How a Graphic Novel of North Korean Refugees Can Help Students Today, a guest post by Tina Cho

In 2010, my family moved to South Korea. The kids and I were adapting to living in a different country, which involved learning a lot of new things and acclimating to a new community. One of the unexpected things I found myself learning more about was the plight of North Korean refugees. After researching on the Internet and reading their harrowing stories of escape, I knew that kids around the world, especially in America, needed to know about them.

My research had spanned many years because my story had morphed into different formats from picture book to chapter book to a novel-in-verse to finally a graphic novel (illustrated by Deb JJ Lee). But that’s a story for a different post. My research included reading testimonies of defectors, watching documentaries of escapes, interviewing defectors, and even interviewing a Major in the U.S. army stationed in South Korea at the same time we were living there.

November 2012, twelve years from the date my novel publishes, I interviewed two North Korean boys and a pastor who aided escapes.

The first North Korean boy I interviewed (age 14) said his mother escaped to China when he was a year old. He lived with his grandparents and barely finished first grade. They couldn’t afford food, and so he had to work scavenging for scrap metal. He saw many eating grass. When he was twelve, his uncle had enough money to pay a broker so that he could cross the North Korean border to China and reunite with his mother. They escaped through Mongolia and eventually to South Korea. Previously, his aunt had tried to cross. She was caught and tortured in prison. He enjoys school now, happy to study, EAT, drink, and have freedom.

The second boy was eleven when his family escaped by boat to Japan and was rescued by a helicopter during a storm and made their way to South Korea.

A few years later, my husband discovered his hair stylist was North Korean. She shared her story with us. She left North Korea with a group of twelve, including her teenage son and a broker. They crossed the river into China, but when she discovered they would be exploited, she fled. In retaliation, the broker sent her son back to North Korea where he was sent to a concentration camp. He had very little to eat, just kernels of corn. They were made to pick cabbages out of fields, and he would hide some in the crux of his shirt nibbling on it like a rabbit. He got so cold in prison that he lost two toes to hypothermia. Eventually, he was released due to his medical condition. Meanwhile, she escaped via the Asian Underground Railroad into South Korea. She tried to send him money, but each time, it was confiscated. Since he was being watched by the North Korean government, she quit communicating with him for his safety. It had been ten years since she last saw him. Tears ran down her face.

On and on, each North Korean I met or read about had a unique story that needed telling. Why? Humans are caretakers and empathize with those in need. Refugees need help. And people can’t help them, if they don’t know their stories. There aren’t many modern children’s stories about North Korea. Many published books are set during the Korean War. However, technically, the war lingers on. The peace treaty was never signed, which is why there is still a U.S. military presence of over 24,000 in South Korea. Even though my book’s setting is 2013, when I originally wrote the first draft, everything is still the same. The book could very well be set in 2024.

After I talked with our hair stylist and returned to our high-rise apartment, I tucked in my son, kissed him goodnight, and with tears brimming in my eyes, thought of not just her but all the mothers who longed for a missed child because they had to escape.

Their stories pressed upon my heart which led to activism. In 2016, I participated in a project helping North Korean defectors send rice in huge balloons over the border to North Korea. That resulted in my first picture book, Rice from Heaven. My family also helped another organization, Voice of the Martyrs Korea, which aids those who defected to South Korea as well as North Koreans hiding in China. China repatriates North Koreans. Most of the defectors are women who leave to find work or food; however, they are sold into slavery into which children are born. Without Chinese citizenship, those children must live in hiding.

South Korea has many organizations and churches that assist North Korean refugees. Many help along the Asian Underground Railroad. But because of Kim Jong Un’s tightening of the border during Covid-19, escapes have been much less. But those who do make it, flee to countries that will receive them.

In 2004, the United States passed the North Korean Human Rights Act to give assistance to North Korean refugees. Some have come to the states, but not many because of the long immigration process and language and cultural differences. Most choose to live in South Korea.

Fast forward twelve years since my first draft, I’ve started my 21^st year of teaching. Because I’ve lived overseas and written this book, I’m better able to empathize with refugee and ESL students in my classroom. Consequently, the United States has refugees entering from all over the world. North Korea is still a threat. And in a news article I read last week, thirteen women and two children were caught in China and repatriated. I pray for them.

I hope after reading our novel, hearts can empathize better with refugees in the community and be spurned to action. Perhaps students will take greater interest in the new classmate that just arrived in the states. But more importantly, I hope readers cherish loved ones, freedom, and the things we take for granted.

Meet the author

Tina Cho is the author of Rice from Heaven: The Secret Mission to Feed North Koreans, Korean Celebrations: Festivals, Holidays and Traditions, My Breakfast with Jesus: Worshipping God Around the World, The Ocean Calls: A Haenyeo Mermaid Story, and God’s Little Astronomer.Her lyrical middle grade graphic novel, The Other Side of Tomorrow, debuts from HarperAlley in 2024. After living in South Korea for ten years and meeting North Koreans, Tina, her husband, and her two kids reside in Iowa, where Tina also teaches kindergarten.

https://www.tinamcho.com

https://www.instagram.com/tinamcho/?hl=en

Twitter: @TinaMCho

About The Other Side of Tomorrow

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Perfect for fans of Illegal and When Stars Are Scattered, this poignant and moving graphic novel in verse captures the dangers and hope that come with fleeing North Korea and reaching for a brighter future through the lives of Yunho and Myunghee.

From never knowing where they’ll find their next meal to avoiding soldiers lurking at every corner, many North Koreans have learned that sticking around can be just as deadly as attempting to flee . . . almost. 

Both shy, resourceful Yunho and fierce, vibrant Myunghee know this. So when they each resolve to run away from the bleak futures they face, it’s with the knowledge that they could be facing a fate worse than death.

While Yunho hopes to reunite with his omma, who snuck across the border years ago, Myunghee is reaching for dreams that are bigger than anything the regime would allow her to have. The two are strangers to each other until a chance encounter unwittingly intertwines their fates and Myunghee saves Yunho’s life.

Kept together by their dreams for a brighter future, they face a road plagued by poisonous jungle snakes, corrupt soldiers, and the daily fear of discovery and imprisonment. But with every step toward freedom, there is also hope. Will it be enough for both of them to make it to safety without losing each other along the way?

ISBN-13: 9780063011083
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication date: 11/12/2024
Age Range: 8 – 12 Years

Filed under: Guest Post