Dong Hyuk SHIN shows his former home, the Kaechon Concentration Camp in North Korea, on Google Earth. LiNK Tour Hits New York City This Week!
Friends, Join us this week (beginning tonight!) as LiNK and special guest Shin Dong Hyuk travel through New York City to raise awareness about the North Korean human rights crisis. Mr. Shin, a North Korean defector born and raised in a concentration camp, will share his powerful and unique story, and LiNK's Directors will share new information about the broader crisis, the refugee situation, new developments, and how you can get involved. Please join us at any (or all) of the events!
We will also be holding a private, invitation-only screening this Thursday at 9:15 pm, of the forthcoming film Crossing. The film, begun in 2004, is the first feature film to deal with the North Korean human rights and refugee crisis. It is slated for theatrical release in South Korea this coming June. This film may very well be our movement's "Hotel Rwanda" or "Schindler's List" - please don't let the late hour deter you, and come join us! In attendance will be LiNK's headquarters staff, the producer of the film, as well as Mr. Shin.
TUESDAY, MAY 6
Awareness Event: "Born & Raised in a North Korean Concentration Camp"
Time: 7 PM - 9PM
Place: Lower Lobby, City Room @ The King's College inside the Empire State Building, 34th St & 5th Ave
(Easier to enter through the 34th St side vs. the 5th Ave; Use
elevators marked LL-6 for Lower Lobby to 6th Fl; Make left as you exit
the elevator to the Student Services reception area)
RSVP: jko@sigmaadvisors.net
WEDNESDAY, MAY 7
Brown-Bag Lunch: Shin Dong Hyuk and LiNK
Time: 12:30 - 2:30pm
Location: Columbia Center for the Study of Human Rights
International Affairs Building. Rm 1118
420 W. 118th St., New York, NY 10027 (118th St. between Amsterdam + Morningside)
RSVP: joseph@linkglobal.org
--
Crossing Movie Trailer
THURSDAY, MAY 8
Date/Time: 9:15 pm
Location: ImaginAsian Theater, 239 East 59th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.
Presented by: LiNK, Patrick Cheh and ImaginAsian Entertainment.
RSVP with name, affiliation, and reference: joseph@linkglobal.org
Dong-hyuk SHIN Mr. Shin was born and raised in Political Prison Camp No. 14 until his escape in 2005. Based in South Korea, he has testified before Britain’s House of Lords, and published a book in 2007 entitled “I Was a Political Prisoner at Birth in North Korea” published by the DataBase Center for North Korean Human Rights. Mr. Shin aspires to attend college and hopes to become a policeman.
Adrian HONG Adrian Hong currently serves as Executive Director of Liberty in North Korea, or LiNK, an international NGO devoted to human rights in North Korea, and the protection of North Korean refugees all over the world. In December of 2006, Mr. Hong was arrested along with 2 LiNK field workers and 6 North Korean refugees in the People's Republic of China and imprisoned before being released and deported. The PRC refuses to recognize North Koreans as refugees despite international, independent and UN findings to the contrary, and does not abide by it's treaty obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention, which it is a signatory to. North Koreans repatriated to the DPRK face severe interrogation and punishment, and those caught attempting to defect, converting to Christianity or meeting with foreigners face imprisonment in labor and concentration camps. The refugees were released in July of 2007 in an unprecedented move by Chinese authorities and sent to South Korea.
Hannah SONG Hannah Song currently serves as Deputy Director of LiNK. Ms. Song speaks regularly all over the world at universities, conferences, symposiums and events. Working out of LiNK's headquarters office in Washington, D.C., Ms. Song advocates for the North Korean people to governments, institutions and agencies worldwide, working on policy issues affecting the North Korean people, maintaining and supporting a large underground network of shelters for North Korean refugees in hiding, and focusing on refugee resettlement programs both in the U.S. and South Korea. Ms. Song also coordinates LiNK's Liberty House initiative, a comprehensive program dedicated to helping refugees transition to new lives in new nations.
Dong Hyuk SHIN shows his former home, the Kaechon Concentration Camp in North Korea, on Google Earth.
US TOUR OF NORTH KOREAN DEFECTOR BORN & RAISED IN A CONCENTRATION CAMP
Washington,
DC – LiNK will be hosting North Korean defector Dong-hyuk SHIN on a
speaking tour entitled, “Born and Raised in a Concentration Camp,” from
Wednesday, April 30 to Wednesday, May 14. Shin will recount his
experiences as a North Korean who was born into slavery as a political
prisoner in a North Korean concentration camp.
After some
relatives defected, Shin’s father, grandparents, and uncle were deemed
treasonous and sent to separate camps. His father was sent to Political
Prison Camp No. 14 in Kaechon, South Pyongan province, which houses
approximately 60,000 inmates and is about 50 miles north of Pyongyang.
For good behavior, he was permitted to marry a fellow inmate. Dong-hyuk
SHIN was born on Nov. 19, 1982 and called the camp home until 2005.
While
at the camp, Shin endured daily beatings, torture, starvation-level
rations, saw forced abortions and even witnessed the public execution
of his mother and brother in 1996. Shin described his life of total
isolation from the world: “In South Korea, although there is
disappointment and sadness, there is also so much joy, happiness and
comfort. In Kaechon, I did not even know such emotions existed. The
only emotion I ever knew was fear: fear of beatings, fear of
starvation, fear of torture and fear of death.”
The speaking
tour will be held in Washington, DC (4/30-5/5); New York City
(5/6-5/8); Chicago (5/9-5/10); San Francisco (5/11-5/13); Los Angeles
(5/13); and Irvine, California (5/14).
