# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The night before I started school, my mother washed my hair and body with laundry soap. I cleaned the dirt from underneath my nails with the same wooden stick I used to pick lice.

The following morning, I woke before the others did and tiptoed over to the wall, where my father had nailed a peg for my clothes. I felt grown up. The top pegs held my mother and father's clothes, the bottom peg mine, including my school uniform. I ran to the outhouse and dressed after washing my hands. I couldn't eat my rice that morning, though, because my stomach was queasy from nerves. As I waited for my mother to finish eating, I squished my feet into my new black leather shoes, tossed my backpack over my shoulder and waited for her outside.

When my mother and I arrived at the school, we were instructed to stay in the yard with the other mothers and daughters. I gripped my mother's hand as we stood underneath a tree. There were four Grade 1 classes, two all-boys' classes and two all-girls' classes, my mother explained. As we waited for the school official to tell me where to go, I spied on the people around us. Some of the mothers wore navy skirts and high-heeled black shoes and had their hair in tidy buns. These women looked clean beside my mother. Their daughters, whom my mother said would also be in Grade 1, were twice as tall as I was. The fathers and mothers of those girls must hold important jobs in the Party, I thought, for some girls had bellies that looked like they might explode. I squeezed my mother's hand tighter and tried to duck in behind her. "If I get into a fight with one of these girls," I thought to myself, "I will surely lose."

I started to tremble as my mother released my hand. My name had been called, and a school official was escorting me to the line for my class. I closed my eyes tight and made a wish that I would end up with the girls who were my height and skinny. In the end, that was what happened. The larger girls were in the other class.

The school official had us walk single file to our new classroom, then sit on the floor cross-legged, facing the photograph of Kim Il-sung on the wall. After the bell rang three times, our teacher arrived. We called her Sunsangim, an honorific title indicating a person with great power. Once she had introduced herself, she proceeded to guide us in what would become a morning ritual: a dedication to our great father and eternal president.

"The beloved father is watching over you," Sunsangim told us. "So sit upright and behave properly."

She then recited a story from Kim Il-sung's childhood: "Once our great father and eternal president's straw shoes were falling apart, and his mother gave him money she had saved from sewing for new shoes. She told him to buy the best rubber shoes at the market. But instead, he bought new shoes for his mother."

"Ohhh," I hummed silently. "He is such a good man."

"We must try to be like him," Sunsangim concluded.

"Once our great father and eternal president's mother fell ill," Sunsangim told us another day. "She needed a special fruit from a distant mountain. Only that fruit, a prune, would cure her. Kim Il-sung, just a young boy at that time, went in search of the fruit. He walked for days with no water or food. On the brink of starvation, he found the fruit, and he saved his mother."

Now that I was in my first year of school, I vowed to dress nicely, to write neatly, to do well in my studies, to be thoughtful to others and, when someone was in trouble, to help them. I wanted to possess all of the virtues of Kim Il-sung. "I want to be like him," I told my umma that night.

"I want to be just like our great father," I told the stars as I stared out the window.

From my first school day on, I said, "Thank you, dear father," whenever I passed in front of the eternal president's portrait in our home. I said, "Thank you, dear father," before every meal. "Thank you, dear father," I recited after every good mark I received in math or Korean lessons. "Thank you, dear father," I muttered every night before hopping under the duvet and nestling my head next to Sunyoung's.

In the mornings, when our class leader went to the front to lead us in the oath of allegiance to our eternal president, I was determined to stand straighter than anyone. My voice, I vowed, would carry the most dedication. "I promise to study hard, to model harmonious group behaviour and to pay allegiance always to our beloved father. I swear I will," I recited.

In the song that followed, I opened my mouth wide, articulating everything with perfect pitch: "Our leader, standing atop Goonhaham Rock, takes out from his sheath a general's sword. We have victory over our enemies! He takes out the sword, and at the sound of the sword, unleashed from the sheath, the Japanese tremble."

