Press Release Atrocities Eyewitnesses 04.24.07

NORTH KOREA FREEDOM COALITION
Suzanne Scholte, Chairman
Website: www.nkfreedom.org
Media Contact: Jerry Dykstra 616-915-4117

Eyewitnesses to Atrocities in North Korea and China Arrive for North Korea Freedom Week

Only Known Survivor of Yantai Boat People Incident, Jailed Humanitarian Workers, Torture Survivors Among Witnesses

WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 24, 2007) – Today, the North Korea Freedom Coalition released the list of eyewitnesses who arrived in Washington, D.C., to present evidence to Congress and the administration of the atrocities being committed in North Korea and China. NKFC is sponsoring North Korea Freedom Week April 22-29 to promote the freedom, human rights, and dignity of the North Korean people.

Among the witnesses are Chiba Yomiko, the only known survivor of the Yantai Boat incident of 2003 when over 86 North Korean refugees attempted to reach freedom by boat. All were rounded up and repatriated against their will to North Korea. She will be testifying in Congress on Tuesday, joined by the humanitarian worker involved with the rescue attempt, Choi Young Hun. Choi spent nearly 4 years in a Chinese prison for trying to help the refugees. Both will be testifying for the first time of the horrific treatment of North Korea refugees at a hearing being chaired by Congressman Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Other witnesses at events during the week will include political prison camp survivors, torture victims, refugees who were repatriated from China, and family members of citizens abducted by the Kim Jong-il regime. Eight major leaders of the North Korean defectors organizations working to end the Kim Jong-il dictatorship will also participate.

The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and DLA Piper will host the first panel session: Failure to Protect: A Call to the UN Security Council to Act on North Korea on Monday afternoon at 2 pm at DLA Piper's offices which will include former North Korean diplomat Hong Soon-Kyung, now the Chairman of the North Korean Defectors Assocation who defected in 2000.

North Korea Freedom Week also includes: the North Korea Genocide Exihbit, panels on the economic benefits of regime collapse and on the persecution of Christians, a Capitol Hill Forum, a prayer vigil, and a worldwide demonstration at Chinese embassies and consular offices around the world to protest China's violent treatment of North Korean Refugees.

"Kim Jong-il's strategy is to keep the world's attention focused on his nuclear weapons," said NKFC Chairman Suzanne Scholte. "Our strategy is to focus the attention on the real issue: human rights and the fact that over 3 million people have already been killed by his dictatorship, making his regime the most brutal in the world today."

"We hope that the public will participate in as many events of North Korea Freedom Week as possible to learn about this country and meet the brave and courageous individuals who have triumphed over extreme adversity to live in freedom and fight for human rights in their homeland," said Scholte.

The North Korea Freedom Week witness list follows below. For a complete list of the North Korea Freedom Week events, go to www.nkfreedom.org. To set up an interview with Suzanne Scholte on North Korea Freedom Week, contact Jerry Dykstra at 616-915-4117. The North Korea Freedom Coalition a bipartisan coalition of over 60 organizations.

North Korea Freedom Week 2007 Delegation

I. Representing the North Korea Defectors Organizations Fighting for Human Rights
II. Special North Korean Eyewitnesses to Refugee Situation and Christian Persecution
III. Rescuers including former Jailed Humanitarian Workers
IV. Special Guests and Eyewitnesses to Abductions by the Kim Jong-il Regime

I. Representing North Korea Defectors Organizations Fighting for Human Rights
HONG Soon-Kyung, Chairman of the North Korean Defectors Association and Vice Chairman of the Exile Committee for North Korea Democracy (ECNKD); A 1964 graduate of the Kim Il Sung University, Hong worked in the Trade Department of the DPRK, and from 1991-2000 was a Trade Consular at the DPRK Embassy in Thailand. He defected to South Korea in April, 2000. He served as researcher from 2001-2004 at the Unification Policy Institute in South Korea. He was born in North Korean in 1938.

