ABOUT 200 AMERICANS HAVEWorld

BY ELIZABETH DIAS

The skyline ofPyongyang, thecapital city ofNorth Korea, in2015

PHOTOGR APH BYDA MIR SAGOLJ

THEY HAVE UNTIL SEPT. 1 TO GET OUT.BEEN LIVING IN NORTH KOREA.

38 TIME September 4, 2017

who suffered from spastic quadriplegia that made her unable tostand or sit. Five years ago, she went to Yoon’s developmental-disability program at Pyongyang Medical University Hospital,where she received treatments from Yoon and his team of localdoctors. After almost a year of exercise therapy and some sur-geries, she walked out of the hospital on her own.

The event was heralded in North Korean state media as a na-tional victory, but it received no notice in the U.S., where fewpeople even know about the roughly 200 Americans like Yoonwho work and live under the rule of Kim Jong Un. Carefullymonitored by the regime, they have come and gone for years,doing educational, medical or infrastructural work, and some-times raising families in a nation that has been officially at warwith the U.S. since 1950. Yoon, 45, moved to North Korea 10years ago. “We were able to convince and convey to the NorthKorean government that the kids with disabilities have valueand they can be part of society,” says Yoon. “I really believe inour presence.”

Heidi Linton, a mother of three from Asheville, N.C., wholeads the organization Christian Friends of Korea, has helped

to deliver millions in aid to North Koreasince 1995 and spends as much as threemonths a year in the country to supporthepatitis and tuberculosis care centers.About 50 other Americans work in NorthKorea’s Rason Special Economic Zone,near the Russian border, on social entre-preneurship and humanitarian projects.There’s also a predominately American-run school, the Pyongyang University ofScience and Technology, that has broughtnearly 70 American professors and staffmembers each semester.

The Americans in North Korea arecontroversial because they provide ser-vices that indirectly help the North Ko-rean regime. But career diplomats saythey create a thin but important connec-tion to the Hermit Kingdom. “They arevery dedicated aid workers, they caredeeply about the North Korean people,”former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. BillRichardson says of the expatriate com-munity. “We have no diplomatic con-tact, we have no commercial contact, sosome kind of humanitarian contact as apotential bridge to improve the relation-ship would be helpful.”

But that is set to change. Amid esca-lating military tensions and after the re-cent death of Otto Warmbier—the U.S.student who died after he was detainedin North Korea—the Trump Adminis-tration announced in July that U.S. pass-ports will become invalid for travel in, toor through the country starting on Sept. 1.The official reason for the travel ban is the“mounting risk of arrest and long-termdetention of U.S. citizens” by the Kimregime, but the move could signal thatWashington is preparing for relations tofurther deteriorate. North Korea contin-ues to hold three U.S. citizens, includingtwo former staff members of the Pyong-yang University of Science and Technol-ogy, in its political-detention system.

The news has prompted concern fromthe small community of Americans whohave been working in the country, manyof whom are evangelical Christians, a keypart of Trump’s base. The very nature oftheir work is so sensitive and carefully ne-gotiated that they are often reluctant todraw attention to their projects, though

◁Yoon, his wife Joy and their fourchildren in North Korea in July

WHEN AMERICAN DOCTOR STEPHENYOON THINKS OF NORTH KOREA, HE

DOES NOT THINK OF BALLISTIC MISSILETESTS OR THE THREAT OF NUCLEAR WAR.

HE REMEMBERS INSTEAD A 10-YEAR-OLDGIRL WITH CEREBRAL PALSY,

39

the new travel ban has prompted manyto break that rule. They say they respectthe State Department’s national-securityconcerns but that the cost of withdraw-ing aid is severe. “The President has tomake a strong stand,” says Franklin Gra-ham, whose global aid organization hasdone work in North Korea for 20 years.But, he adds, “we’ve got to continue totry to work.”