The autumn days turned crisp, and the biting winds snapped at my cheeks. I read the textbooks on Kim Il-sung's childhood in the dim light of our house until my eyes closed and my head toppled forward onto the pages.

Every night before bed, I took a cloth and dusted the frame around the portrait of Kim Il-sung, as Sunyoung looked on. When I was done, we would both bow and say: "Thank you, father."
Stars Between the Sun and Moon by Lucia Jang and Susan Elizabeth McClelland, pp. 59 - 61, published by W.W. Norton

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Extract from 'Stars Between the Sun and Moon' by Lucia Jang and Susan Elizabeth McClelland - EAHRNK - European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The night before I started school, my mother washed my hair and body with laundry soap. I cleaned the dirt from underneath my nails with the same wooden stick I used to pick lice. The following morning, I woke before the others did and tiptoed over to the wall, where my father had nailed a peg for my clothes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
SEOUL, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- North Korea's food shortage is growing but the crisis has yet to affect the country's elite.

South Korea's unification ministry said Tuesday that North Korea is short 694,000 tons of food for fiscal year 2016 - which began in November 2015 and ends in October, Yonhap reported.

Citing data from the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program, the ministry told South Korean lawmakers food demand in North Korea was about 5.5 million tons, but food production only reached 4.8 million tons.

The food shortage is expanding.

In 2014, North Korea's food shortage was estimated to be 340,000 tons and 407,000 tons in 2015.

In 2015, North Korea's grain production was hit heavily by a drought. A lack of fertilizer and other resources could have also contributed to the deficit, according to the report.

Pyongyang also continues to reduce official rations supplied through its public distribution system.

The rations were reduced to 360 grams daily per person, down from 370 grams in the first quarter of 2016, and well below the U.N.-recommended amount of 600 grams daily per person.

But the malnutrition problem hasn't stopped North Korea's elite from affording the best for their children.

The unification ministry said North Koreans of economic means are able to afford up to $1,000 in private tutoring for their sons and daughters.

"According to defector testimonies, North Koreans [of means] can afford to pay [$30] to [$500] in private education expenses on a monthly basis, and up to $1,000," the ministry statement read.

North Korea's food shortage has worsened in areas heavily hit by floods that washed away farmland and forced people out of their homes.

Seoul has mostly declined to reach out to the North with humanitarian assistance, citing continued provocations.

But civic groups in South Korea working with overseas Korean organizations have been able to deliver food, including instant noodles and flour to the North, Yonhap reported Tuesday.

The food was delivered to northeastern North Korea, but representative of the Korean Sharing Movement did not reveal the means of delivery.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
North Korea's food shortage grows but elites remain unaffected, Seoul says

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
SEOUL, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- North Korea's food shortage is growing but the crisis has yet to affect the country's elite. South Korea's unification ministry said Tuesday that North Korea is short 694,000 tons of food for fiscal year 2016 - which began in November 2015 and ends in October, Yonhap reported.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This is the story of a woman who left her family in North Korea and crossed the river into China, desperate to save her newborn baby's life. She agreed to share her story with the fifth estate on the condition that she remain anonymous, to protect her family still living in North Korea. She's also co-writing a book with Toronto author Susan Elizabeth McClelland called 'The Stars in Between the Sun and the Moon'.

Lucia Jang is not her real name, but this is her story as told to Gillian Findlay.

"I thought North Korea was the best country in the world, that no country lived as well as we did because that's what we were taught.

Where ever I went, even at home, there was always a picture of Kim Il Sung. We called him father. We were taught he was so special we couldn't even look at him. We thought he was a god.

In fact when he died, I couldn't believe it. How can a God die? Like everyone else I cried. I cried more than when my own mother and father died. I cried for three days. But on the fourth day, if you didn't cry your loyalty was in question. So I forced myself to cry some more, even though I had no more tears."

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, North Korea faced food shortages. By the 1990s, people began to starve.

