you
I’d like to start here with an excerpt
from a New York Times article about the
US government’s response to North
Korea’s provocations administration
officials said the sanctions needed to
be painful enough to induce the North
Koreans to reconsider their decision to
proceed with their nuclear weapons
program while leaving open the
possibility of a diplomatic solution in
Beijing today China warned against
increasing the confrontation with North
Korea believe it or not this article was
published on June 3rd 1994 exactly 23
years ago but more than two decades
later it’s the same story over and over
again with zero progress in dealings
with Pyongyang very little has changed
at the level of high politics when it
comes to Kim jong-un nuclear weapons we
know that side of North Korea but why
North Korea matters is not because of
what we see in the media but because of
the other half of the story that we
don’t often hear about that we hardly
know the story of the North Korean
people and how they are changing their
country from the bottom up stories like
that of my friend min sung min sung was
born in 1992 and North Korea just two
years after I was born but yet we lived
vastly different lives he was 2 years
old when the famine in North Korea began
it took the lives of about 1 million
North Koreans thankfully minsang’s uncle
had escaped to South Korea much earlier
and was sending money back to his family
through an illegal broker that money
allowed min sung and his family to buy
food at the markets and as a result they
were one of the lucky ones they survived
but chronic hunger followed minsung and
his family when he was 18 he saw his
cousins and friends starving and
overworked and he refused to go through
that North Korea is the most closed
country in the world today ordinary
North Koreans don’t have internet access
and aren’t supposed to have any contact
whatsoever with the outside world
but over the past 15 years illegal
foreign media has been slowly seeping
into the country through movies and
South Korean TV shows
minsang began to learn about a life
beyond North Korea’s borders he decided
to escape in order to live according to
him like a human being on a Thursday he
saw his neighbor die of starvation and
witnessed a public execution on Friday
he went to school came back home and
then left everyone he knew behind to
cross the river into China he had to
leave without saying goodbye to his
family because he knew they would try to
stop him escaping meant a chance to live
and freedom and without hunger but it
could also mean death he evaded armed
guards at the border with orders to
shoot on sight he swam across the river
with water levels so high he almost
drowned and made it to China where if
caught authorities would forcibly sent
him back to North Korea where he would
be tortured imprisoned or executed
thankfully within three days of crossing
the border
minsung connected with our organization
Liberty in North Korea and was rescued
through a 3,000 mile modern-day
Underground Railroad from China to
Southeast Asia for reference that’s
further than the distance between here
and New York City in 2010 he
to South Korea safely and was reunited
with his uncle he has been able to
re-establish contact with his family
still inside the country and he’s been
working extremely hard in order to save
up as much money as possible to send
back to them through that same broker
that his uncle had used he has sent back
over ten thousand dollars and that money
has been critical in supporting his
family who was still inside North Korea
minsung story is important because he
isn’t the only one doing this over the
past two decades more than thirty
thousand North Korean refugees have
escaped the brutal system in North Korea
and have resettled in South Korea they
are an important source of information
about the most closed country in the
world today but more importantly they
are emerging as one of the key agents of
change on this issue about fifty percent
of them have reestablished contact with
their families through these illicit
networks and are sending money back to
them just like min sung and this is
creating grassroots level change they
are sending between 15 to 20 million
dollars per year and that goes a long
way for their families in North Korea
this quiet but highly effective form of
people-to-people exchange is one thing
the government cannot control and cannot
stop the last part of min songs story
that I would like to share with you is
the part where ordinary people like us
were able to play a role in helping him
reach freedom while min sung was
escaping North Korea students at UCSD
and at other campuses around the world
we’re hosting bake sales and benefit
concerts to raise three thousand dollars
the amount it takes to fund or rescue it
was thanks to these funds that we were
able to rescue min sung as soon as we
met him
since then we’ve helped over 600 North
Korean refugees reach freedom but those
rescues were only possible because of
the thousands of people around the world
in about 50 countries who have joined
the movement to stand with the North
Korean people minsang has been busy
learning English learning how to code in
Silicon Valley and helping other newly
arrived refugees learn the ropes in
South Korea and he’s now studying
mechanical engineering at a university
in Seoul he shared with us that one day
he wants to be able to go home go back
to North Korea and help when it opens up
although I don’t know exactly when that
day will come we share that same
audacious belief that the North Korean
people will achieve their Liberty in our
lifetime and that ordinary people like
you and I have an opportunity and a
responsibility to help bring that day
forward I truly believe that one small
act can change a life and then a
collection of those small acts done
around the world can change the fate of
an entire nation hi amazing supports my
name is min Seong I’m from North Korea
thank you for supporting North Korean
people I love you all over you
thank you
[Applause]
you
I’d like to start here with an excerpt
