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Brief Organization Profile: AIMS Korea

AIMS Korea, which stands for the “Agency for International Migrant Support,” is a small non-profit helping North Korean refugees in South Korea, the US, and elsewhere.  It was started a few years ago by a young South Korean who saw a need and organized a fundraiser for NK refugees in Bangkok at the time.

I was introduced to AIMS’ founder, Sejin Seo, a month or two ago, and last week had an opportunity to have lunch with her and her fun group of summer interns, who’ve come over from the US during their break.  They all are full of ideas and energy.

Look at their blog and their newsletter section to see what AIMS is up to (hover your mouse over “Newsroom” at the top of the page to see links to more recent issues).  I hope we’ll be able to read more write-ups of interviews with recently arrived refugees such as this one.

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  2. Do you know of any group that might be collected the oral history of the North Korean refugees?

    I’ve seen some stories in the documentaries and other text versions on the internet for some, but I wonder if any group is collecting the type of longer audio oral histories that became a popular research method for historians?

    Even if these oral histories aren’t used on the web or for documentaries, it would be a good idea to have one or two key groups collect them for the record.

  3. usinkorea.
    There is a website called DURIHANA http://www.durihana.net/main.htm.
    This site has a collection of letters of North Korean’s refugees. One of them has a mistake on dates overall it is a strong gave an insight on the tragedy occurring in both North Korean and in China once they succeed to cross the border.

    Aliou Niane

  4. Thanks. I noticed they had videos too. I’ll have to wait to watch them somewhere else, because my computer connection is too slow. The AIMS site is good too.

    I’ve been advocating North Korea Human Rights-related websites using the power of video on the Internet for a few years. I think it can pull in much more interest from casual Internet web surfers than written texts can.

    I still wonder if any group is collecting the kind of “oral histories” academia does for research purposes?

    Oral histories like that are longer and more comprehensive.

    I’ve heard before that some NK refugees are reluctant to share too many details about their lives in NK due to concerns about their families and friends still in NK, but oral histories don’t have to be broadcast on websites. They can simply be collected by a group and held for the future or for access by serious academic scholars connected to universities.

    Anyway —- There is a good chance I’m going to return to South Korea – to Seoul hopefully – this fall and teach English for a year or two.

    One thing I hope to accomplish this time around is to do some useful volunteer work for any of the NK-related NGOs — which is why I am limiting my ESL teaching job search to Seoul.

    If some groups are still teaching English to NK refugees, the minimum I can do is some volunteer hours with that.

    I also hope I’ll have the time to go to and document some of the conferences or gatherings they have in Seoul each year related to NK.

    I plan on buying a computer soon after I arrive and set up some video and photo editing programs to share my experience with friends and family back home about my life being back in Korea again — and I might be able to do some things with the NGOs with that as well. I’ve wanted to for some time, but it wasn’t easy located here in Georgia.

  5. USINKOREA
    What a daunting work of collecting the oral accounts of North Koreans refugees ?

    You pointed out that > …… I would assure you that is not only limited to North Koreans most former students from Africa are maybe fearful and hidden.

    I have been searching for them (Former students) on the net and other ways in vain. So far, it looks like I am the only former student! I know there are out there but no one is coming forward.

    I create a registration form for the NK alumni on my website http://niane.net/are_you_a_north_korean_alum.html I have got nothing yet.

    Searching on Social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.. never returned a positive result, LinkedIn for example has the list of most North Korean universities, but no one is registered?!

    Good luck in Seoul and please keep us posted!
    Aliou

  6. Aliou,

    Thanks.

    I hope you’ll keep up tracking down people like that and recording your own memories too.

    Hopefully, if some people with academic credentials – like from a top university in South Korea or a top Asian Studies program in the US – or one of the well-established civic groups who focus on North Korea Human Rights — can convince the refugees and others with a background in NK that any information they give won’t be made public unless authorized by them, such detailed histories can be taken.

    I don’t know much about how such oral histories are collected and used. But, I’m sure they could be maintained with protections for those given them — such as using methods like the government does with secret documents — redacting names of people or using pseudonyms – and redacting other identifying information like the names of schools or years attended or hometowns and so on.

    It has to be better to collect this type of information sooner rather than later when the memories are fresher.

  7. Today, finally, AIMS uploaded the first testimony video on the AIMS blog and youtube.
    You can visit us and please share this video and our work as many as we can do.
    We are working on the very crucial work of North Korea(n) and these videos and articles help you better understand.
    Thank you again

  11. Sejin,

    This is great to see. I hope more videos like this will be put up by the different groups working on North Korea Human Rights.

    My feeling has always been that such videos will have a better chance of getting information out to casual internet surfers. My thinking is — most internet users don’t bother to read things on the internet unless they already know something about the topic, but the casual surfer will take the time to watch video or maybe listen to audio.

    So, whenever North Korea does something provocative or NK is in the news for some other reason – and many casual surfers start Googling about NK – if they can find video like this, it could compel them to learn more.

  13. Sejin Seo is a scam artist. Beware of her. Don’t trust her, don’t believe anything that she says and certainly do not give her any money.