"We thought it would all be over soon so we did our best. We'd go to the mountains and eat grass. Whatever we could put in our mouths we ate. We had no choice.

In the train stations you'd see people, children and adults just lying there. You'd think they were sleeping because they weren't moving. But then you'd kick them and you knew they were dead. It was shocking. You'd see the station officers dragging the bodies out. But then life was so hard sometimes we thought starving wasn't the worst option. Rather than struggling so hard to live, it would be so much easier to die."

As the famine worsened, escape began to seem like the only alternative to death. But the only possible way out of North Korea was across the Tumen River into China, across a border where North Korean guards had orders to shoot defectors on sight. One day, Lucia decided to try to cross that river with a friend.

"I couldn't worry about what would happen next. All I could think is, I can't get caught. The rocks in the river are covered in moss. You had to be careful not to slip. So we were basically clenching our teeth all the way across.

I didn't know how to swim. We discovered that where the water is calm its deep. Where it's not calm it's shallow. So we had to go where it was more turbulent. But of course that's where the patrols are."

They were lucky. Lucia made it across the river and into China, a country so close, but about which she knew nothing. Her first impression was the food.

"They gave us bean paste, red pepper paste, even kimchi. To us, it tasted like honey! How well they ate! But the thing that shocked me the most is that they were feeding rice to their dogs! In north korea we had no rice to eat but here they fed rice to their dogs."

For years, Lucia kept crossing the river, bringing back food to keep her family alive. Then she learned there was another way to make money in China - to sell herself for sex.

"If I wanted to live I had to do it. I had no choice. The only question was how much you'd be sold for."

She was sold for 5000 Won, or about $700 Canadian. She never saw that money.

"I would just work as hard as I could, get whatever I could, and then send it back home."

She thought if she worked hard, her owner would protect her. But then, there was a police crackdown and Lucia was sent back to a detention centre in North Korea.

"Oh it was very difficult there. First, you had to sit in a particular way. Like this. And you have to look straight ahead for 12 hours.

Except the 30 minutes they let you eat. Wake up at five in the morning until 10 or 11 pm. If the guards were in a bad mood they wouldn't let you sleep. If you fell asleep, everyone in the room had to go stand up. And you'd kind of nod off while standing. But if you fell down the wooden floor would make a hollow sound ...and then the guards would come. They'd ask 'which room was that?' And because you'd get into even more trouble if you didn't tell, everybody would point to the room."

Lucia eventually managed to bribe her way out, and headed back to China. But again, there was a police crackdown. She was arrested, and this time she knew it would be worse. This time, Lucia was pregnant.

"Women who got pregnant while living with Chinese men were forced to abort their babies because we couldn't have Chinese blood in North Korea. So when that I happened to me, I figured I'd be forced to have an abortion and then be sent to a labour camp."

It was too late for an abortion. Instead, she was sent home to wait a different fate.

When the baby comes out, it is to be killed and the mother is to be sent to a labour camp. They told the Doctor to kill the baby after it was born.

Lucia wasn't going to wait for that. She hid with a relative in the mountains until the baby was born, then once again, went to the banks of the Tumen River. She knew this crossing would be her last.

"I had to go to China to save my child. I couldn't stay in North Korea. There was nothing to eat, nothing to clothe the baby with. Everything was so scarce....O my heart is pounding with anxiety just thinking ....

My biggest fear is what would happen if the baby cried. He was sleeping so I put a sweater over him and I ran into the river. I couldn't breathe.

The water started coming up...quickly....and I'm trying to catch my breath. And just then the baby's foot touched the water and he startled. Like this. Even wrapped in the plastic bag he must have felt it. I knew I had to go very, very fast before he starts to cry.

The full moon was shining very brightly. But suddenly there was a cloud. It covered the full moon. And I thought to myself, where did that cloud come from to cover the moon?"

Lucia and her baby were safe. But there could be no staying in China this time. With the help of Christian missionaries she, too, boarded the underground railway. Destination: South Korea.