from a New York Times article about the
US government’s response to North
Korea’s provocations administration
officials said the sanctions needed to
be painful enough to induce the North
Koreans to reconsider their decision to
proceed with their nuclear weapons
program while leaving open the
possibility of a diplomatic solution in
Beijing today China warned against
increasing the confrontation with North
Korea believe it or not this article was
published on June 3rd 1994 exactly 23
years ago but more than two decades
later it’s the same story over and over
again with zero progress in dealings
with Pyongyang very little has changed
at the level of high politics when it
comes to Kim jong-un nuclear weapons we
know that side of North Korea but why
North Korea matters is not because of
what we see in the media but because of
the other half of the story that we
don’t often hear about that we hardly
know the story of the North Korean
people and how they are changing their
country from the bottom up stories like
that of my friend min sung min sung was
born in 1992 and North Korea just two
years after I was born but yet we lived
vastly different lives he was 2 years
old when the famine in North Korea began
it took the lives of about 1 million
North Koreans thankfully minsang’s uncle
had escaped to South Korea much earlier
and was sending money back to his family
through an illegal broker that money
allowed min sung and his family to buy
food at the markets and as a result they
were one of the lucky ones they survived
but chronic hunger followed minsung and
his family when he was 18 he saw his
cousins and friends starving and
overworked and he refused to go through
that North Korea is the most closed
country in the world today ordinary
North Koreans don’t have internet access
and aren’t supposed to have any contact
whatsoever with the outside world
but over the past 15 years illegal
foreign media has been slowly seeping
into the country through movies and
South Korean TV shows
minsang began to learn about a life
beyond North Korea’s borders he decided
to escape in order to live according to
him like a human being on a Thursday he
saw his neighbor die of starvation and
witnessed a public execution on Friday
he went to school came back home and
then left everyone he knew behind to
cross the river into China he had to
leave without saying goodbye to his
family because he knew they would try to
stop him escaping meant a chance to live
and freedom and without hunger but it
could also mean death he evaded armed
guards at the border with orders to
shoot on sight he swam across the river
with water levels so high he almost
drowned and made it to China where if
caught authorities would forcibly sent
him back to North Korea where he would
be tortured imprisoned or executed
thankfully within three days of crossing
the border
minsung connected with our organization
Liberty in North Korea and was rescued
through a 3,000 mile modern-day
Underground Railroad from China to
Southeast Asia for reference that’s
further than the distance between here
and New York City in 2010 he
to South Korea safely and was reunited
with his uncle he has been able to
re-establish contact with his family
still inside the country and he’s been
working extremely hard in order to save
up as much money as possible to send
back to them through that same broker
that his uncle had used he has sent back
over ten thousand dollars and that money
has been critical in supporting his
family who was still inside North Korea
minsung story is important because he
isn’t the only one doing this over the
past two decades more than thirty
thousand North Korean refugees have
escaped the brutal system in North Korea
and have resettled in South Korea they
are an important source of information
about the most closed country in the
world today but more importantly they
are emerging as one of the key agents of
change on this issue about fifty percent
of them have reestablished contact with
their families through these illicit
networks and are sending money back to
them just like min sung and this is
creating grassroots level change they
are sending between 15 to 20 million
dollars per year and that goes a long
way for their families in North Korea
this quiet but highly effective form of
people-to-people exchange is one thing
the government cannot control and cannot
stop the last part of min songs story
that I would like to share with you is
the part where ordinary people like us
were able to play a role in helping him
reach freedom while min sung was
escaping North Korea students at UCSD
and at other campuses around the world
we’re hosting bake sales and benefit
concerts to raise three thousand dollars
the amount it takes to fund or rescue it
was thanks to these funds that we were
able to rescue min sung as soon as we
met him
since then we’ve helped over 600 North
Korean refugees reach freedom but those
rescues were only possible because of
the thousands of people around the world
in about 50 countries who have joined
the movement to stand with the North
Korean people minsang has been busy
learning English learning how to code in
Silicon Valley and helping other newly
arrived refugees learn the ropes in
South Korea and he’s now studying
mechanical engineering at a university
in Seoul he shared with us that one day
he wants to be able to go home go back
to North Korea and help when it opens up
although I don’t know exactly when that
day will come we share that same
audacious belief that the North Korean
people will achieve their Liberty in our
lifetime and that ordinary people like
you and I have an opportunity and a
responsibility to help bring that day
forward I truly believe that one small
act can change a life and then a
collection of those small acts done
around the world can change the fate of
an entire nation hi amazing supports my
name is min Seong I’m from North Korea
thank you for supporting North Korean
people I love you all over you
thank you
[Applause]
you
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