'On The Border 2' to Be Shown Worldwide

Published on 2011/04/12 | Source

An activist helping North Korean defectors stands on a boat carrying his wife's North Korean family as it approaches another vessel from South Korea in the West Sea in December 2009.

"On The Border 2", a follow-up to a documentary produced by the Chosun Ilbo on the plight of North Korean refugees, will be broadcasted in Japan on NHK TV at midnight Wednesday.

The film was made with the support of the Korea Creative Content Agency, Foundation for Broadcast Culture, and Center for Asian American Media. Korean actors Jeon Do-yeon, Ji Jin-hee, and Ha Jung-woo, and Hollywood actors of Korean descent John Cho, Moon Bloodgood, and Daniel Henney did the voiceover in Korean and English for free.

"On The Border 2" has three 52-minute parts: "Across Land, Across Sea", which tracks a successful escape from North Korea and China to South Korea in December 2009 by Song Sung-kook and his family helped by Pastor Kim Sung-eun; "Seeking Haven", which depicts the desperate attempts of a North Korean refugee to bring her family in the North to the South and her difficult adjustment to South Korean society; and "Crossing Three Borders", a story of North Korean refugees who stormed into the Danish Embassy in Vietnam in pursuit of freedom.

A special reportage team of the Chosun Ilbo captured the life of North Korean refugees in 10 countries including China, Cambodia, Japan, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, U.S., Belgium and France. The journalists accompanied them when they crossed the borders via land or in smuggling ships, and were arrested by Chinese police at times. "On The Border 2" will be broadcasted around the world. EBS TV will air all three parts from May 2 to 4 at 10 p.m. on Docu Prime.

France's Television France, Belgium's RTBF, and Poland's TVN24 are also showing the documentary. Negotiations are still underway with PBS and HBO in the U.S., Britain's BBC World News, Germany's ZDF and Qatar's Al Jazeera.

Its predecessor "On The Border" won 16 awards worldwide, including from the prestigious Monte Carlo TV Festival in Monaco, the Rory Peck Award in Britain, the Society of Publishers in Asia, Korea Journalists Association, and the Korean Newspapers Association. It was one of the five nominees for the "Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story - Long Form" category for an Emmy Award last year.