My name is Daniel. I was an English teacher in Seoul, South Korea, and am now a writer who has

published three books including South Korea: Our Story by Daniel Nardini.

                          I have come across the lives of two Korean Americans who could not be more

different. One is Christine Ahn, and the other is Suki Kim. Christine Ahn, who works for and is a leader

of the Korea Solidarity Committee, is pro-North Korea and has visited North Korea at least three times.

She has never been known to say one bad word about North Korea, and had opposed legislation to

help fund programs to help North Korean refugees trying to escape from North Korea. Lately, she was

at first denied to board a flight to go to South Korea to take part in an anti-THAAD march. But then

suddenly this decision was reversed and she can now go to South Korea. There is no question that

the Korea Solidarity Committee has some connections to the current government under Moon Jae-in.

What I find sad is that this person is able to demonstrate in a free and democratic society in favor of

a totally closed one-party state. This brings me to Suki Kim. A well known Korean American writer,

she risked life and limb to go to North Korea to know what the conditions in that country are like. Posing

as a missionary who posed as an English teacher, she was able to get a teaching position at Pyongyang

University of Science and Technology---ironically a private institution founded by Evangelical Christian

organizations but which operates under the total control and guidance of the Korean Workers Party. Suki

Kim taught North Korean students for six months, and learned that while they eagerly wanted to learn,

they lived in constant fear and could not tell her what they really thought or felt because they knew they

and their families were not safe. The university itself is isolated from the rest of Pyongyang and is guarded

by female soldiers 24 hours a day and seven days a week. During that time, Suki Kim had no contact

with the female soldiers, and was completely restricted while working on campus. Her book Without

You, There is No Us, is a completely scary account to read, and in my view it is a miracle she got in and

got out alive.