By Avery Ballmann | Staff Writer
The Korean Student Association held a thrifting market on Tuesday at Vara Martin Daniel Plaza to raise money for their upcoming events and for a nonprofit important to their organization.
Liberty in North Korea (LINK) is KSA’s philanthropy. LINK helps North Korean refugees escape the country and relocate to South Korea or the United States.
According to LINK’s website, it’s a “modern-day Underground Railroad” with constantly changing routes and safety points to ensure safety for the refugees. The refugees have to travel over 3,000 miles through China where the possibility of being caught and sent back to North Korea is likely.
Taichung, Taiwan, sophomore Paul Yoon is the event chair for KSA and said it’s their role to support North Koreans.
“As a Korean organization, it’s definitely something we’re very passionate about,” Yoon said. “Anything related to the relations with North Korea, like North Korean refugees and their liberty, that’s something we value a lot.”
This is Yoon’s first semester as event chair for KSA, but the group has held thrift shops before because of their previous success. At the booth, clothes were donated by KSA members and students, then students purchased a clothing item or received one free if they donated five articles of clothing.
Twenty percent of the sales from this thrift store pop-up will be donated to LINK. Garapan, Saipan junior Allan Lee is the internal vice president of KSA and said the people suffering in North Korea deserve as much support as can be given.
“As a student, it’s hard to do anything physically,” Lee said. “So through our organization we can at least support them financially with whatever we have.”
KSA’s upcoming event is a campus wide Korean Cultural Festival also known as Korean Day. This event will be held on Oct. 7th at 6:30 p.m. in Cashion Academic Center in room 506. There will be live dance performances, and all of the music will be sung in Korean.
“It’s a day where we express ourselves and just promote the Korean culture to our audience,” Yoon said. “This specific day is very significant to us, because it’s showing straight Korean culture without foreign influence, just the Korean culture itself.”
