On my way to meet you, a TV show where the protagonists are from North Korea

https://www.facebook.com/chAmeetnow/?fref=ts

I got the chance to film for the TV show On my way to meet you. There I was asked why a Romanian came all this long way to learn about North Korea. Also, I was asked about North Korea`s imagine in communist Romania or how NK influenced Romania in the past. I got to meet many nice people, especially North Korean Defectors that despite their past they can still smile and be kind.

Many times South Korea was blamed for not being enough prepared to integrate/accommodate North Koreans. It is true that in the past South Korea did not know how to get a better understanding of NK, however, for the past years, South Korean society started to show more and more interest and wanting to get a better understanding of their neighbor.

In 2012 a TV program called On my way to meet you 이제 만나러 갑니다 was broadcasting for the first time and its purpose was to inform south Koreans about north Korean society, daily life, culture, food, hardships... when we think of NK most of the times we have in mind nuclear weapons, authoritarian regime, however, north Koreans are humans like us and we should sympathize with them more.

All the guests are from North Korea and most of them are women that are called beauties 미녀. There is a saying in the Korean Peninsula: 남남북녀 and if we translate it means north Korean women are beautiful and south Korean men are handsome.

Photo credits: http://i.imgur.com/jSZUBvR.jpg

Along with north Korean defectors, there are 4 south Korean men guests. Lately, foreigners that live in Korea started to participate as well.

Each episode has a specific theme that is related to NK life. For one hour and 20 minutes the north Korean guests talk about their lives back in NK, dance, laugh and cry while reminding their families that are still there.

To be honest while watching this TV program I was very impressed by their stories, like struggling with poverty, smuggling CDs from China in order to watch South Korean soap operas. Most of the Nk people confessed after getting to know about K-pop or K-dramas, they decided to defect.

However, there are some people who criticized NK defectors who chose to leave their families back and move to SK. I think we should not judge. Maybe because we were fortunate enough to live in a free country and having enough food we cannot understand. Most of the people that defected tried to help out their families back in NK by sending them money or sending brokers in order to help them to defect.

Most of the guests have very sad stories, they witnessed violence, some even failed to defect and after being caught by the police they had to do forced labor in prison camps. Some of those who succeeded to defect had to endure hardships in China, to live with a fake identity and work hard in order to survive. While being in China, their best fear is to be caught by the Chinese authorities as China and North Korea made a pact to send back all the defectors.

In you are interested in North Korea you should watch this tv program every Sunday evening 6:30. As for me...with each story I heard I can tell that I feel closer to NK defectors and I really hope that the unification day will come faster.