Kyunghung Lee, are you an agent of Dear Leaders? Surely you're not, because you wouldn't have the freedom to act on your own. Many in North Korea die trying to escape. This is truth, no matter what you think about media. I wish Dear Leader really wanted reconciliation for one Korea but he pretends.

Living the sheltered life that I have here in the good old U.S., its hard to imagine the courage and desperation required to put up ones own vital organs as collateral just to get your message out. I wonder how many of our home grown political activists have that kind conviction. My guess is not many. I believe that most of them do it just for the attention and its the fashion of the day.

But I digress.

Would you please post a web site or some other way to contribute to save this mans kidney? Courage like that, whether you agree with his message or not should not go unrewarded.

I'm with the other guy - I'm willing to pitch in some $$ so he doesnt have to lose a kidney. Just post a reputable link for us to contact.

I think that's exactly what they were saying North Korea isn't a part of this world. It's an alternate universe created by a small minority of its inhabitants, who appear to be demons. It is, in a word, hell. Why, do you have evidence that disputes this?

How much does a kidney go for in South Korea? I'd be willing to help get his organ out of hock, if there was a credible facilitator.

I am an American expatriate of Korean descent living in Seoul. I confess, I don't know much about North Korea. Yet, why is it that any information about North Korea is so singular in the West, and especially in the U.S.?

It automatically raises the doubt--at least in me-- that there must be something wrong with the source of the information. North Korea and its leaders have been painted as devils with horns on their head. Could any social system, and could any personality be so singular? While I enjoy and appreciate NPR, and so many of your stories and progrmas, this story turns me off. If Director Jung Sung San had to sell his kidney to put on a show in Seoul, is that North Koreas fault? How does this work to help us broaden our view of the world? Or are we saying that North Korea is not part of this world?

Fantastic!!

Working at present for "a big company" in a major musical, I KNOW that musical theatre could use a few rapes. Murder and beatings are old hat! And, to do this gig, I had to move things around. This dude moved a major organ into his contract. Now that is what theatre needs. I can't wait for the reviews.

Are you sure this is the NPR web site? Jimmy Carter told me that North Korea was a partner for peace, and Al Gore signed off on it! What are you people thinking? Giving free press to a musical, NPR's dream politicians would loathe? You must have turned so far left you've gone straight again!

Interesting story. Apparently the director's father was beaten to death in revenge for an earlier work.