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PRESS RELEASE: State of the Union Address to the World: Protect and Support North Korean Escapees!
February 01, 2018
State of the Union Address to the World: Protect and Support North Korean Escapees!
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Ji Seong-ho lifts his crutches up in triumph during President Trump’s State of the Union Address Tuesday night. These crutches helped Ji escape the Kim regime after he lost a hand and foot.
President Donald Trump’s State of the Union (SOTU) Address on Tuesday night sent a clear message to the world: protect and support North Korean escapees and give them a voice! President Trump displayed his administration’s commitment to the North Korean people and “American resolve” to confronting the Kim regime by inviting Ji Seong-ho and Otto Warmbier’s parents, Fred and Cindy, to appear as special guests of First Lady Melania Trump during the SOTU.
“Protect and support North Korean escapees and groups working to improve the North Korean human-rights situation, give North Korean escapees a voice, do not muffle them.” –Executive Director Greg Scarlatoiu
The First Lady’s guests embodied both tragedy and hope but ultimately resilience in the face of adversity. Mr. Ji’s literal raising of his crutches in triumph and defiance of the Kim regime will live on in history as a message of the strength and determination of the North Korean people.
Mr. Ji is a North Korean escapee who grew up during the country’s grueling famine in the 1990s. In order to survive, Ji would exchange stolen coal for food on the black market. While taking coal from a train car in 1996, a malnourished Ji lost consciousness and fell onto the tracks, losing his left hand and foot when a train ran over him. After a grueling amputation surgery, Ji was left to fend for himself. In 2006, he escaped to South Korea, where he is now a law student at Dongguk University. Ji is also the president of Now Action and Unity for Human Rights (NAUH), where he helps broadcast information into North Korea and facilitates the resettlement of defectors in South Korea. His most recent work with NAUH involved giving theatrical performances entitled “Kotjebi” (“Street Children”) in the United States to detail the abuses that street children roaming around the markets of North Korea face.
The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) commends the coverage of our friend, Ji Seong-ho, who has endured but overcome so much. As HRNK Co-Vice-Chair Suzanne Scholte noted, “Much congratulations go to Greg Scarlatoiu for leading the effort to make it possible for Ji to be there for this historic occasion.”
HRNK continues to mourn the tragic and cruel loss of Otto Warmbier, a death due to torture at the hands of the Kim regime, according to Senior Adviser Robert Collins. As Ambassador Nikki Haley said yesterday on her Twitter account, “We will never forget Otto or the other Americans being held by the brutal NK regime. #NeverForgetOtto”
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Fred and Cindy Warmbier look to President Trump as he honors the loss of their son, Otto, during the SOTU.
At HRNK, we will never forget all those who have suffered and died due to the Kim regime, and we continue to call for the regime to dismantle its egregious political prison camps where upwards of 120,000 are reported to be imprisoned for political “crimes.” In recent Congressional testimony, HRNK has also recommended that the US Congress pass S.1118, the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2017, and that the Trump Administration appoint a full-time special envoy to address the ongoing issue of North Korean human rights.
Please stay tuned for Director of Programs Rosa Park’s exclusive interview with Mr. Ji following his appearance during the State of the Union as a guest of First Lady Melania Trump. More information can be found at our website, www.hrnk.org, Facebook page, www.facebook.com/CommitteeHRNK, and Twitter account, twitter.com/committeehrnk.
HRNK’s Executive Director Greg Scarlatoiu is available for any media requests at [email protected] or 202-499-7973. His comments appear in Gordan Chang’s recent Daily Beast article here: https://www.thedailybeast.com/in-state-of-the-union-trump-goes-where-kim-jong-un-fears-most.
HRNK was founded in 2001 as a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization dedicated to documenting human rights conditions in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), as North Korea is formally known. Visit www.hrnk.org to find out more.
Board of Directors
(Affiliations other than HRNK are for identification only)
Gordon Flake (Co-Chair)
Katrina Lantos Swett (Co-Chair)
John Despres (Co-Vice-Chair)
Suzanne Scholte (Co-Vice-Chair)
Helen-Louise Hunter (Secretary)
Kevin C. McCann (Treasurer)
Roberta Cohen (Co-Chair Emeritus)
Andrew Natsios (Co-Chair Emeritus)
Morton Abramowitz
Jerome Cohen
Lisa Colacurcio
Rabbi Abraham Cooper
Jack David
Nicholas Eberstadt
Carl Gershman
Stephen Kahng
David Kim
Robert King
Debra Liang-Fenton
Winston Lord
David Maxwell
Marcus Noland
Jacqueline Pak
Executive Director
Greg Scarlatoiu
In this submission, HRNK focuses its attention on the following issues in the DPRK:
- The status of the system of detention facilities, where a multitude of human rights violations are ongoing.