LiNK’s Executive Director
Adrian Hong and Deputy Director Hannah Song will accompany Shin on the
tour and will be speaking about the broader issue of human rights in
North Korea, as well as the current refugee situation and LiNK’s
resettlement activities.
Few countries today can claim as staggering a list of human rights
violations as North Korea
[and] as the situation grows ever more desperate for those fleeing the world's
most repressive regime, urgent attention is needed.
In light of this, it is fair to say that international
institutions have totally failed in their duty to protect refugees and curtail
human rights violations.
After a meeting [with North Korean defectors and the families of abductees] in
April 2006, [President George W. Bush] assured the visitors that he would work
"so that the people of North
Korea can raise their children in a world
that's free and hopeful."
Yet the direct responsibility for dealing with North Korean human rights has
been relegated to a quiet and often censored special envoy, Jay Lefkowitz.
Today, the Bush administration remains resoundingly silent on the
"non-negotiable demands of human dignity." North Koreans and their
oppressors can only regard the United
States' assurances to push for North Korean
human rights as empty promises.
This week, newly elected President Lee Myung-Bak of South Korea will meet with Bush at Camp David. He will be the first Korean president to
visit the famed retreat center.
Bush and Lee must work to facilitate protection of North
Korean refugees by smoothing over difficulties in exit visas for refugees stuck
in third countries, and the expansion of resettlement programs and facilities
in South Korea.
On a larger scale, they can provide leadership by organizing a refugee
burden-sharing structure for the region, and by pressing the office of the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees to operate camps for North Korean refugees.
The two leaders can also effect change within North Korea. They can demand that
all humanitarian aid meet international transparency standards to ensure that
the aid is not diverted from the most vulnerable populations.
And they can link energy aid, infrastructure development, and other key
incentives to benchmarked improvements of human rights.
For the sake of the 24 million North Koreans without a seat at the six-party
talks, let's hope they do.
Joseph Hong is the research and policy officer of Liberty
in North Korea (LiNK), a
non-governmental organization devoted to human rights in North Korea and the protection of
North Korean refugees.
Two years ago, in the summer of 2006, nearly 40 activists from all over the world participated in LiNK's Project: Sunshine initiative. Delegates arranged to take university finals early, quit their jobs, and rearranged summer plans to participate. For three weeks they held daily symposiums, lectures, debates and screenings, coupled with exciting and dramatic street activism, awareness efforts, dance exhibitions, concerts, and various stunts. The aim was to engage Korea's student and academic communities on the issue, spark a grassroots movement for the forgotten North Korean people, and raise questions about the South Korean government's Sunshine Policy. The effort was a success - gaining coverage in major South Korean newspapers, high-level meetings with South Korean government officials, National Assembly members, and even a former President.
2008 marks an unprecedented time for renewed hope and change with the new administration and its pledge toward human rights in North Korea.
This year's Project: Real Sunshine is seeking skilled and qualified applicants to continue where we left off and to take the initiative to a bigger, louder, and stronger level.
Click [ here ] for the application, position descriptions, and video clip from 2006's Project: Sunshine.
Applications are due March 31 (no exceptions)!
Join us this summer!
--
Chollima Leadership Program
The
Chollima Leadership Program is a three-week leadership development program to
be held in Seoul, Republic of Korea,
from June 1–21, 2008.
MISSION Co-sponsored by the International
Republican Institute, or IRI, the program’s purpose is to invest in the
future of North Korea and empower North Korean defectors by helping
them improve skills for leadership, organization-building and advocacy
for the rights of North Koreans so that they may use these skills to
benefit their country when North Korea opens its doors.
SELECTION Fifteen North Korean defectors will be selected by an application review
board to participate in this intensive training program. Participants will vary
in age, gender, experiences, countries of citizenship and residence and will be
chosen on the basis of their potential to benefit and grow exponentially from
the program.
COMMITMENT The program, hosted in the Gyodae district of Seoul, will require:
One week full-time (morning
to early evening sessions)
Two weeks part-time (late
afternoon to early evening sessions)
WORKSHOPS Participants will be exposed to a range of topics that may include the
following:
·Democracy and
governance
·Rule of law
·International human
rights
·Comparative movements
·Comparative politics
·Business protocol and
etiquette
·Leadership development
Workshops
will be conducted by experts and trainers from various countries and
backgrounds, selected by both IRI and LiNK.
FOLLOW-UP
PROJECTS One of the program’s goals is for participants to apply skills learned
throughout the program toward specific initiatives or projects they devise or
are currently involved in. Upon completion of the program, delegates will be
expected to participate in a follow-up meeting to track the progress of their
individual projects and initiatives.
APPLICATION
DEADLINE All applications must be submitted with all components completed by March
31, 2008.
CONTACT If you feel you, or others you know, would be a good candidate for the Chollima Leadership Program, please contact jane (at) linkglobal.org for more information and an application.
"The North Korean people have been the greatest victims of the past two administrations in South Korea."
"Unconditional humanitarian aid, massive cash transfers and a
generally imbalanced relationship between the ROK and DPRK without
reciprocity have emboldened the North Korean government's human rights
abusers and strengthened the government's usage of concentration camps,
public executions, and the usage of food as a weapon."
Above all, Hong hopes that the next president of Korea will be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
"Korea's new president must provide moral leadership on this issue, for the sake of 24 million forgotten Koreans in the North.
"If Free Korea does not speak up for these citizens, why should America, or Europe, or the rest of the world?"