HUH Kwang-Il, President of the Defector’s Association Preparing for Unification, the defectors organization planning for the transformation of North Korean into a democracy, and a Vice Chairman of the ECNKD; Huh is a graduate of the Chong-jin Ship Building College of Engineering and served in the DPRK military from 1971-1979. He served in the Chong-jin Ship Building Company and as chairman of the North Korea Forestry Company in Russia from 1986-1995. While in Russia he was able to contact his uncles in South Korea through KBS, but when the DPRK security found out, he defected to South Korea in May, 1995. He currently works for the Korea Electric Power Corporation, Huh was born in North Korea in 1954.

KIM, Seong-Min, Director of Free North Korea Radio, the defectors organization broadcasting news and information into North Korea. Kim was born in North Korean in 1962. Kim attended both high school and elementary school in Pyongyang before serving in the 243rd Army unit from 1978-1988; He then attended Kim Heong-Jik Teachers College graduating in 1992, and went back into the Army again as a second lieutenant and became a Captain and then worked as a writer/director for 212nd Army Unit, Propaganda Unit. In September,1996, he escaped to China but was repatriated and then in February, 1997, he tried fo defect from Dalian, China but was arrested by the Chinese police and repatriated again. While traveling from Onsung to Pyongyang to face punishment for leaving the country, he jumped the train to escape to China again. He worked as a laborer at a coal factory in Yenji, China, until his uncle in South Korea helped him to escape to South Korea. He attended Yonsei University and Graduate School at Joong Ang University where he received a Master of Arts. In 2004 he founded “Free North Korea Radio” which was available on the internet beginning April 2004, but also began broadcasting on shortwave in December 2005 with regular daily broadcasting beginning in April 2006.

KANG Chul Hwan, founder of the Democracy Network Against the NK Gulag, and author of the Aquariums of Pyongyang. Kang’s grandfather was a successful businessman in Japan, but his grandmother, a committed socialist, convinced the family to return to Japan in the mid-1960s to help build Kim Il-Sung’s Paradise. The family ended up at Yoduk Political Prisoners Camp. Kang was sent to Yoduk with his grandparents when he was 8 years old and spent 10 years of his childhood inside the camp. After his release from Yoduk, he began listening to South Korean radio and decided to escape. Along with Ahn Hyuk, another camp survivor, he came to South Korea in August 1992. He had the opportunity to meet President George Bush, who was inspired by his book. He now works as a reporter for South Korea’s leading newspaper, Chosun Ilbo.

PARK Sang Hak is the Representative of the Democracy Network Against the North Korean Gulag and a Vice Chairman of the Exile Committee for North Korean Democracy. A member of the elites from Pyongyang, Park is a graduate of Kim Cheak Industrial University and worked at a Propaganda Unit in Pyongyang until 1999. His father was a North Korean spy in charge of collecting information about South Korea. Park came to realize that South Korea was much better off than North Korea and he decided to defect. He escaped to South Korea in March, 2000. He was born in North Korean in 1968.

PARK Kwang-il Editor of Justice Magazine. Recently confirmed, bio forthcoming.

LEE Min-Bok is the Representative of the North Korean Christian Defectors Association and works at a church for North Korean defectors in South Korea. He helped found the Citizens Alliance for North Korean Human Rights with Rev. Yoon Hyun and founded Save North Korea with Kim Sang Chul. He is a graduate the Technical College in Soon-cheon City, Pyung Nam Province and a graduate from Nampo University in Nampo City. In North Korea he worked as a researcher for the Institute of Science of North Korea. While conducting research, he found that private farms outproduced the collects and therefore recommended reforms that would help avert starvation. On May 31, 1990, he proposed to Kim Il-sun and Kim Jong-il that North Korea should follow the example of China to open up and reform to solve the food crisis. He was castigated for not showing confidence in the regime. Threatened with arrest, he fled to China but was arrested and sent back to North Korea and imprisoned by the National Security Bureau. He escaped again in June 1991 through Russia and went to Moscow and was granted refugee status by the UNHCR. He came to South Korea in 1995.

