Á¦¸ñ  Almost 70 years ago, a US merchant ÀÛ¼ºÀÏ  2019-12-27
ÀÛ¼ºÀÚ  refugee11
Almost 70 years ago, a US merchant marine ship picked up more than 14,000 refugees in a single trip from a North Korean port. This is the story of that journey, and some of those on board.

















It was Christmas Day ·¹Çø®Ä«·¹Çø®Ä«=·¹Çø®Ä«·¹Çø®Ä«
in 1950, and this was no ordinary birth.

The mother was one of 14,000 North Korean refugees crammed into a US merchant marine ship, fleeing the advancing guns of ·¹Çø®Ä«¼îÇÎ ·¹Çø®Ä«Ä¿½ºÅÒ±Þ ·¹Çø®Ä«ÀÏ´ëÀÏ=·¹Çø®Ä«¼îÇÎ ·¹Çø®Ä«Ä¿½ºÅÒ±Þ ·¹Çø®Ä«ÀÏ´ëÀÏ
the Chinese army.

There was barely enough ±î¸£¶ì¿¡=±î¸£¶ì¿¡¿©¼ºÀÇ·ù
room on board to stand - and there wasn't much medical equipment, either.

"The midwife had to use her teeth to cut my umbilical cord," Lee Gyong-pil tells me some 69 years on. "People said the fact that I didn't die and was born was a Christmas miracle."

Mr Lee was the fifth baby born on the SS Meredith Victory that winter, during some of the darkest days of the Korean War.

The Meredith Victory's three-day voyage ´ä·Ê¶±
saved thousands of lives, including the parents of the current President of South Korea, Moon Jae-in.

It also earned the cargo freighter a nickname - the Ship of Miracles.