Stateless: How I Helped Nineteen People Get Out of the North Korean Black Hole

Sagid Salah was born in Seoul, Korea on September 2, 1932. Both of his parents were from Tatarstan in the former Soviet Union. After fleeing the Soviet Union during the Russian Revolution, they settled in Seoul and ran a clothing business. Sagid attended primary boarding school in Yokohama, Japan and secondary school at the Seoul American School for two years, until the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, when his whole family was captured and held prisoner in North Korea for 43 months. His North Korean prison internment was spent with American and other foreign prisoners, both civilian and military. After his family's release from North Korea, Sagid immigrated to the United States by himself at the age of 21. He attended Gainesville High School for one semester then enrolled in the University of Florida, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, Master of Science in Engineering and Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering. Sagid became a naturalized American citizen on October 6, 1959. This was his first adopted country. He had been considered stateless his entire life until this time. From 1964 until his retirement in 1993, Sagid held positions with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission as a Nuclear Engineer; for Westinghouse Corporation designing nuclear rocket systems for space exploration and designing nuclear power plants; and with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as a Nuclear Engineer reviewing and evaluating the safety and operations of U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. Sagid Salah resides in Northern Virginia with his wife Ravile and enjoys traveling, gardening and astronomy.