Durihana
Encyclopedia
History
Founder Pastor Chun Ki-won was arrested in 2002 by Chinese police 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 defectorsNorth Korean defectors
A number of individuals have defected from North Korea. Since the division of Korea after World War II and the end of the Korean War , many people have defected from North Korea, mainly for political, ideological, religious and economic reasons...
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In 1995 when, as a missionary in the Yanji region
Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture
Yanbian is a Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province, in Northeastern China, above the border with North Korea. Yanbian is bordered to the north by Heilongjiang, on the west by Baishan City and Jilin City, on the south by North Hamgyong Province of North Korea, and on the east by Primorsky...
, 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 has an impressive success record having orchestrated the escapes of more than 700 North Koreans, with only a handful of failures.