Many of the Americans who call NorthKorea home are pushing the Trump Ad-ministration for new permission to re-turn. The State Department may allowlimited exceptions, but the scope is notyet clear. “It’s an abhorrent moral alge-bra that has overtaken us, that if moralevil is visited on great numbers, then theplight of individuals—and thus [the] workto relieve the suffering of individuals—somehow doesn’t matter,” says RobertCarlin, a former U.S. official and behind-the-scenes diplomat during the Clinton,Bush and Obama years. “Have we lost ourmoral compass?”

THE U.S.–NORTH KOREA relationship haslong wavered between delicate and dan-gerous. Although the Korean War endedin 1953, leaving more than 1 million NorthKoreans and 36,000 Americans dead, apeace treaty was never signed, and enmityremains. Attempts to restart relations inthe decades since have been short-lived,poisoned by distrust. Time and again,nuclear-nonproliferation negotiationshave fallen apart or deals have been bro-ken, with tensions spiking, though theyhave recently receded since North Koreastopped testing missiles in mid-August.As recently as early August, North Ko-rean state media threatened torching themainland U.S. with “an unimaginable seaof fire.” President Trump, meanwhile,counterthreatened with “fire and furylike the world has never seen.”

The quiet U.S. humanitarian effortin North Korea began as a response toa famine there in the mid-1990s, whichkilled hundreds of thousands of people.Groups like UNICEF, Mercy Corps andWorld Vision delivered food aid. Whenthe world’s focus shifted away, Christiancharities stuck around and deepened theirties. The Eugene Bell Foundation, whichwas founded by a Southern Presbyterianminister, began supporting tuberculosistreatment efforts in North Korea around

alleged crimes against humanity, includ-ing persecution for political crimes withtorture, starvation and forced labor. Butthe U.S. groups are careful to respect therules, and their focus is service projects.

Christian Friends of Korea grew outof Graham’s visit to North Korea in theearly 1990s. Linton, the group’s execu-tive director, traveled to North Korea inAugust for a routine visit with a team ofeight other Americans, three Norwegiansand an Australian, all volunteers, to installclean-water systems and continue theirhepatitis B treatment program. Lintonoften visits the two Protestant churchesand the one Catholic-heritage church inPyongyang, but she does not proselytizeor preach. Her team of volunteers worksalongside Korean officials during every

△Humanitarian workerslike the Yoons, top, and

Linton, above, havehelped North Koreans

for years

that time, starting the first program formultidrug-resistant TB. “These effortsare really outliers, in part because they arecompletely going against the grain of thebody language that both governments aresending to their people,” says Scott Sny-der, a senior fellow for Korea studies atthe Council on Foreign Relations.

The new relationships were fragileat the start. A century ago, Christianitythrived in the region, and American evan-gelist Billy Graham’s late wife Ruth evenattended school in Pyongyang. TodayNorth Korea’s constitution allows for free-dom of religion, but the country forbidsproselytizing. Such subtle distinctionsmay be lost on an outside world preoccu-pied with North Korea’s outlaw status: in2014, the U.N. condemned its leaders for

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40 TIME September 4, 2017

trip. Medical treatment decisions arejointly made, and Americans and Koreansinstall water-distribution lines together.

Similarly, Franklin Graham—Billy andRuth’s eldest son and the president of theaid organization Samaritan’s Purse—hassent 30 teams to North Korea over thepast 20 years. One team was there inJuly at the request of the Korea-AmericaPrivate Exchange Society, an officialNorth Korean organization. It deliveredfive ambulances, purchased by Samari-tan’s Purse, to pediatric hospitals. Bothgovernments allow the presence of hu-manitarian workers “to the extent that itserves their own purposes,” says ambas-sador Robert King, the special envoy forNorth Korean human-rights issues dur-ing both of President Obama’s terms. “Forthe United States, there is a benefit polit-ically. It sort of softens the image of theUnited States, it provides informationabout the outside world to North Korea,which is an extremely isolated place.”

