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Letter for Unify Korea 2009
November 1, 2009

Dear Friends, Colleagues, Esteemed Leaders around the world, Humanitarian Activists, Members of the Press, and most respected North Korean Refugees,

From the moment I first heard Kang Chol-Hwan’s story of childhood imprisonment in a concentration camp, I became obsessed with the intolerable fact that there is a place on earth where concentration camps still exist. Innocent children are regularly imprisoned in them, beaten, starved, and worked like slaves.  And this is but a part of a system of staggering human rights violations.  As a Jew, I felt a swift and undeniable impulse to do something.  My response was purely emotional.  It did not matter who it was or where it was.  I only saw innocent human beings suffering under intolerable injustice. My mission, like yours, became Close the Camps and Stop the Crimes Against Humanity in North Korean.  That is why I made the film Kimjongilia, documenting the true stories of refugees and defectors, and the reality of North Korea today.  It is a story that must be told, over and over, until the entire world takes notice and moves to stop it.

It is said that North Korea is the last frontier of the Cold War.  As I show my film around the world, I occasionally encounter opposition from those still steeped in Cold War ideology.  To me, these old arguments and accusations only serve to obscure the real problem.  I urge everyone to leave aside politics and recognize the problem as a human one.  A massive crime is being perpetrated on our fellow human beings.  It happens to be in North Korea.  It is our responsibility as human beings to do all we can to save our fellow human beings and stop the appalling agony taking place next door. 

Sincerely,
NC Heikin
Director and Producer
Kimjongilia, The Flower of Kim Jong Il