KIM Min Sung is currently studying theology and is graduate of Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary in Seoul which he attended after he defected from North Korea. He worked at a refinery in Haeju as a supervisor and graduated with BA in geophysics from Kim Il Sung University. He was born in North Korea in 1968.

II. Special North Korean Eyewitnesses to Refugee Situation and Christian Persecution

EOM Myong-Heui is an Assistant Pastor of a church for North Korean defectors under the support of Rev. Cho Yong-Ki of Yoido Full Gospel Church. Eom was a math and biology teacher in Moosan, North Korea, until she married and became a full-time housewife. She was known as a loyal party member and received a medal of honor in 1996 for her loyalty to the regime. During the famine she started a business selling specialty foods to support her family and worked with a Korean Chinese partner who was a businessman/Christian missionary associated with Yoido Church (Seoul). She became a very successful businesswoman traveling around the country freely to buy and sell specialty foods. During that time the regime had eased up and “with money you can do anything.” As a former biology teacher she questioned Darwinism and discussed this with her Christian business partner, and as a result of their discussions, she converted to Christianity. When her partner was arrested and severely tortured he revealed to the DPRK authorities that Eom was a Christian, and she was soon arrested. She was held in a detention center in her hometown of Moosan where she adamantly denied her faith: “I would not accept that stupid religion.” She could not understand why whether she was a Christian or not was such a concern to the regime. In Moosan both the police and the Public Security Bureau were involved with questioning and torturing her: poking her head with sharp objects, stepping on her fingers with heavy boots, withholding food and drink, making her stay in one position for extended periods of time and making her write a statement over again and again to see if there were any discrepancies in her story. Because of her past loyalty to the regime, the authorities eventually released her. She decided to escape to China where she was arrested twice and told “if we arrest you again, we will kill you.” She eventually made it to South Korea after incredible trials and hardships traveling on her own through Burma and Thailand. She was held in a detention center in Thailand for 6 months where she started a Bible Study. She finally made it to South Korea in 2002. After two months in Hanawon, she went to Yoido Church and presented herself there stating: “I am a member of your church.”

LEE Sung Gyu: is a Freshman at the Chong Sin Seminary and the secretary of United Group of Ministers for North Korean Refugees (group that is made of 70 members who are North Korean refugee ministers). He established Yeol Bang Sam Church in September, 2004, with a vision to raise up 400 North Korean missionaries and re-establish 250 churches in North Korea. In North Korea, he attended Chong Jin Railroad School and was employed by the North Korea Defense Headquarters. He defected from North Korea in February 1999. In March while hiding in China he became a Christian at a Korean-Chinese church in Jilin Province and became involved in the underground church. In September 2001 he was arrested by Chinese authorities and repatriated to Sin Ui Joo where he was imprisoned for two months and saw the persecution of Christians in prison. He escaped North Korean again in October, 2001 but was arrested in Hwa Ryong China, and repatriated where he was once again sent to prison. He was miraculously released from prison in December 2001 eventually escaping North Korea in February 2002. From March, 2002, he began his escape to South Korea to travel from China to Vietnam to Cambodia where he eventually arrived in South Korea on July 24, 2002. He was born in North Korea in 1973.

Mrs. Chiba Yomiko, has family still in the regime and is using this Japanese alias to protect them. She was born in Japan of Korean parents and returned with them to North Korea when she was 3 years old. As a member of the “elites”, she graduated from Changangoo University and became a teacher of traditional dance and sports at a college in Sinuiju. She lived well and had support from family in Japan, so she shared her food with others. She and her students often traveled to Pyongyang. She became disenchanted with the Kim Jong-il regime when she and her students were forced to bury famine victims. She started to speak out against the regime in 1996 and was threatened with arrest. She hid for three years, eventually escaping to China. She tried to escape during the boat people incident, but was caught and when the Chinese attempted to repatriate her to North Korea, she tried to commit suicide knowing what she faced in North Korea. She eventually escaped to Japan with the help of a Japanese NGO. She is one of the few known survivors of the Yantai boat people incident and an eyewitness to the violent treatment of the Chinese authorities towards North Korean refugees, their own citizens and citizens of other countries who try to help the refugees.