Perhaps the most prominent operationin North Korea run by Americans is a uni-versity for 600 students started by evan-gelical Christians. James Kim, an Amer-ican who immigrated to the U.S. fromSouth Korea, had been involved in food-aid efforts to the country, which brieflygot him arrested by authorities in 1998 onspying charges. He dreamed of starting auniversity that would teach free-marketeconomy and entrepreneurship classes,expose students to Western thought andgenerate a peace-building movement.

After building a similar school in Yanji,China, in the early 1990s, he worked withNorth Korean authorities to start a sisterschool in Pyongyang. It opened in 2010and was largely funded by evangelicalsin the U.S. and South Korea. The Pyong-yang University of Science and Technol-ogy attracts staff members from the U.S.,Europe and other parts of the world, andteaches all classes, including soccer, inEnglish. Graduate students can studyabroad in Europe. Many students comefrom North Korea’s elite families or arechosen by the North Korean EducationMinistry. All students live on a closedcompound outside the city. The curricu-lum, says the school’s U.S. director, NormaNichols, “is designed to open their eyes toother thoughts and to the world.”

Faculty members know their limits.They follow strict rules prohibiting the

a mystery—one taught a monthlong ac-counting course, the other did agricul-tural development. Neither was a regu-lar employee, school officials say, and theywere not arrested on campus but whenthey were leaving the country.

In other areas, the ruling regime hasused detention as a point of internationalleverage. In March, North Korea blockedMalaysian citizens, including diplomatsand their families, from exiting the coun-try after Kim Jong Nam, Kim Jong Un’shalf brother, was allegedly assassinatedin Kuala Lumpur’s airport. They were re-leased when Malaysian officials eventuallyagreed to return his body and allow sev-eral North Koreans, including suspects inthe assassination, to leave Malaysia.

Such behavior has led some in

△Nearly 70 American

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semester at theschool, which has 600North Korean students

discussion of politics or religion, andtheir courses, like international financemanagement, avoid topics like sociologyor culture. The same day the travel banwas posted, on Aug. 2, the school’s NorthKorean co-president wrote a letter wel-coming all foreign professors, their fam-ilies and administration staffers, and as-sured the safety of their stay. “We followthe rules,” Nichols says. “We are not goingto be detained.”

But recent history suggests the workhas risks. North Korea has detained atleast 17 Americans in the past decade, andtwo staffers from the school are among thethree U.S. citizens reportedly still held bythe North Korean government. Authori-ties charged each with “hostile acts,” butthe reason for their detention remains

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Congress to urge a much more aggressiveposture against North Korea. “Tragically,after the horrific treatment of Otto Warm-bier and the regime’s demonstrated will-ingness to use American citizens as nego-tiating chips, limiting U.S. citizen travel,and ensuring that such travel is reviewedand approved ahead of time, is both sen-sible and necessary,” Democratic Repre-sentative Adam Schiff of California says.Along with Republican RepresentativeJoe Wilson of South Carolina, Schiff in-troduced legislation in May to stop Amer-icans from traveling to North Korea forfive years. Like the State Department ban,which currently runs only one year, thereis a narrow carve-out for humanitarianwork. A floor vote is expected this year.“It’s a great example of Congress and theWhite House working in tandem, backingeach other up,” Wilson says.

Detention can cost the U.S. govern-ment millions of dollars in terms of high-profile diplomatic negotiations and con-sular efforts, says Snyder of the Councilon Foreign Relations, and can preventprogress on critical negotiations. Tour-ists and religious advocates have generallyposed a greater problem than humanitar-ian workers, who by and large understandthe terms of engagement and follow therules. “I suspect the Trump Administra-tion will tighten those humanitarian con-tacts, and I don’t think it is very wise,” for-mer ambassador Richardson says.