"It was like a picture. We couldn't take our eyes off it. There were so many cars. And I thought: where are all these cars going? Why so many cars? In North Korea there were no cars.

In North Korea we'd been taught that South Korea is a gangster country: it's poor, hungry kids have to beg on the street, and when you're sick they won't treat you unless you have money. And while the poor people don't even have milk to drink, the rich bathe their dogs in it. Once we got there, we knew that everything we'd learned about South Korea was a lie.

Once we arrived our eyes were opened, we realized this is how the world really lives. It's just North Korea that's different. Once I saw everything I knew what I'd been taught, it was all lies."

Now Lucia Jang lives in Toronto. The baby she carried out of North Korea on her back in that plastic bag is now 10 years old. Recently, she was accepted as a landed immigrant in Canada. She is working with Canadian writer, Susan McClelland, to record her life story in a book.

Everyone who escapes North Korea wishes it would open up, so that at least before we die we can return to our homes.

It will be my dying wish, to visit my parent's graves, meet my brothers and sisters. They must be old now.

If not me, then my children at least. That's why I'm writing this book so that they will know where their mother came from.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Lucia Jang's Story : In her own words - Blog - The Fifth Estate

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This is the story of a woman who left her family in North Korea and crossed the river into China, desperate to save her newborn baby's life.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kang Chol-hwan:  The Aquariums of Pyongyang

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"My connection with the outside world was completely severed."

# data[].attributes.body
https://docs.google.com/a/lindberghschools.ws/document/d/1H64yPjuNANRZlm90Rk4XEtSl-7v11WOyfeK0w8rik5w/edit?usp=sharing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Refugee Crisis

The North Korean regime makes it illegal to leave the country without state permission, but every year thousands of North Koreans still risk their lives to escape a combination of a lack of freedoms and economic hardship; in North Korea these are inextricably linked. If caught trying to escape, or if caught in China and sent back, they are at risk of harsh punishments including brutal beatings, forced labor, forced abortions, torture, and internment in a political prison camp. Those suspected of having had contact with South Koreans or Christians while in China receive the most severe punishments.

North Korean refugees' well-founded fear of persecution if repatriated means that they should be protected under international refugee law. However, the Chinese government prioritizes its political relationship with Pyongyang and does not recognize them as refugees. Instead they label them as "economic migrants" in an attempt to justify the forcible repatriation of thousands of North Korean refugees every year.

Since coming to power, the Kim Jong-un leadership has cooperated with the Chinese authorities to tighten border security. Recent defectors have told us of increased physical border security, increased risk associated with bribing border guards, and heightened punishments for people trying to escape. As a result, the number of refugees managing to arrive in South Korea has decreased by almost half.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The People's Challenges - Liberty in North Korea

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Refugee Crisis The North Korean regime makes it illegal to leave the country without state permission, but every year thousands of North Koreans still risk their lives to escape a combination of a lack of freedoms and economic hardship; in North Korea these are inextricably linked.

# data[].attributes.headline
World History Honors: Presentation Technologies

# data[].attributes.subject
World History Honors: Presentation Technologies

# data[].attributes.body
Sutori

Time Toast

Animoto

Powtoon
Slide Dog
Screencast-O-Matic

# data[].attributes.headline
Humans of North Korea - Defector Stories

# data[].attributes.subject
Humans of North Korea - Defector Stories

# data[].attributes.body
Use the following links to research the stories of your assigned human. Humans are listed below the articles you will need to reference for your project.

