A few selected paragraphs to ponder from the book: Faces of Korea: The Foreign Experience in the Land of the Morning Calm by Richard Harris

A young North Korean boy's experience of life in the South.
His whole story is fascinating and he sounds like a really courageous young man.
His experiences of growing up in the North are probably of more interest to most, and to me too, thats why I started reading it.
BUT!!!!
It was his first experiences here in the South that made me go Mmmmmm:

Quote

From Page 363:
When we decided to come to South Korea, it was a priest (Korean) we asked for help…
The reason he had helped bring me to the South in the first place was because he wanted me to follow in his steps and become a priest just like him. His goal had been to use me as a missionary in an effort to spread the gospel to other North Koreans at the time of reunification. The priest didn’t know anything about the official government program for North Korans, and so I stayed in a country Church for one month, living essentially, in total ignorance of everything. This all took place in Geumsan, a small city that is famous for Ginseng


Actually, to be completely honest, I came to South Korea under false pretenses; I arrived here under someone else’s name on a Chinese tourist visa. When Chinese people turn 19, the government issues them with a certificate of residence that is similar to a copy of one’s family registry in Korea. In China, however there isn’t a picture attached to it, so I could forge a certificate quite easily. All I had to do was have the father call me “son” and the whole thing was done without much trouble. I put my picture on that person’s certificate and borrowed his name. That’s part of the reason that younger people can come to the South so easily with a Chinese tourist visa, and that is why I had to leave after only being in Geumsan for one month – I had to renew my visa
.
The priest wanted me to switch my visa so that I would be an exchange student under his tutalge, but he found he couldn’t do that, because it turned out that Korea was having major problems with illegal Chinese migrant workers at the time. The South Korean Government started threatening the priest I was with saying that, if I wasn’t sent back to China, he himself would be denied entry to China in the future and possibly denied entry into other countries as well. The priest got confused and didn’t know what to do, so he called the National Intelligence Service (NHS) and told them he had a North Korean with him, not a Chinese boy. After a brief investigation, I was sent to Hanawon, the government-operated center to assist North Koreans in their readjustment to Korean society…

I ended up staying at Hanwon for exactly 3 months, after which I returned to Geumsan to see the priest once again. It was in Geumsan that I went back to a regular school for the first time in years…

At that time I was learning mostly with my priest. He was of the belief that Korean society had taken a wrong turn somewhere along the road and that Koreans were no longer in tune with the ways of the Bible. As a result, I spent all of my time with the priest and was unable to get out of the countryside.

The Priest told me that I had to pray alongside the Holy Spirit every morning before going to school because he was worried I would become too taken with capitalism and its destructive culture. So, I prayed alongside the Holy Spirit everyday at dawn and every evening upon returning home from school. I didn’t even go to an arcade, an Internet café, or a singing room one single time during that period in Geumsan.

I was eventually allowed a cell phone as a means of the priest checking up on me and knowing where I was at all times.

Penny for your thoughts?
Your take on the priest involved??

Oh no takers yet :cry:

I just posted this on another message board and quite liked how it turned out:

It's really interesting for me to hear someone else’s take on it. Because I've read so much of the cult's propaganda and know some of the people near the top, it’s useful to see how an excerpt like the one above is viewed by someone who doesn't have the same experience with the JMS cult.
And the book has been out maybe six months now, and no one else seems to have noticed that it was the JMS / GACP cult that the kid was describing

"I'll get you out of China, only if you become a priest" In China the kid and his family lived with the very real fear of being deported back to North Korea and all that that entails, probably not a happy homecoming. Does this priest help the kid out of a desire to see him live a free life as he chooses? No. The family was desperate and so was the kid. The priest took advantage of that. It's like a young Pope John Paul only helping the Jews who promise to convert to Christianity, and telling all the others to hop in a shower. Of course that wasn't what he did, cause he actually cared for the people, at least thats how it looked in the film

Once in Korea the kid moved to Geumsan and undoubtedly stayed at Wol Myong Dong, the home of the JMS cult. Ironic that he mentions that throughout his time in Geumsan, he never went to a PC Bang, never went to a Nore bang.
It seems his access to the internet was as hindered in the South as it was in the North. That wasn't an attempt to protect him from the evils of South Korean society. More likely it was an attempt to stop him finding out the head of his Church claims to be the Messiah and is wanted by Interpol for rape.

Also hindered were his chances of getting to know people outside the cult.
And since he was initially living here on a Chinese passport, I'm willing to bet a lot more than a penny that this priest told him to keep his North Korean nationality to himself

I had to laugh at the "dangers of capitalism" comment. At the cults base I saw miniature toy soccer balls for sale (autographed by their God to increase the price) tons of CDs of the cult leaders speeches and songs by the cult's musician (who don't get a cent of the sales), and lots of pictures of, who else but Jung Myoung Seok. Spring water was also for sale. Costs a bit more than your bottle from 7-11, but that's to be expected because your 7-11 water doesn't cure cancer.
All this helps to make the guy at the top of the food chain a multi millionaire.
And this kid is being warned of the “evils of capitalism?”

What North Korean refugee would come here to avoid the dangers of capitalism?
If the priest was really concerned about that, he would have sent the kid to the DMZ with some wire cutters and a bottle of Cult Spring water to protect him from the land mines.

The priest wanted the kid to apply for a Chinese student Visa. In a country where North Korean refugees are welcomed with opened arms. This Korean priest wanted him to maintain the charade of his Chinese nationality. I can't possibly entertain the notion that that was done out of ignorance. These are the same people who told my roommate last year, "If you visit your dying grandmother, God will punish you and your family forever" or something to that effect. There's not a lot these people wouldn't do to try and keep someone in their cult.
The attempt to get a Chinese student visa was nothing short of an attempt to keep this kid under the influence of the cult. Wonder if that is illegal??

5am prayer services: Sleep deprivation. There could be prisoners in the concentration camps up north getting more sleep than he was allowed. The difference being the manipulation came with a smile instead of a rifle. Much more effective as well.

I wonder how many other North Korean kids are living at Wol Myoung Dong denied the very freedoms they were hoping to gain and living a life not too dissimilar from that which they wanted to escape.

Here are Rick's and Steven's pages on the cult the kid was describing:
[freedomofmind.com]
[www.culteducation.com]
And my own site
[falsemessiah.proboards23.com]

I just heard from a concerned friend of a member in Berkley . Seems they have a Church set up there called "The Rock Church", And the "cultural" branch of the cult set up in San Francisco recently too
[gacpsf.tripod.com]

Here's the contact info:
2210 McKinley Avenue, Suite #1, Berkeley, CA 94703
Tel: (408) 757-3725, e-Mail: info@gacpsf.org

Anyone live near them? Wanna check em out and share your experiences?? I'm sure the people you meet will be very nice and all the girls will be pretty :wink: