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Opinion

Columnists

Dumb questions about NK refugees

People who say there is no such thing as a bad question apparently haven't attended forums featuring North Korean refugees. The questioners may mean well, but some people ignorant about North Korea ask ridiculous questions that are only topped by those of experts.

2017-11-20 17:32

[Roundtable] $1 mil. bounty on Kim's head

No matter how much some people hate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, North Korean escapee Lee Ae-ran hates him even more. At the entrance of her North Korean-styled restaurant in downtown Seoul, you can add a donation to her fundraising jar raising $1 million to put a bounty on the head of the current North Korean dictator. As I explained last week after my speech at the Houses of Parliament (UK), I’m not suggesting that all or even most North Korean escapees agree with Lee. I am confident, however, that President Trump would find a receptive audience among many North Korean escapees durin...

2017-11-06 16:42

Even the translator cried

It happened. Halfway during a beautiful forum last Friday with four North Korean refugees speaking before more than 300 U.S. military members, the moment that I dread happened. A North Korean refugee began to cry. No matter how much we prepare North Korean refugees for public speaking by having them work with speech coaches, teachers and mentors, emotion defeats preparation. The event started off upbeat. The first of four refugee speakers, TNKR Special Ambassador Ken Eom, was addressing the U.S. military for the third time. After his first speech in 2015, Ken said it was “the most unexpected...

2017-10-23 17:54

Speech celebration

The politician Winston Churchill has been quoted as saying that there are two things that scare any young man. One, asking a beautiful woman out on a date. Two, giving a public speech. What would Mr. Churchill have said about North Korean refugees speaking out despite threats from a despotic regime? You may not remember it, but on August 22, 2015, North Korea had threatened to shoot loudspeakers in the DMZ if South Korea didn’t turn them off by 5 pm, the same day as our second speech contest. In February 2017, the assassination of the half-brother of dictator Kim Jong-un alarmed participants...

2017-09-19 16:49

5 reasons NK refugees study English

Comedian Chris Rock has said, “If you see a homeless guy with a funny sign, he hasn’t been homeless that long.” I’m reminded of that because, six months ago, Eunkoo Lee quit her paid job to become a full-time volunteer for Teach North Korean Refugees (TNKR). I checked, yes, she is still smiling. With new free time, we have learned a lot in our 1:1 interviews and feedback sessions with refugees, using an Individual Education Plan developed by Columbia University professor Bae Young-seh. Unlike researchers with endless data-mining questions leading to research papers rarely read, we ask refuge...

2017-08-14 18:02

North Korea is not normal state

As if diplomatic failures over the past seventy years haven’t been enough, the video of an alleged North Korean re-defector and a speech by a former member of North Korea’s elite are the latest reminders of the challenges facing those dealing with North Korea. Jang Jin-sung, a former member of the North Korean government information warfare division, said last month in a speech at the TNKR Global Leadership Forum that there are two main reasons why the North Korean regime hasn’t collapsed One, North Korea survives because the United States and South Korea treat it like a normal country. The ...

2017-07-26 17:30

Why foreigners volunteer to help NK refugees

While most researchers who contact me want to learn about North Korean refugees, in recent months I have also been interviewed by researchers curious about the volunteers helping those NK refugees. Last Friday, TNKR National Director Eunkoo Lee and I were interviewed by researchers who insisted that TNKR is a pioneer in the field of volunteering in South Korea. They were intrigued by the amount of choices refugees have in TNKR: choosing their own tutors, choosing as many tutors as they can handle, and choosing their own paths of study rather than following a set curriculum. Many interviewers...

2017-07-17 16:53

Stopping Americans from visiting NK

Should Americans be banned from visiting North Korea? That evergreen chit-chat topic among reporters and commentators is now being taken seriously by the U.S. Congress, with the proposed North Korea Travel Control Act requiring licenses for U.S. citizens seeking to visit North Korea. The Act’s proposed ban on tourism is an overreaction to an American tourist being returned by North Korea in a comatose state.

2017-06-19 17:16

That black activist for North Koreans

I am occasionally blindsided when race comes up during discussions about my activities related to North Korean refugees. A South Korean colleague says she has observed three main reactions: Koreans highlight that a Harvard graduate is helping refugees; North Korean refugees praise my work; American reporters and intellectuals bring up race. After I spoke at a conference in the USA a few years ago, one of the professors who had been singing my praises informed me that some at the conference were asking: "Why is a black man doing so much to help North Koreans?" In a podcast discussion last yea...

2017-05-15 17:31

N. Korea refugees adjusting in UK

If they successfully escape North Korea, maneuver across China while evading human traffickers, Chinese police and North Korean agents, make it to a foreign embassy that won’t turn them away, and can convince government agents they are not spies or Chinese-Koreans, then North Korean refugees are challenged with an important question: Where do I go next? That’s when they need good information, fast. As a North Korean refugee recently told me, before seeing a World Cup tournament, he had been unaware that there were any countries besides China, South Korea, North Korea and the United States. H...

2017-04-17 17:13

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