- The post-COVID human security and human rights status of North Korean women, with particular attention to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
- The issue of Japanese abductees and South Korean prisoners of war (POWs), abductees, and unjust detainees.
This report provides an abbreviated update to our previous reports on a long-term political prison commonly identified by former prisoners and researchers as Kwan-li-so No. 25 by providing details of activity observed during 2021–2023.
This report was originally published on Tearline at https://www.tearline.mil/public_page/prison-camp-25.
This report explains how the Kim regime organizes and implements its policy of human rights denial using the Propaganda and Agitation Department (PAD) to preserve and strengthen its monolithic system of control. The report also provides detailed background on the history of the PAD, as well as a human terrain map that details present and past PAD leadership.
Oct 17, 2023
HRNK's latest satellite imagery report analyzes a 5.2 km-long switchback road, visible in commercial satellite imagery, that runs from Testing Tunnel No. 1 at North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test facility to the perimeter of Kwan-li-so (political prison camp) no. 16.
This report proposes a long-term, multilateral legal strategy, using existing United Nations resolutions and conventions, and U.S. statutes that are either codified or proposed in appended model legislation, to find, freeze, forfeit, and deposit the proceeds of the North Korean government's kleptocracy into international escrow. These funds would be available for limited, case-by-case disbursements to provide food and medical care for poor North Koreans, and--contingent upon Pyongyang's progress
For thirty years, U.S. North Korea policy have sacrificed human rights for the sake of addressing nuclear weapons. Both the North Korean nuclear and missile programs have thrived. Sidelining human rights to appease the North Korean regime is not the answer, but a fundamental flaw in U.S. policy.
(Published by the National Institute for Public Policy)
Sep 26, 2022
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George Hutchinson's The Suryong, the Soldier, and Information in the KPA is the second of three building blocks of a multi-year HRNK project to examine North Korea's information environment. Hutchinson's thoroughly researched and sourced report addresses the circulation of information within the Korean People's Army (KPA). Understanding how KPA soldiers receive their information is needed to prepare information campaigns while taking into account all possible contingenc
This report is part of a comprehensive long-term project undertaken by HRNK to use satellite imagery and former prisoner interviews to shed light on human suffering in North Korea by monitoring activity at political prison facilities throughout the nation. This is the second HRNK satellite imagery report detailing activity observed during 2015 to 2021 at a prison facility commonly identified by former prisoners and researchers as “Kwan-li-so No. 14 Kaech’ŏn” (39.646810, 126.117058) and
This report is part of a comprehensive long-term project undertaken by HRNK to use satellite imagery and former prisoner interviews to shed light on human suffering in North Korea by monitoring activity at civil and political prison facilities throughout the nation. This study details activity observed during 1968–1977 and 2002–2021 at a prison facility commonly identified by former prisoners and researchers as "Kyo-hwa-so No. 3, T'osŏng-ni" and endeavors to e
This report is part of a comprehensive long-term project undertaken by HRNK to use satellite imagery and former detainee interviews to shed light on human suffering in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, more commonly known as North Korea) by monitoring activity at political prison facilities throughout the nation. This report provides an abbreviated update to our previous reports on a long-term political prison commonly identified by former prisoners and researchers as Kwan-li-so<
Through satellite imagery analysis and witness testimony, HRNK has identified a previously unknown potential kyo-hwa-so long-term prison-labor facility at Sŏnhwa-dong (선화동) P’ihyŏn-gun, P’yŏngan-bukto, North Korea. While this facility appears to be operational and well maintained, further imagery analysis and witness testimony collection will be necessary in order to irrefutably confirm that Sŏnhwa-dong is a kyo-hwa-so.
Jul 22, 2021
"North Korea’s Long-term Prison-Labor Facility Kyo-hwa-so No. 8, Sŭngho-ri (승호리) - Update" is the latest report under a long-term project employing satellite imagery analysis and former political prisoner testimony to shed light on human suffering in North Korea's prison camps.
Jul 01, 2021
Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of Korea: The Role of the United Nations" is HRNK's 50th report in our 20-year history. This is even more meaningful as David Hawk's "Hidden Gulag" (2003) was the first report published by HRNK. In his latest report, Hawk details efforts by many UN member states and by the UN’s committees, projects and procedures to promote and protect human rights in the DPRK. The report highlights North Korea’s shifts in its approach
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