III. Rescuers including former Jailed Humanitarian Workers

MOON Kook Han - the rescuer of the Gil Su and the Han Mee North Korean refugee families, Moon was part of the underground railroad until the Chinese became aware of his activities and he was threatened with arrest. Moon continued his activism and founded the International Coalition to Save the North Korean Slaves and started the North Korean Genocide Exhibit which opened in Seoul in 2004 and as part of its World Tour will be in Washington, D.C. for North Korea Freedom Week.

BUCK Rev. Phillip Buck (“John Yoon”)-- an American citizen jailed for 1 1/2 years in China for helping North Korean refugees. Phillip Buck was born in North Korea but was separated from his family during the Korean War. He lived in South Korea until he immigrated to the United States in 1982 becoming a U.S. citizen in 1989. A pastor for 35 years in Seattle, Washington, he was sent by his denomination to work as a missionary in Russia in the early 1990s and then he expanded his ministry to work in China where he saw the suffering of the North Korean refugees and became a rescuer, sheltering and feeding 1000s of North Koreans who had fled to China and helping over 100 reach freedom in South Korea. He changed his name to Phillip Buck from John Yoon, when he realized the Chinese were trying to capture him under the name John Yoon. The Chinese succeeded in capturing him on May 9, 2005, while he was in the midst of an operation to help get 30 more North Koreans to freedom in South Korea. The Chinese authorities were thrilled when they found out they had captured the famous John Yoon, the so- called “Big Fish” whose crime was helping refugees. For a year and half, Rev. Buck was kept in prison in China until his release in August, 2006.

CHOI Yong-hun, a South Korean businessman and humanitarian worker, was seized by Chinese authorities on January 18, 2003, in Yantai City, Shandong Province, as part of the “boat people” incident in which rescuers were trying to help 86 North Korean refugees escape China by boat. The operation was leaked to Chinese authorities as Choi was working to bring the 86 together for their escape. Choi spent 3 years and 11 months in jail, of his 5 year sentence, and was released on November 29, 2006. While in prison the Chinese allowed other prisoners to beat him, and he was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after his release.

IV. Special Guests and Eyewitnesses to Abductions by the Kim Jong-il Regime

Teruaki Masumoto, of Japan, is the Secretary General of the Association of the Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea (AFVKN). His own sister, Rumiko, was one of the citizens Kim Jong-il’s regime admitted kidnapping. Masumoto has worked with the Japanese Rescue Movement to continue to raise awareness of the abduction issue and has been able to prove the international scope of the issue: collecting evidence and interviewing family members of other abductees to find that in addition to hundreds of Japanese citizens being abducted under Kim Jong-il’s order, there are at least 12 countries whose citizens were abducted.

Professor Yoichi Shimada is a Professor of International Politics at Fukui Prefectural University and Vice Chairman of the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea (NARKN). A graduate of Kyoto University, he testified before the House International Relations Committee on the abduction issue in April 2006. He was raised in Osaka Prefecture, Japan.

Ms. Fumiyo Saitoh’s younger brother, Kaoru Matsuki (born, 1953), was abducted by North Korean agents in 1980 from Madrid. He was then a graduate student of Kyoto Foreign Language University temporarily studying in Spain. Mr. Kaoru Matsuki was born in 1953. Japanese police believe that Red Army members and their wives harbored in North Korea were involved in his abduction. After former Prime Minister Koizumi’s first visit to North Korea, the regime disclosed that DPRK agents brought Matsuki to the North on June 7th, 1980. He was then being used as a Japanese language teacher at a spy school. North Korea has handed alleged ashes of Mr. Matsuki to the Japanese officials twice. However, jaw bones didn’t match his physique and the DNA profiles identified from part of ashes were found different from those of Matsuki.