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/aug/27/north-korea-defectors-ian-birrell
Use the above link for the stories of the following defectors:
1.Park Sang-hak
2. Kim Heung-kwang
3.Choi Jung-hoon
4. Lee So-yeon (also: http://metro.co.uk/2017/03/13/north-korean-defector-says-female-soldiers-are-used-as-sex-tools-for-men-6507358/,
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/people/2016/04/178_203015.html)
5. Hyeonseo Lee (also: http://www.hyeonseo-lee.com/eng/default.shtml , http://time.com/4347243/north-korea-south-korea-human-rights-china-hyeonseo-lee/

* * *

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/11138496/Escape-from-North-Korea-How-I-escaped-horrors-of-life-under-Kim-Jong-il.html

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3254415/yeonmi-park-north-korea-kim-jong-un-target-list/

http://www.rd.com/true-stories/survival/escape-from-north-korea/
6. Yeonmi Park

* * *

http://www.voanews.com/a/abandoned-and-alone-a-noth-korean-story/3497475.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3792575/I-lived-streets-ate-bark-snakes-survive-Extraordinary-story-boy-12-one-youngest-people-escape-North-Korea.html
7. Sungju Lee

* * *

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/18/world/asia/a-voice-from-north-korea-echoes-in-the-white-house.html?_r=0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DeHBxiPED8
8. Kang Choi-hwan

* * *

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/barbara-demick-on-life-in-north-korea

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/11/02/the-good-cook

http://www.startribune.com/north-korea-seen-through-ordinary-eyes/82989022/
9. Song Hee-suk

* * *

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/world/asia/north-korea-defector.html

10. Thae Yong-ho

* * *

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/world/asia/kim-ryen-hi-north-korean-defector-regret.html

11. Kim Ryen-hi

* * *

https://news.vice.com/story/north-korean-defectors

12. Eunhee Park

* * *

http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/refugee-perspective-you-rarely-hear-grace-jo-shares-her-story-defection-north-korea#stream/0

http://wtop.com/j-j-green-national/2016/12/escape-north-korea-story-grace-jo/

13. Grace Jo

* * *

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/17/-sp-north-korean-defector-human-rights

https://www.eahrnk.org/articles/memoirs/northkoreanmemoirs-ryu-ki-ho?highlight=WyJzZWFyY2giXQ==

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/tragic-story-north-korea-defector-who-had-never-heard-human-rights-1475186

14. Ryu Ki-ho

* * *

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/blog/lucia-jangs-story-in-her-own-words

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/20/north-korea-pregnant-prison-camp-lucia-jang

https://www.eahrnk.org/articles/memoirs/lucia-jang-part-1

15. Lucia Jang

* * *

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/24/us/north-korean-refugees/

16. Song Ee Han

# data[].attributes.body
* * *
The People's Challenges
http://www.libertyinnorthkorea.org/learn-nk-challenges/

* * *
North Korea - Profile
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-15258878

* * *
Nothing to Envy: Everyday Lives in North Korea
http://nothingtoenvy.com/nothing-to-envy-excerpt/
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/barbara-demick-on-life-in-north-korea

* * *
How the Internet "works" in North Korea
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2016/11/how_the_internet_works_in_north_korea.html

* * *
Understanding Kim Jong-Un, the World's Most Enigmatic & Unpredicatable Dictator
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/02/kim-jong-un-north-korea-understanding

* * *
Control on Communication in North Korea
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/03/north-korea-connection-denied/

* * *
Education & Brainwashing of Children in North Korea
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1530115/north-korean-schoolkids-spend-hundreds-of-hours-learning-just-how-great-kim-jong-un-really-is/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/for-north-koreas-kims-its-never-too-soon-to-start-brainwashing/2015/01/15/a23871c6-9a67-11e4-86a3-1b56f64925f6_story.html

* * *
Food Shortages & Famine in North Korea
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2016/09/27/North-Koreas-food-shortage-grows-but-elites-remain-unaffected-Seoul-says/4001474997303/

http://time.com/4274666/arduous-march-north-korea-famine/

* * *
Human Rights Issues & Violations in North Korea
https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/asia-and-the-pacific/north-korea/

* * *
Transportation in North Korea
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/planes-trains-and-automobiles-of-north-korea

* * *
Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader
http://us.macmillan.com/excerpt?isbn=9780312323226

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Mr. Stanton - a hybrid of interviewer, photographer and eager chronicler of street life - said this week that he was still stunned by the runaway success of his book, which has more than 145,000 copies in print.

