7 North Koreans reveal life stories for TNKR Speech Contest
Teach North Korean Refugees (TNKR) English speech contest / Korea Times photo by John Dunbar
North Koreans now living in South Korea participated in an English speech contest last Saturday run by Teach North Korean Refugees (TNKR).
At the law offices of Shin & Kim, seven participants had 10 minutes sharp to speak on the subject of “What the world does not know about being North Korean.” Guests were warned numerous times not to record or photograph the participants unless explicit permission was given.
Though having slightly unfamiliar accents, all spoke eloquently on their experiences and thoughts on North Korea to a packed room, which included embassy personnel and a former South Korean vice unification minister. Their stories all depicted an isolated society with cracks starting to show, and recurring themes including increased market activities and exposure to the outside world. While often dark, their stories also gave hope that all North Koreans can someday join the global village.
“Eun-hee,” 27, who grew up in the coastal city Wonsan spoke of the school she attended teaching her to hate Americans, but seeing foreign tourists at nearby Songdowon Beach she learned people from other countries weren't feral monsters.
“Chanyang,” 27, asked her grandfather why there were two years on the calendar, one in big numbers for the Juche system started on Kim Il-sung's birth year of 1912, and another her grandfather told her was for the birth of Jesus. He said he was taught to believe one day the whole world would use the Juche system.
“Jury,” the oldest participant at age 34, spoke of restarting life in South Korea, arriving here last October with her child. As her North Korean university degree wasn't accredited in South Korea, she took classes in which she found herself much older than her classmates. “People should not think of North Koreans as helpless,” she told the 130 attendees packed into a room with a capacity for 80.
“James,” 26, said his mother was in and out of jail for her market activities, and when her husband, a state loyalist, said it was hurting his reputation, she asked, “Does reputation feed our family?”
He described a North Korea where the people, led especially by “superwomen” like his mom, were leading societal change.
“If we want to change North Korea we need to change how we look at North Korea,” he said. “We have been obsessed with political matters over the past decades, with fear and hatred blinding our eyes. We have been obsessed with political matters. The more we focus on people's weaknesses and faults, the more we close our minds.”
TNKR co-founder Casey Lartigue had to bite his tongue as he introduced each speaker, lest he introduce bias in his introductions. “There are so many stories about each one I wanted to tell,” he said.
After long deliberation, the three judges emerged with their decisions. Taking into consideration the originality and performances of the speakers, they stuck to objectivity based on a points system. “At some point I thought we were gonna start fighting,” said actor Sean Dulake, one of the judges participating for his second time.
They announced the winner, “Julia,” 33, who spoke about North Korea's rigid caste system and frequently cited the 2015 film “Room,” about a boy born into captivity in a room who knows nothing about the outside world until he escapes at age five with his mom. To her North Korea was an “enormous prison.” Julia had participated in the first TNKR speech contest in 2013, coming in second place.
Her American coach, Cody Smith, helped her prepare for the contest. All candidates were TNKR students who submitted videos outlining their presentations. They had over a month to prepare their talks with volunteer speech coaches.?
The grand prize was 1.2 million won, while second prize was 650,000 won and the two third-place winners got 400,000 won. The others received 150,000 won.
The organizers said with their unique experiences the speakers will lead the the Korean Peninsula toward the future.
“None of us can really understand what you went through,” Dulake told the speakers. “I hope you see that as power, to communicate your stories.”
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