Hollywood’s most notorious beauty, Angelina Jolie, is worried about the people of North Korea. Aren’t we all? But when Angie expresses concern—the world listens.
“They spoke a lot about the concerns about people being persecuted when they are sent back to North Korea,” said the actress in this news report. “I’m very concerned about the people.”
Jolie was in Seoul on Wednesday to promote her latest action thriller, Salt, which opens with a scene that takes place in a North Korean prison. Days earlier, she was photographed at Japan’s Narita National Airport with her cute tots in tow.
Unless you live under a rock, you know that Jolie travels to other countries (Haiti, Sudan et al.) as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. “The UNHCR practices quiet diplomacy in which they do more than they talk about,” said Jolie, who got a tutorial on the plight of North Korean defectors from U.N. officials.
Since 2002, the international community has followed the North Korean refugee crisis more closely. That year, two-year-old Han-Mi Kim and her family’s bold attempt to escape North Korea was caught on tape and broadcast across the world, revealing the haunting image of the girl’s mother being forcefully dragged from the Japanese Consulate by Chinese policemen.
Today, an estimated 17,403 North Koreans have successfully made the journey into South Korea, according to the South’s government. But it is estimated that tens of thousands of people have migrated or have made attempts to.
Although I miss the former crazy, blood-suckin’, foaming-at-the-mouth, Billy Bob-straddlin’ Jolie of 2001, it’s nice to know she cares. After all, if it weren’t for her shift in priorities, we wouldn’t have this guy.
