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel. Entitled “Escaping North Korea,” Kim’s presentation is free and open to the public.
On New Year’s Day in 2003, Kim, a Korean-American, abandoned his financial planning business in Chicago, and, with little more than a couple of duffle bags, bought a one-way ticket to China. Living along the border of North Korea, Kim studied undercover as a student of North Korean taekwondo in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, eventually earning a second-degree black belt. As one of the very few Americans granted entry into the secretive “Hermit Kingdom,” Kim came to know the isolated country and its people intimately and his experience resulted in his acclaimed book, “Escaping North Korea: Defiance and Hope in the World’s Most Repressive Country” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), which tells the tales of North Korean refugees making their way along a 6,000 mile underground railroad across Asia. Kim’s North Korean friends entrusted their secrets to him as they revealed the government’s brainwashing tactics and confessed their true thoughts about the repressive regime that so rigidly controls their lives.
The book tells the inspirational stories of those who overcame tremendous adversity to escape their homeland and find new lives. Civilians and soldiers alike spoke of what North Koreans think of Americans and war with America. Children remembered the suffering they endured through the famine. Women and girls recalled their horrific sex-trafficking experiences. Former political prisoners shared their memories of beatings, torture, and executions in the gulags.The Wall Street Journal wrote, “The power of ‘Escaping North Korea’ stems from the stories Mr. Kim tells. During his four years in China, he met hundreds of escapees from the North. He reconstructs their tales -- of the privations of daily existence in North Korea, of life on the lam in China -- in heartbreaking detail… There are many heroes in Mr. Kim's book, not least the author himself.”
Kim has also been featured in The Korea Times and The Korea Daily, and has appeared on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Kim received his MBA from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and now travels and speaks around the country in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of North Korean refugees. For more information about Kim and “Escaping North Korea,” visit www.escapingnorthkorea.com.
This event is sponsored by the Carleton College Office of College Relations. For more information, including disability accommodations, contact Kerry Raadt at (507) 222-4308. The Skinner Memorial Chapel is located on First Street, between College and Winona Streets in Northfield.
