Beyond Utopia: A Documentary on Escaping North Korea
fork over: to give or pay someone money, often unwillingly
Pastor Kim’s mission is helping North Koreans escape. A new movie called “Beyond Utopia” talks about Pastor Kim and his brave work. It shows the true story of a family of five, the Woos, trying to leave North Korea with Pastor Kim’s help.
In 20 years, he has helped about 1,000 people escape North Korea. He often leads them through many countries including China, Vietnam, and Thailand. But escaping is not easy. New facial recognition software has made it more dangerous. It can also be very expensive. In the past, paying a guard $5 was enough. Now, people sometimes fork over $20,000 to get out.
Pastor Kim believes that helping people escape could help end the totalitarian government. He says, “If a family member defects and learns the truth about the outside world, they contact family members still there to tell them they have been brainwashed. That is the biggest threat to, and best way to collapse, the North Korean regime.”
Sample sentences
1. When I saw the price of the concert tickets, I couldn’t believe I had to fork over that much just to see a show.
2. After the concert, we realized we had to fork over extra money for parking.
3. My brother borrowed my car and returned it without any fuel. I told him he’d better fork over some cash for gas.
Read More:
Escape from tyranny: the gentle pastor who smuggles North Koreans to freedom