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Week 8 [03.12-09.12.18]

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This video tells Hyeonseo Lee's story of leaving her own country to begin a life in hiding, as a refugee in China. In this video she tells about the situation that was in South, North Korea and China, the way she lived and how she survived.


https://www.ted.com/talks/hyeonseo_lee_my_escape_from_north_korea


Please answer the following questions:

  1. What do you know about the current situation in North and South Korea?
  2. What would you do if you were on her place?
  3. Do you think the kind stranger that paid the rest of the money for Hyeonseo's family was real or she she tries to hide something?

Comments

Bartosz Kiwerski said…
I don't know much about current situation neither in North Korea nor in South Korea. All I've heard is that this year Kim Jong-Un had met South Korea president - Mun Jae-in and two months later the president of the United States - Donald Trump but I have no knowledge what was the result of those meetings. In her place, I would try to smuggle my family even further to some country which doesn't care so much about immigrants. I think the kind stranger was real, maybe in past, he was also a citizen of North Korea (hiding his identity by using the English language) and he knew what she felt.
3 December 2018 at 18:31
Andrzej Niewiadomski said…
>What do you know about the current situation in North and South Korea?
Maybe I'm not well informed, but situation in South Korea is really good :P Maybe despite a fact that all of them are workaholics :P When it comes to North Korea, man I think it's like a hell on earth. I fell really sorry for all of people living there.

>What would you do if you were on her place?
It's impossible to say.

>Do you think the kind stranger that paid the rest of the money for Hyeonseo's family was >real or she she tries to hide something?
It's also impossible to say, but I do not think that she is hideing something, but I may be wrong.
3 December 2018 at 18:31
Kyrylo Proskurin said…
About situation in Koreas I know that they are trying to form a union again. They declared a Peace... Again. Lets see, how long it will last. About overall situation with refugees from a "Developing parts of the world" it is hard to tell something concrete. Again, not until the governments are put into agreement.
3 December 2018 at 19:36
Iman Masjedi said…
In my opinion they live like a real-life version of Oceania in George Orwell's 1984, with some minor differences due to being an Asian culture. If you read 1984, you'll understand more about living in North Korea than even most people living there. The people living there usually don't know any better. Their personal hell is all they have ever known. They don't choose to be ignorant, they are largely prevented from finding out that there are other ways to live. The government enslaves the people not by chains, but through psychological control. Because of this, North Korea is the worst example of humanity that we have in our lifetime.
It's very hard to hear a story from her, although it's your place at that moment and her decisions, we all make unpredictable decisions at certain moments. The exact answer to this question can not be made: what would we have been if we were in her.
Since we have heard only one angle of the story from her tongue, we can not judge the whole story, to hear the story of both sides of the case to judge the truth or lie of a story.
9 December 2018 at 15:15
Unknown said…
Yes, I do think that your solution is optimal. I can't come up with better one. I haven't even heard about those presidents meetings that you've mentioned that's why you most likely know more than I do
9 December 2018 at 20:36
Unknown said…
I wouldn't like to live there either but to my mind something should be done with it. Why all those people should suffer and why most of the countries completely don't care about the situation?
9 December 2018 at 20:38
Unknown said…
I don't really think that they will come up with something meaningful.
9 December 2018 at 20:43
Unknown said…
Wow. I am really impressed. I didn't expect that someone would be so engaged in this situation. Also you are absolutely right that people live in hell and have no choice.
9 December 2018 at 20:46
Maryna Bratishko said…
The political situation in North Korea is terrifying. To my great regret, even entire countries and their coalitions are sometimes unable to change the situation. I find Hyeonseo Lee an incredibly brave woman. I am delighted that she was not afraid to go on stage and tell her story to the whole world. I do not know how I would have done in her place. Having lived my life, I understand that by all means, I would try to escape from North Korea. But since nothing changes in the country, then the majority of its inhabitants are satisfied with the current situation. And a small part of the dissenters are put in labor camps, prisons, or executed.
9 December 2018 at 23:29
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