Human Rights in North Korea

Awareness Week

November 10, 2009 – November 20, 2009

"Fear is not the natural state of civilized people."
– Aung San Suu Kyi

Starvation. Concentration Camps. Human Trafficking.

Come learn more about the current human rights situation in North Korea during HRiNK’s awareness Week from Nov. 10 – Nov. 20! Join us in conversation on Tuesday with Suzanne Scholte, a leading activist for human rights in North Korea. Remember to pick up a daily ration in the form of a rice krispies treat on Monday in front of the Science Center. The following Tuesday, Yoo Sung Kim will be sharing stories about his life in North Korea and his experience crossing the border. On Friday, Nov. 20 join us in Adams LCR for a screening of The Long Journey. You will not want to miss this opportunity to learn more about the dire situation in North Korea and how you can make a difference – great or small.

Tuesday, November 10 5:30 – 7:00 PM Ticknor Lounge

North Korean Human Rights with Suzanne Scholte

President, The Defense Forum Foundation
Founder and Chairman, The North Korea Freedom Coalition
Vice Chairman, Founding Board Member, U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea

Monday, November 16 10:30 AM – 2:00 PM Science Center

1,000 Daily Rations

Receive the equivalence of food allotted per meal in North Korea

Tuesday, November 17 7:00 – 8:30 PM Ticknor Lounge

Personal Accounts from Yoo Sung Kim

A former 3-star general who defected from North Korea

Friday, November 20 4:00 – 5:30 PM Adams Lower Common Room

The Long Journey : Documentary Screening
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HRiNK@lists.hcs.harvard.edu
http://lists.hcs.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/hrink

©2010 Love North Korea. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. My North Korea Talk at GrX
2. Pastor Chun Ki Won in Boston

Update 10-27-2009: The talk went well.  Though the audience was small, only four people including two other speakers, I still felt privileged having the chance to share.  I enjoyed speaking and I even became emotional when I shared about my son Isaac   Thanks for your encouragement and prayers.

On December 5, 2008, while I was celebrating my birthday in Sunnyvale, Cho Jinhye, a North Korean refugee, gave her testimony at my old church in Boston.  (I blogged about my initial reaction a few days after.)  I want to share some parts of this testimony with you.

My father went on a journey with my mother to China to get some food.  On their way back the North Korean police arrested them.  They tried to force my father to put his fingerprint on a false statement…

Meanwhile, next door my mother was told to put her hands on the ground…  The policeman stepped on her hands with his boots and crushed them.  My father gave in when he heard her screaming in excruciating pain.  He begged them to at least let his wife go since she was 3 months pregnant and there were little children at home with his mother who was 76 years old.

The last thing my mother saw was my father tied to a little stick of a tree covered with blood from the severe beatings.  What should have taken a day on foot took my mother several days to come home for she was barely crawling having been so severely tortured.

In North Korea, 200,000 people are in labor camps that would rival Stalin’s gulags and Hitler’s concentration camps.  Torture like what I’ve read is commonplace in testimonies of North Korean refugees.  400,000 people have reportedly died already in these camps.

One day a grandmother Inminbanjang (civilian police) came with a proposition; she would give us 5 Kg of corns if we ran an errand to get some paper for her.  My older sister asked me to take care of my mom and the baby and that she would be back home latest midnight.  She didn’t come back for another week.

Although my mother had just gone through a delivery, she set out to look for my older sister…  (While her mother was gone the baby died.) Three days later my mother came back…  My mother didn’t find my 19-yr-old sister for Chinese men had sold her off.

80% – 90% of North Korean refugee women are trafficked into sexual slavery, forced marriages, etc. This is the highest percentage of any single population in the world.

At 9 PM I set out to escape, piggy backing my 5-year-old brother, holding the hand of my 6-year-old sister .  I had no shoes and wrapped my feet with a plastic bag.  I couldn’t go on because the plastic bag ripped and my feet were hurting too much.  I decided to leave my younger brother with a neighbor.  When I was l leaving, he asked “Why are you leaving me here and taking older sis?”  I told him I would be back in 5 days with some candies…

It was said that my brother had been left outside of the house of the neighbor when their living got tougher.  My brother died from starvation sitting on a rock in the field as he was singing “older sis, when are you coming back…”  I still live with the guilt that I was too weak to take care of him.

In the 1990’s a famine killed approximately two million people or 10% of the population of North Korea.  Starvation and malnutrition still affect many parts of the country.

God places different things on different peoples’ hearts.  And for some reason God has placed North Korea on my heart.  When I hear these testimonies I don’t just hear words, I see faces.  And in this testimony I cried because I saw Victoria when I read about the baby dying and I saw Isaac sitting on the rock calling for Dylan.

What is happening in North Korea right now is probably one of the greatest human rights issues in the world.  I wanted to talk to you about this to raise awareness but also to communicate my hope for what God is doing and will do.

There is a book called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years .  It talks about how if we see ourselves as part of a story, a story that has purpose, conflict and character, then our lives can have meaning and direction.

August 4 was one of the more exciting days of my life because on that day Euna Lee and Laura Ling were freed.  What made it exciting was that I, in a very small way, was part of the movement to free them.  I even wrote a letter on my blog to Kim Jong Il asking him to free Euna and Laura.  Though I am sure he did not read it I was part of the story to free them.

