The achievements and limitations of Yoon Suk-yeol’s North Korean human rights
The current administration of Yoon Suk-yeol in South Korea has done more than any of its predecessors to stand up for the human rights of...
Forced repatriation: Accountability
The last of our four-part series on the forced repatriation of North Korean defectors in China. For parts one, two, and three, see here, here...
Forced repatriation: Sent back to hell
Part three of a four-part series based on the writer’s personal experience. For parts one and two, see here and here. "If the Chinese police...
Forced repatriation: The suffering mothers and their abandoned children
This is Part Two of a four-part series based on the writer’s personal experience. See Part One here. In the 17th century, when Korean women...
Forced repatriation to North Korea: The silence of the victims
This feature is Part One of a four-part series. It is based on the writer’s personal experience If silence is negligence, as the saying goes,...
There’s ideology in those blue jeans
Everyone has at least one pair of jeans. They have the distinction of being ordinary and fashionable at the same time. The designer Yves Saint...
Are North Koreans Becoming Aware of the Concept of Human Rights?
Growing up in North Korea, I was not familiar with “human rights.” It wasn’t that I was just unaware of what it meant. I didn’t even know the concept existed. I hadn’t heard the phrase. This was not just ignorance on my part or among my friends and family members. I’ve found since escaping North Korea that, with the exception of a few elite defectors, none of us knew. We all lived without knowing what human rights were.
Enforced Silence
“We stay silent not because our life is good enough, but to survive.” This was my response to a question from a member of the audience during my lecture on North Korea, who asked, “Aren’t the people of North Korea not protesting and staying silent because their life is good enough?”
To survive in North Korea, rules 1, 2, and 3 are “Watch your mouth.”