AFTER THE SEPT. 1 BAN was an-nounced, a representative from the U.S.consulate in Shenyang, China, held atown hall in Yanji, China, near the NorthKorean border, for U.S. citizens who livein that region. But the meeting providedfew details of next steps, which havestill not been announced by the TrumpAdministration. “The safety and secu-rity of U.S. citizens overseas is one ofour highest priorities,” says Ashley Gar-rigus, a spokeswoman for the State De-partment’s Bureau of Consular Affairs.“The travel warning for North Korea isfor all U.S. national travelers, regardlessof their reason for travel.”

The consequences of violating the banalso remain unclear. The State Depart-ment could revoke a violator’s passport,or seek to prosecute those who violatethe ban—misuse of a passport is a felonythat could result in a long prison sentence.

August, after making sure that textbooks,finances and food supplies are in place forthe coming semester. But if the Americansare not allowed back in, Nichols fearsthe school could become a North Koreanproject. “The chain for all Westerninfluence would be broken at that point,”she says.

Yoon, meanwhile, has been taking hiscase to Foggy Bottom. “We do not wantto see one tragedy turn into a multitude oftragedies,” he wrote in letter to the StateDepartment, using the acronym for theDemocratic People’s Republic of Korea.“Humanitarian work in the DPRK re-quires substantial time and effort inbuilding relationships, negotiating workterms and monitoring the implementa-tion of projects. This requires frequent,if not constant, presence in the DPRK.”

After both growing up in South Korea,Yoon and his American wife Joy met wheneach moved to Illinois to study biology atOlivet Nazarene University. Yoon becamea naturalized U.S. citizen, and when theylearned that Christian organizations didwork in North Korea, they decided tomove there in 2007. He co-founded IgnisCommunity to support families in NorthKorea, and his team on the ground nowincludes 20 Americans, both staff andfamilies. Yoon received special permissionfrom the country’s then leader KimJong Il to earn an M.D. and Ph.D. fromPyongyang Medical University, and thenpermission from Kim Jong Un to developa spine-rehabilitation program with theMinistry of Public Health. “It took long-term engagement to get permission fromDPRK to start our medical programs,”Yoon says. “We have that support, butnow our U.S. policy is making us not ableto continue to bring life and hope to thesechildren.”

For now, Yoon and his family have de-cided to keep their apartment at the Pol-ish embassy in North Korea at a reducedrent, but they will wait in their home inChina. Even if Yoon gets special permis-sion to return to North Korea to train 28doctors this fall, he has heard that hisfamily may not be able to join him. “Ourcerebral palsy and autism children be-come a second victim of the political ten-sion,” Yoon says. “I’m hopeful and pray-ing it will happen, but I am not sure withthis great tension that the U.S. and DPRKhas. They are talking about war.” □

(A Department of Justice spokespersondeclined to comment on the potentialconsequences.) It is also unclear if dualcitizens will face repercussions for travel-ing to North Korea on a non-U.S. passport.

Even if some Americans get excep-tions to travel, increased sanctions onNorth Korea have complicated theirwork. Yoon says he has been waiting eightmonths for a license from the U.S. Trea-sury so he can continue plans for a five-story, $3 million pediatric rehabilitationdepartment at Pyongyang Medical Uni-versity. It would be the first for the cam-pus, capable of treating up to 200 outpa-tients and 40 inpatients every day, and

‘WE DO NOT WANTTO SEE ONE

TRAGEDY TURNINTO A MULTITUDE

OF TRAGEDIES.’STEPHEN YOON, in a letterto the State Department

funded largely by U.S. and South Koreandonations. Christian Friends of Koreahas struggled to get the right supplies itneeds to make medical cultures and testdrug sensitivity. When Linton recentlywired money to purchase bicycles forrural medical personnel, the bank frozethe funds, and she has spent weeks tryingto get them back. “Banks are so afraid ofbeing brought up on violations that theyare so inside of the legal red line,” she says.“They don’t want their legal departmentto be tied up dealing with a small humani-tarian organization.”

At the Pyongyang University of Scienceand Technology, classes are set to begin onSept. 4 with the remaining non-Americanfaculty. American school administratorsplan to leave the compound in late

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