Summary
Over the past 20 years, 33,000 North Korean refugees have escaped to South Korea, though their plight in South Korea is largely unknown to the Western World. These North Korean refugees who have made it to freedom are struggling.
Within South Korea, North Koreans find themselves in a land of plenty but can’t seem to move on. For many, they are not in danger for the first time in decades but cannot turn off the traumatic memories from their lives in North Korea and the peril they faced…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781538191729 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1538191725 |
| Author: | Dan Chung, Mike Kim |
| Publisher: | Bloomsbury Publishing Plc |
| Imprint: | Rowman & Littlefield |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 208 |
| Release Date: | 23 July 2026 |
| Weight: | 457g |
| Dimensions: | 24mm x 160mm x 232mm |
Critics Review
The few North Koreans who manage to cross the border to China risk arrest, repatriation, and incarceration in a North Korean prison camps for the “crime” of having left their country. Or, if they are lucky, they find their way to Dan Chung, an American Christian who has been secretly helping North Korean refugees in China for more than 20 years. “A Hard Freedom” is Dan’s gripping memoir of his dangerous work with the world’s most oppressed people as they learn how to survive outside the Orwellian constraints of their homeland, where citizens’ every move is determined by the state. The individual trauma of these escapees foreshadows the difficulties inherent in any reunification of the two Koreas. – Melanie Kirkpatrick, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and author of Escape from North Korea: The Untold Story of Asia’s Underground Railroad
Dan Chung
Dan Chung is the co-founder of Crossing Borders and its current Executive Director. He is a leading expert on the North Korean refugee crisis, with extensive connections to organizations and scholars researching developments on the Korean Peninsula.
Mike Kim is an author, business consultant, keynote speaker, and nonprofit founder. He is the founder of Gradient Consulting, a Tokyo-based firm that advises startups on market entry and expansion across Japan, Korea, and the Asia-Pacific region. He is also the author of the Wall Street Journal-featured book Escaping North Korea. This memoir recounts his experiences living undercover near the North Korean border while secretly aiding North Korean refugees and human trafficking victims in their escape via a 6,000-mile underground railroad.
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