One day the walls around North Korea will fall.  Stories will come out and most will be horrific but some will be beautiful.  And I want to be part of that story of freedom for North Korea.  And I’m realizing that I cannot be part of that story alone, that I must be intertwined with other peoples’ stories.

If you interested in having this become part of your story please come talk with me.

(Please note that the black and white photos are from the LiNK 9 Lives Booklet which you can download here.)

©2010 Love North Korea. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. Why Churches and Other Institutions That Care About Social Justice Should Care About North Korea
2. Human Rights in North Korea Awareness Week at Harvard
3. Love North Korea

Pastor Chun Ki Won is one of the most famous activists in the underground railroad that smuggles North Korean refugees from China to freedom in South Korea.  He is the founder of the Durihana mission which has helped over 700 North Koreans escape.

On Wednesday, October 21 at 4:30 PM Pastor Chun will be speaking at Wellesley College at the Pendleton Atrium.  On Thursday, October 22 at 5:15 PM Pastor Chun will be speaking at Boston College Law School.  I encourage all of you in the area to attend this event.

And if you cannot make it I suggest watching the Seoul Train documentary where Pastor Chun is one of the heroes or the PBS Wide Lens video interview which I show above.

Update 2009-10-26: Here is an article about Pastor Chun Ki Won’s talk.

Looking For Refuge: Pastor Chun Ki Won and the North Korean Human Rights Crisis

Thursday, October 22, 2009
5:15-7 P.M.
Boston College Law School, Newton, MA
East Wing 115A&B

One of the primary figures in North Korean refugee work over the last ten years, Pastor Chun Ki Won has endured North Korean prisons, helped hundreds of North Korean refugees escape, and built a network of orphanages and shelters in China, Cambodia, Thailand, and Mongolia.

We hope you will join us in learning about the prevailing human rights issues that exist today in North Korea and the Chinese borders.  Pastor Chun will address:

• Issues surrounding the capture of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two American journalists who were recently released from North Korea, and its political and humanitarian ramifications;
• The lack of discussion regarding negotiations between the United States and North Korea and why this is so;
• Opportunities for students and young professionals in this field.

There will also be a brief showing of the award-winning 2005 documentary, “Seoul Train,” which follows the dangerous journeys of North Korean defectors fleeing through or to China.  The event will close with a Q&A session.

Light refreshments will be served.

Co-sponsored by:

Boston College Law School’s Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA), Christian Legal Society, Holocaust/Human Rights Project, and Amnesty International; Boston College’s Korean Students’ Association;Boston University Law School’s APALSA; Harvard University Law School’s APALSA.

©2010 Love North Korea. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. Seoul Train Screening in Silicon Valley

Today numerous vigils will be held around the world to protest China’s inhumane repatriation of North Korean refugees back to North Korea where they are tortured (pregnant women’s babies are aborted) and sometimes executed.

If you do go to one of these vigils please leave a comment letting us know how it went.

You can find more information about the vigils in this press release which includes information about where they are happening around the world.

©2010 Love North Korea. All Rights Reserved.

No related posts.

Please join us on the evening of Saturday, September 12th, at The Times Center in New York City as we host the LiNK 2009 Benefit Gala: "Hope Makes Us Live."

Through the years, more and more North Korean defectors have begun to share their stories. Often reported are tragic accounts of suffering, torture, trafficking and separation. But beyond these accounts lie untold stories that inspire and offer hope – hope that makes them live.

We invite you to come and listen to these stories that offer hope and courage for a brighter future, and to meet North Koreans who have begun their new lives. Guests of honor for the evening will be three North Korean refugees now resettled in the U.S. and South Korea – learn more about their stories here. Invited guests also include Congressman Ed Royce, "Seoul Train" Director and Producer Jim Butterworth, this year’s "Freedom Fighter" award recipient Jared Genser, and this year’s "Light of Liberty" award recipient and invited keynote speaker Senator Sam Brownback.

Tickets are on sale now! For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.linkglobal.org/gala.

We hope to see you there!

LiNK | Liberty in North Korea 1751 Torrance BLVD, Suite L Torrance, CA 90501

www.linkglobal.org info@linkglobal.org 310.212.7190

©2010 Love North Korea. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. Seoul Train Screening in Silicon Valley
2. Seoul Train Screening Recap
3. My North Korea Talk at GrX

With its riveting footage of a secretive and dangerous Underground Railroad, Seoul Train is the gripping documentary that reveals the life and death of North Koreans as they escape their homeland as well as China.

This powerful documentary will be presented by LiNK (Liberty In North Korea). They are a non-profit organization working to expose the human rights violations happening in North Korea. They will also hold a Q&A session afterwards so please come out and learn about this gripping and tragic story going on in our world today.

Date & Time: Tuesday, July 14^th at 7:00 PM—Admission is Free

Location: Foothill Covenant Church; 1555 Oak Avenue, Los Altos, CA

You can download the flyer here.  Please feel free to distribute and promote.

This is the Seoul Train trailer.

©2010 Love North Korea. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. Seoul Train Screening Recap
2. LiNK 2009 Benefit Gala
3. Pastor Chun Ki Won in Boston