Durihana North Korea Mission (
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
: 북한선교 두리하나 ''Bughan-seongyo Dulihana'') is a defector aid
Christian organization based in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
.
The organization assists
North Korean defectors escape from
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
and
China, often by helping refugees to pay their "brokers" fee, which allows them to cross borders. The group also provides migrants with temporary hideouts and helps them move to more secure areas.
Durihana has been recognized as one of the main South Korean
NGOs
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in ...
involved in aiding North Korean defectors in China.
History
Chinese police arrested founder Pastor Chun Ki-won in 2002 on the Mongolian border, on the escape route he pioneered. His arrest and eight month imprisonment caused a stir in South Korea, exposing the plight of North Korean defectors.
In 1995, as a missionary in the
Yanji region, Chun met his first North Koreans in hiding. "These people had lost all their rights," he said. "The most important thing I could do was revive their humanity." Chun orchestrated the escapes of more than 1,200 North Koreans with only a handful of failures.
[ focusing on Chun Ki-won.][.]
Nonetheless, the group has been criticized by some for complicating
the relations between North and South Korea.
References
External links
History of Durihana
* .
Korean migration
{{SouthKorea-org-stub