All throughout China, city-wide lockdowns are in effect due to the coronavirus outbreak. Individuals living in affected cities have been restricted to their homes to prevent the spread of the disease. Only one selected household member is allowed to leave every few days to go shopping for necessary supplies. Procedures like these have been implemented all throughout China, including cities where Ignis Community team members live.

Entire countries have also closed their borders to both travelers and shipments, including Mongolia and the DPRK. This has created a stand-still for humanitarian work in North Korea, directly impacting Ignis Community’s medical and children’s outreach in the nation. And even though large NGOs such as the Red Cross are actively trying to help North Korea fight the coronavirus, it is uncertain if humanitarian assistance will currently be allowed to enter the country. 

Yet, while most foreigners are leaving China, Ignis Community members are actively returning to Northeast Asia. Most of our field workers live in China along the North Korea border. And those of us who were traveling for the winter holiday season, particularly the Chinese Spring Festival, are just now returning to our homes in China. Despite the serious ramifications from COVID-19, our team members are willingly enduring isolating constraints for the sake of continuing humanitarian work in both China and North Korea.

Standard procedures that prevent the spread of the coronavirus include mandatory 14-day quarantines for any individuals traveling to China from South Korea. This includes even transits through the Incheon International Airport. All incoming individuals from South Korea are currently required to spend quarantine in a Chinese hotel. Hotel accommodations are also at cost to the traveler. The only exception is for families with young children or with elderly members who require hourly supervision and care. These select families are allowed to stay in their local home with constant monitoring and restrictions.

Foreigners are literally sealed inside their apartments without the ability to open their door. The only way to obtain groceries and necessities is by eliciting help from a friend or a neighbor and then lowering a rope through a window to obtain supplies. Local Chinese are given more leniency. Chinese families are allowed to stay in their homes with constant monitoring from CCTV. Excursions from the apartment are forbidden and result in alerting the authorities.  

Why would Ignis Community team members voluntarily return to such isolating conditions? The answer is that our Ignis Community team is no stranger to restrictive environments. Being a humanitarian organization that focuses on the DPRK, we have amble experience of living and operating under such constraining conditions.

Our goal as an organization is to be on the ground, providing timely intervention and sustainable long-term humanitarian assistance inside North Korea. As a result, several of our team members have lived inside the DPRK, even families with children. Due to restrictions with children’s education in North Korea, oftentimes the women or mothers in our team find themselves limited to working in and from the home while educating and raising their children inside.

From my own ten plus years of living and working in North Korea, I have personally experienced the isolation that comes from life inside the DPRK. Especially as a foreigner who lived in the capital city of Pyongyang, I had no freedom to leave our house without the escort of our minders. Much like the current COVID-19 quarantine, it was a bleakly isolating existence. There was no grocery store, clinic, or other English-speaking neighbors on our compound. Outside of school, our children had no friends to play with, and we were at the mercy of our minder’s availability and schedule for all arrangements outside the home. (Excerpts from Discovering Joy: Ten Years in North Korea.)

One particular summer was especially challenging for me. For about two weeks, or 14 days, I found myself alone in Pyongyang without any teammates, family, or friends. Our three children at the time had received the opportunity of a lifetime. They joined children from all around the world to participate in a summer camp on the coastal city of Wonsan. Water sports, cooking contents, talent shows, and many other activities were part of this unique youth camp in North Korea. But what was an amazing opportunity for the children ended up being like house-arrest for me.

My husband was away on a business trip, and my children were away at camp. No other teammates were in Pyongyang at the time, and I had the whole house to myself. Because of my full-time homeschooling duties, I typically visited the hospital only three times a week to provide educational therapy for children with developmental disabilities. But because all other teammates would be away, I requested that I be allowed to visit the hospital every day. My request was denied. Pre-existing constraints did not allow me to alter my already routine schedule.

Never before did time seem to stand still. I journaled, exercised, listened to music, read and studied, worked ahead on projects, and still there seemed to be too much time in the day. Worst of all was not being able to see a single soul throughout the day. There was no internet. No phone calls. No communication with anyone outside the home. I looked forward to the few hours a week that I was allowed to continue my work in the local hospital for children with disabilities.

So, when I heard of two families and one individual in our team being confined to quarantine in China, my heart went out to them. I’ve been there and done that. I know exactly how they are feeling. One single gal is literally sealed inside her apartment, whereas another family is shut-in, strictly observed by CCTV. And just the other day, another family of four arrived in China being constrained to hotel living, with charge. And although other team members are contemplating whether or not to return to China at the moment, our team candidly shared recently that 14 days would be worth it if they could find a return flight to China.

Despite the fact that our team is not able to cross the border and travel into North Korea at the moment, our team forges on to be as close to the action as possible. Going beyond current restrictions and constraints, the Ignis Community team has chosen to persevere in the midst of trying circumstances. We choose to share in the suffering of those whom we serve, overcoming enormous obstacles in our path. Even the coronavirus does not deter us from loving and sharing with our neighbors in Northeast Asia. And for that, I am extremely grateful.