I’m considering helping out with a particular organization that helps North Korean refugees, but am curious to hear the thoughts of people at Lemmygrad.
This is NOT a troll post, I’m genuinely interested in thoughts of more pro-China/NK individuals on the topic.
A little bit about me:
- Politically unaligned, just want to make the world a better place
- Contributor of FOSS/various non-profits in the past
There may be ways I can contribute to society better than this, but it’s also better than nothing. I’m more curious to hear thoughts on if or why it might be more bad than neutral.
(Not linking organization directly - DM if interested)
Judging by people in the country almost always having overwhelmingly positive things to say about the DPRK, defectors often being unreliable sources who change their stories often when interrogated by the SK police, and defectors often wishing to return to the DPRK… you’ve gotta ask who are the people this organization helps?
Yeah, that’s the first step. Where are they located, who do they help, and how do they help them? People who leave the DPRK to go to South Korea for example face classism and their passport is taken away if they might possibly eventually be a flight risk (meaning they want to go back to their country). These people need help. But they need help getting their passport back and in the meantime need their basic needs filled. They don’t need help integrating into capital list society long term.
People like yeonmi park who keep making more ridiculous shit up and make thousands of off it are not the norm, but they don’t need any help.
Tagging (@Farmer_Heck@lemmygrad.ml for relevancy)
This organization in particular helps people who have left the DPRK but want to resettle in a quasi-socialist country. So maybe they’re in SK right now but want to begin life somewhere else entirely, or are in other countries in the surrounding region.
The type of help the organization gives is resettlement and basic needs for the purpose of integration, not for the purpose of returning back to their homeland.
Does this sound yay or nay?
I think that will depend entirely on who the NGO takes on.
Helping immigrants acclimate to their new country is generally good. You should however also look at what they’re doing on the ground (which you’ve probably done), because integration can mean different things to different people. If you send me the org I can take a look at their website.
But remember that the guy who wrote Escape from camp 13 was a pedophile wanted in the DPRK for such a crime. It’s important to understand who the people that leave their country are (they are not all the same) and why… there’s different reasons to emigrate. And different reasons to bring in (or refuse to bring in) immigrants. These are questions only you can answer.
At the very least, you can try volunteering with them and see if you like it. You might learn things about the DPRK talking to them.
The thing about these NGOs is that from what I see, they tend to be pushing the narrative that benefits America and Western capitalism rather than what would truly benefit the majority of people in Korea to achieve peace. Working for this organization may backfire if they are more politically motivated than humanely motivated. One thing I would do is to see if this NGO has been pushing defector stories of the variety of “I was so hungry I ate a person.” “I was thrown in a dungeon for praying” type etc. Obviously life in a state the world is trying to destroy such as the DPRK is not easy, but demonizing the government attempting to help them undermines their state and makes the situation worse.
