Kang Cheol Hwan, author of Aquariums of Pyongyang and Sejun Park former DPRK refugee working for the North Korea Strategy Center, a Seoul-based NGO, spoke to the topic of information access for North Koreans and current efforts to share information with the DPRK citizenry on human rights and democracy.
North Korea and Information Access
with
Kang Cheol Hwan
NKSC President and Author of 'Aquariums of Pyongyang'
Sejun Park
CEO of North Korea Strategy Center [U.S. Office]
$10 Members, $20 Guests
5:30 PM | Registration & Light Fare
6:00 PM | Discussion
YPN and Explorer Level Members Register HERE for free admission.
If you have any questions, please contact Nikita Desai or (212) 759-7525, ext. 355.
About the Speakers
Kang Cheol-hwan is a journalist, author, and North Korean defector. As a nine-year-old child, he and his entire family were imprisoned in the Yodok concentration camp by the government of dictator Kim Il Sung after Kang’s grandfather was accused of treason. For ten years, Kang was subjected to the brutal conditions of the camp, where he and some members of his family endured starvation, torture, and the threat of execution.
After he was released from the camp, Kang bought an illegal radio receiver to listen to broadcasts from South Korea. In 1992, he made the decision to defect and escaped North Korea by crossing the Yalu River into China, eventually immigrating to South Korea. In 2000, he published “The Aquariums of Pyongyang,” a description of his experiences and the very first survivor account of North Korea’s concentration camps. Kang is a staff writer for the South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo. In 2003, he was awarded the National Endowment of Democracy’s “Democracy Award” and in 2006, he was selected as one of Times’ “Asian Heroes”.
After several years of North Korean human rights activism, Kang Cheol Hwan came to the conclusion that expecting change from the DPRK government was not feasible. Without change and enlightenment of the North Korean people, without bridging the gap between the two Koreas, peaceful unification is not possible. Based on this belief, in 2007 Kang Cheol Hwan created the North Korea Strategy Center. The mission of the organization is to disseminate foreign information in North Korea, empower defectors to become advocates of democracy after unification and educate the South Korean youth on North Korean human rights issues.
Sejun Park is the CEO of the U.S. office of North Korea Strategy Center (NKSC). Mr. Park was born in Hamheung, North Korea. He graduated from Pyongyang Medical College, Department of Dentistry in 1996 and was a dentist at the Hamheung National Dental Hospital for two years. In 1999, Mr. Park defected to China but was arrested in 2001 and sent back to North Korea. He was detained in Cheongjin prison camp (Nongpo jipgyulso) for six months and defected again successfully in 2002. Mr. Park arrived in South Korea that year and went on to graduate from Yonsei University with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in 2006. He worked at E. Land Group, a South Korean corporation until 2010. Mr. Park is currently pursuing his Ph.D. degree at the Yonsei University Graduate School of Public Administration in Political Science.
