North of the 38th or Mr. Obama
Please Apologize!
North Korea
the DPRK
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Buk Chosun
a nation misunderstood
misrepresented
by mainstream media, politicians
A United Nations member for over two decades
this wounded animal
publicly skewered
on the axis of evil
an outpost of tyranny
quietly removed
from the US of A’s terrorism list
North Koreans
long for reunification
peace on the peninsula
a strong, prosperous nation
One Korea: no North, no South, no East, no West!
North Korean Soldiers
protect us at the DMZ
the more peaceful side of the 38th parallel
North Koreans
the first Koreans to accept me
despite my background
refusing to sell their children
to white westerners
caring for their own
from cradle to grave
1866: the General Sherman attacked Korea but was destroyed
1968: USS Pueblo spy ship, captured
the first time the US government apologized
to another nation
Between these histories
lies the worst incursion of them all
the worst
because of its horrific intensity
the worst
because of its secrecy
never rectified
no resolution between the DPRK and the US
1950: the Korean War begins
the US invades Korea
Sinchon, North Korea
over thirty-eight thousand Korean civilians
women, children
massacred by US military in fifty-two days
mass murdered in churches
buried while breathing
butchered beyond recognition
two thousand people
pushed off the Soktang Bridge
mothers and children separated
burned after a petroleum bath
thirty-eight thousand killed
fifty days
Equals 25 percent of the population
Equals 738 per day
Equals thirty-seven per hour
Equals one Korean
every
two
minutes
Images from Auschwitz, Birkenau, Dachau,
Choeung Ek, Tuol Sleng surface as I check myself.
No, I am not in Poland
I am not in Germany
I am not in Cambodia
I am in Korea
Is this your Killing Fields, your Holocaust? I ask a survivor
It is worse he replies
as the painting of his tortured father
hangs in the Massacre Museum
Unexcavated mass graves
the Commission of the Women’s
International Democratic Federation
finds these atrocities
surpass those committed
by the Hitlerite villains
Ugandan, Japanese brothers and sisters
fight for justice
Get out US army, Korea is for Koreans!
Lay flowers at graves of mothers, children
meet two survivors who escaped as boys
Jong Kun Song, age six
Ju Sang Won, age five
now grandfathers, museum guides
stand in the very place they were to die
recount the horrific event
some of the last survivors to testify this atrocity
Students wait to pay respect
our time too short
shouldn’t we take more time to pay our respects?
no, then this infinite line of mourners cannot
Students stream through the museum
into the bunker, back out of the battery
who cared for the children who survived?
The state
The state gave them a place, status in society
valued them, cared for them
instead of selling them to white westerners
is this why the US cannot apologize
for this shameful history?
This history is not taught in US classrooms
it is not taught in South Korea
but it is taught tonight
Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton,
please rectify the past
apologize on behalf of your predecessors
and this country
you call the greatest nation in the world.
Yes You Can!