"It seemed like a stupid idea, just taking pictures of people on the street," he said. "But there's a comfort, an affirmation, a validation in being exposed to people with similar problems."

Mr. Stanton is a 29-year-old Georgia native with no training as a journalist. He has owned two cameras in his life and admits he has never learned the technically correct way to use them. When he moved to New York in 2010, he was friendless, nearly broke and recently relieved of his job as a bond trader in Chicago.

In the three years since, he has transformed himself into a recognizable face (who is approached by fans several times a day) with a healthy income unusual for a young, inexperienced photographer.

Mr. Stanton grew up in an Atlanta suburb and attended the University of Georgia. After graduating as a film major, he found a job in Chicago as a trader, and on the weekends, he spent hours photographing that city.

But after he was laid off in 2010, Mr. Stanton decided to shift to a completely new career. He moved to New York, where he didn't know a single person. Much of his time was spent on an ambitious project he dreamed up, photographing 10,000 people and mapping their whereabouts as a sort of virtual map of New York.

After several months, he began moving in a different direction, interviewing his subjects and asking them about their lives, their struggles, their disappointments and their hopes.

Most people brushed him off. "It was very emotionally draining at first," Mr. Stanton said. "I'd be really disappointed when people would say no."

But his project gradually attracted an audience, mostly people in their 20s who left enthusiastic comments on his website. When his Facebook page had collected more than 200,000 followers, Mr. Stanton decided it was time to collect the pictures into a book. St. Martin's Press, part of Macmillan, was the only publisher willing to print the book in hardcover.

Yaniv Soha, the acquiring editor, said Mr. Stanton has the rare gift of being able to connect with random people. "It's about the stories as much as it is about the photos," Mr. Soha said. "It's really about his ability to relate to people and convey what makes them individual."

Amazon named his photography collection, which features 400 faces, a "best book of the month" for October. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly said, "There's no judgment, just observation and in many cases reverence, making for an inspiring reading and visual experience."

On Tuesday morning, Mr. Stanton set off on the sidewalks of the East Village in search of material. While he has taken pictures in every borough, he tends to focus on Manhattan for its density and varied street life. He does everything he can to warm up his potential subjects, wearing a backward baseball cap, gray hoodie and New Balance sneakers to look casual. When he approaches a stranger, he hunches over or squats down, sometimes sprawling his 6-foot-4 frame on the sidewalk.

"It's all about making myself as nonthreatening as possible," he said. "I lower my voice, I get down on the ground."

The first person Mr. Stanton approached was Ruben Lora, a 43-year-old maintenance worker, who was sitting outside a bar with four large bottles of laundry detergent at his feet. He instantly agreed to be photographed, telling Mr. Stanton about his previous life as a would-be major league baseball player, when he played in the Dominican Republic until he was in a motorcycle accident that ended his career. Hiking up a leg of his paint-flecked jeans, he showed Mr. Stanton a scar on his calf. The accident, Mr. Lora said, "ruined my life." He paused. "I don't know why I'm telling you this," he said.

Shortly afterward, Ignacio Quiles, a 60-year-old haberdasher, stopped while walking his dogs to talk to Mr. Stanton. Within a few minutes, he was reminiscing about the death of a close friend and the twists and turns his career has taken.

It is that intimacy, combined with photos that are plain and straightforward rather than high concept, that has made Mr. Stanton's fan base so fervent. As Mr. Stanton was preparing to wrap up his wandering for the day, Jessica Ruvin, a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, approached him on the street and asked him to pose for a picture with her. "I'm such a big fan," she said. "He exhibits the best part of New York - people on the street."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'Humans of New York,' by Brandon Stanton

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Mr. Stanton - a hybrid of interviewer, photographer and eager chronicler of street life - said this week that he was still stunned by the runaway success of his book, which has more than 145,000 copies in print. "It seemed like a stupid idea, just taking pictures of people on the street," he said.