Northview LiNK Chapter

The problem that motivated our club to start was the North Korean crisis. North Korea is an an East-Asian country that borders South Korea and China. Ever since the establishment of the country in 1948 following WWII, the government has suppressed its people with a totalitarian state ruled by military dictatorship. The government has abducted many freedoms from its people, including freedom of speech, religion, press, and the most notable, freedom of mobility. The citizens are forbidden from leaving the country without permission of the government. The country has been stricken with many years of famine, causing millions to die of malnutrition and disease. The government turns a blind eye toward the cries of its people and refuses to give aid. Many people are forced to flee to neighboring China in hope of finding food or medicine. Despite this, the government of North Korea identifies fleeing the country as an act of treason, punishable by death, forced labor, or torture. It is not only the fleeing individual who is punished in one of North Korea's many concentration camps, but also his/her whole family. These numerous concentration camps resemble the ones that were used in Nazi Germany during WWII. Despite the evidence and convictions by human rights organizations, the NK government denies that their "glourious" country would dare hold such concentration camps. Therefore, the LiNK organization was established to give aid, in the form of food, clothes, education, and most importantly a safe haven, to North Korean refugees hiding in China. In violation of human rights, the Chinese government arrests North Korean refugees and sends them back to North Korea, where they will face death, torture, or forced labor in the concentration camps. The LiNK organization provides secret shelters that hold North Korean refugees, educating them for a job, until they can get on their feet. I have started a chapter of this organization in our school with a couple of my friends who are extremely interested in this terrifying subject.