No, I'm not trafficking North Korean refugee women

Volunteers and North Korean refugees participate in a Language Match session in 2018. Courtesy of Freedom Speakers International

Over the years, I’ve heard a number of accusations about myself, ranging from I am allegedly brainwashing North Korean refugees to I am allegedly a CIA spy.

I thought I had heard it all, but I recently received an email from "djelf7@djelf7.com" who wrote as part of a rambling email, “Interested to see casey lartigue (why are all of his advertised north koreans pretty females? Is it trafficking?)” [sic]

He included a link to a video apparently making the same accusation. I responded by asking if I had permission to cite and quote him, and he consented. I occasionally come across people burning me in effigy on the Internet, although I have yet to encounter any of those people in person. I am sure my fans and acquaintances will say it isn’t worth responding to such a person, but I would like to use this as a teachable moment.

This insinuation is unfounded, offensive and reflects the broader problem of the spread of misinformation targeting North Korean refugees and those working to support them. Some people prefer conspiracies and unfounded accusations over realities they don’t understand.

Instead of insinuating things about me, the people wondering about the imbalance in gender should take up the issue with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's regime. Something about North Korea is pushing and pulling people out of North Korea despite the risks that come with escaping. Over the past 25 years, 72 percent of the 34,000 North Koreans who have made it to South Korea have been women.

This demographic reality is reflected in Freedom Speakers International (FSI), where 70 percent (28 of 40) of our keynote speakers are women. The FSI does not recruit anyone; North Korean refugees must find us. We exist as an open platform, and participation is entirely voluntary.

Accusing me of trafficking North Korean women is not only false, but it also trivializes the real suffering of those who are actually trafficked. North Korean women face horrific exploitation, especially in China, where they are sold into forced marriages or worse. Trafficking is not a term to be thrown around carelessly; it is a life-destroying reality for many North Korean women, particularly in China. Making baseless accusations about trafficking diminishes the suffering of real victims and distracts from efforts to help them.

Anyone stupid enough to believe North Korean refugees are being trafficked into public speaking engagements must figure free individuals are signing up to be publicly trafficked.

The accusation I am involved in trafficking is a form of personification bias. That is, treating an organization or movement as if it’s solely represented by one individual. The FSI is not a one-man show although some of my critics present me as if I am a man alone. My co-founder is a South Korean woman who, before we started working together, interviewed North Korean refugees to document abuses they had suffered in North Korea and China. Is she now reversing her career path and participating in the trafficking she used to document? Four of our seven board members are South Korean women with professional careers. Are they participating in trafficking? We have received financial support from numerous organizations, ranging from the Atlas Network in Washington, to Seoul City Hall, the Korea Hana Foundation, Unikorea, the Ministry of Unification, the U.S. Embassy in South Korea, along with private donors. Are they all participating in trafficking?

We have had more than 600 North Korean refugees study English, public speaking and career development with us since we started as a volunteer project in March 2013. Are some or all of them agreeing to be publicly trafficked? We have had more than 1,200 volunteers participate with us. Are they participating in the trafficking of North Korean refugee women?

I have won awards and received special recognition from the Hansarang Rural Cultural Foundation, Challenge Korea, the Korea Hana Foundation, the Ministry of Unification, and I was awarded Seoul Honorary Citizenship by Seoul City Hall. My organization recently received a Global Peace Award from the All India Council on Human Rights, Liberties and Social Justice. Were those organizations and government agencies celebrating trafficking?

The gender imbalance among North Korean refugees is something I noticed the first time I participated in a workshop with North Korean refugees hosted by a previous employer. Of the 35 North Korean refugees who participated, 30 were women, two were men and three were children. I asked: “Where are the men?” The organizer answered: “They are working.”

It is true that not only are most of the North Korean refugees women but so are most of the ones engaging in public speaking. It isn't unusual for women to be the foot soldiers of a movement. This was true of the American civil rights movement, where women were the primary organizers of grassroots activism, from Rosa Parks to Fannie Lou Hamer to the thousands of unnamed women who sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott and voting rights campaigns.

During the French Revolution, women like Olympe de Gouges played crucial roles in the push for rights and reforms. The abolitionist movement in the United States saw figures like Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth leading efforts to free enslaved people and advocate for emancipation. Women were central to India's independence movement, participating in civil disobedience and protests against British rule. It is now true, based on media reports, of the people protesting President Yoon Suk Yeol in South Korea, where many of the demonstrators were young women.

The North Korean refugees we work with are individuals who made the difficult and dangerous decision to escape a dictatorship. They are not controlled or manipulated by me; they are exercising their freedom to speak.

The North Korean refugees I work with have risked their lives for freedom and are making their own choices — something they were denied under the Kim dictatorship.

The real question isn’t why so many North Korean refugee women speak out or why they join my organization at a similar percentage of the North Korean refugee population, but why these critics are more concerned with attacking those who empower them rather than the regime that forced them to flee in the first place.

I suspect I will continue to hear accusations because some people seem to believe there is something suspect about a Harvard graduate working directly with marginalized people. I may occasionally respond to such people, but for others who want to help us with our mission of empowering North Korean refugees to engage in public speaking, my email address is in my bio line.

Casey Lartigue Jr. (CJL@alumni.harvard.edu) is the co-founder of Freedom Speakers International with Lee Eun-koo; and co-author with Han Song-mi of her memoir "Greenlight to Freedom: A North Korean Daughter’s Search for Her Mother and Herself.”