Finding Humanity in North Korea

Our family began working in North Korea in the northeast region of Rason. Rason is a governmentally sanctioned special free economic zone of the DPRK that encourages foreign businesses to invest in the country. Especially before UN sanctions were implemented in 2017, thousands of Chinese businessmen crossed the Sino Korean border every year to enter the Rason region.

Instead of business, though, our family’s first priority was humanitarian assistance. We began visiting Rason through a predecessor who established three medical clinics in the Rason area. One of the clinics was a traditional Korean medical clinic, which was the perfect avenue for Stephen to introduce his expertise in Chiropractic. In the summer of 2007, Stephen began treating patients for various muscular-skeletal issues in the Rason region. Every day patients lined up for the long wait of seeing the foreign doctor. Patients were treated nonstop on a daily basis from early in the morning until the clinic’s closing hours in the evening.

Beyond medical treatment, our humanitarian work branched out into renovating rural hospitals and clinics, providing medicine for remote farming and fishing villages, and feeding preschoolers lunch at various daycares and kindergartens throughout the area. We prioritized our assistance to remote villages to support kindergartens and clinics. This led us to the very edge of the Korean Peninsula to the tip of where Russia, China, and North Korea geographically meet.

North Korean children in the Rason area

Traveling to these remote humanitarian sites also allowed us to build trusting relationships with our humanitarian counterparts. The deepest relationships during these times were invested in our guides. At this time, we had not yet received our residential visas for DPRK. (Later we would receive residence after several years of building trust.) Day by day we worked alongside the same guides. Our relationship became close, like family. 

But after Stephen received his resident visa and right before I received mine, one of our closest guides bonded with our children. He insisted on us calling him "Big Father", which means uncle in Korean. He played with the children, held our youngest while she slept, and even let her comb and play with his hair! 

Eating together was a daily occurrence. Stephen would often stay late into the night talking with our guides or going to the sauna together. One night, two of the guides were freely talking with Stephen. "Before you came, we thought all foreigners, all people like you were bad. But, now that we have gotten to know you, we now know that is not true. You are good people." This was a huge, life-altering confession. Their worldview of outside people was being turned upside down and started to change. 

As part of our effort to continue building trusting relationships, Stephen began dressing in North Korean attire. The more time he spent inside, the closer he became to his escorts and the more he learned of their culture. One day, he requested to make an international phone call out to China.  Dressed in the navy-blue, button-down North Korean suit and speaking the local dialect, the phone operator mistook him for a North Korean.

 "You can't make an international phone call," she exclaimed.

"Yes, I can.  I need to call out to China."

"No, you can't.  Let me see your I.D."

Turning to his guides he asked, "Will you please tell her that I can make a phone call?" The North Korean officials burst out in laughter.

Local North Koreans are not allowed to make international phone calls apart from exclusively work-related communication. Even then, international phone calls are made through official channels and only those with specific ranks and titles are granted this unique access. In general, typical North Koreans cannot even converse with a foreigner. Phone calls are strictly between locals or only between two foreigners. Even in Pyongyang, in the capital city, a foreigner is not allowed to directly call their North Korean counterparts.

As a result, when Stephen was mistaken as a local North Korean, this was a significant misunderstanding. Being confused as a local can be frustrating, but it also has its perks. It was evidence that North Koreans began trusting Stephen. And instead of fighting the local system, the system began working for us. Friendships with North Koreans developed and deepened. Most importantly, a pathway into the people’s hearts began being paved.