By Elaine
D. Briseno / Journal Staff Writer

Published: Sunday, June 19th, 2016 at 12:01am

Updated: Friday, June 17th, 2016 at 9:56pm

width="640" height="447" border="0" alt="North Korean women are shown harvesting rice in North Pyongyang province. Many of the people helped by the Durihana Mission say hunger and poverty drive them to flee their homeland. (AP Photo/WFP, Gerald Bourke, HO)">

style="font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="olive">▲ color="olive">North Korean women are shown harvesting rice in North Pyongyang
province. Many of the people helped by the Durihana Mission say hunger and poverty
drive them to flee their homeland. (AP Photo/WFP, Gerald Bourke, HO)

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">SANTA FE, N.M. - color="navy"> color="navy">A New Mexico church has joined forces with a South Korean Christian
organization that helps North Koreans flee their country.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Santa Fe Pastor Ryan Ellsworth said his church, City of Faith
Christian Fellowship, was looking for a worthy cause and decided it wanted to
help North Koreans. He said many live in extreme poverty, often going hungry
and living under constant fear of violence from their government. Ellsworth’s
church is about five years old and has a congregation of approximately 100 people.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Ellsworth said he did some research and discovered the Durihana
Mission, an underground railroad started by Pastor Chun Ki-won. Chun was in
New Mexico in May to celebrate the opening of the U.S. branch of his mission
in Santa Fe called Durihana USA. He brought with him several women who escaped
their life in Korea.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Durihana is a Christian organization that helps North Koreans
leave the country and get to safety in either South Korea or the United States,
traveling by foot, bus, train and sometimes even rafts. Chun said many of the
escapees cross the Tumen River into China.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">However, China does not provide a safe haven for them, he said.
Many of the women are tricked by the very people helping them cross the border
and sold into the sex industry or as brides for Chinese men. They can also be
arrested and deported back to North Korea, where they could be sentenced to
a labor camp for several years.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Hana (not her Korean name), who is in her 20s, said through an
interpreter that she was so close to the Chinese border while growing up in
North Korea that she could hear dogs barking there. But escape was not that
simple.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">The first time she tried to cross over into China with her mother,
the two were arrested and sentenced to 13 months in a North Korean prison.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">The second time, she thought she was being smarter. She paid a
broker to help her cross and evade authorities on both sides.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Once she arrived in China, she was betrayed.

border="0">

style="font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="olive">▲ color="olive">From left, Pastor Ryan Ellsworth, interpreter Audrey Lee and
Pastor Chun Ki-won discuss the North Korean situation and the work of Durihana’s
underground railroad during Chun’s visit to Santa Fe. (Courtesy of Durihana
USA)

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Her broker sold her to a man to be his wife. Word eventually reached
Chun and his group who helped her escape, but she had to leave behind a child
she had during her marriage. It’s a memory that’s still fresh and she refuses
to speak of it directly, instead relying on others in the group to tell that
part of the story.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">She now lives in the United States but fears her parents will
be punished for her escape if it’s ever discovered so she won’t reveal where
exactly she lives, her age or her real name.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Naomi, who now lives in Utah, was also tricked by the same scam
as Hana. She was sold to three different men in rural China before finally escaping
and making it to a larger city.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">“I was in hiding so it was not really freedom,” she said. “I
couldn’t really start working.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">It would be fate that helped her escape. One day she met an American
man on the street and pleaded with him to help her leave China. He wrote a letter
to Chun on her behalf and the group helped her come to America.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Both women said it was hunger and poverty that drove them to risk
their lives and freedom to leave their home country.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Ellsworth said the immediate task of the Santa Fe branch will
be raising awareness about the conditions in North Korea. The branch will also
do some fundraising and he said eventually hopes to become a link in the underground
railroad, helping North Koreans get settled in New Mexico or surrounding states.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">“We want people in the U.S. to see what is going on,” he said.
“If more and more people become aware, people will act.”

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">Chun said through a translator that he began his work 20 years
ago, when he visited China and saw the dead body of a North Korean at the border.
He also saw North Korean children begging in the street. He soon learned about
the black market for North Korean women in the sex industry and was inspired
to act.

lang="EN-US" style="mso-fareast-font-family:함초롬바탕;mso-font-width:100%;letter-spacing:0pt;mso-text-raise:0pt;"> color="navy">“We need to raise our voices for them by spreading information,”
he said through an interpreter. “They need their rights. It’s not just because
we have compassion but because these are basic human rights everyone should
have.”

Contact Durihana color="blue">
Santa Fe: durihanamission.org

South Korean English version: durihana.net