North Korea Freedom Week 2015 (April 26 – May 2, 2015)
Organized by the North Korea Freedom Coalition in cooperation with Free North Korea Radio and other North Korean defector and South Korean NGOs;
History: North Korea Freedom Week is an annual event held for the specific purpose of promoting the freedom, human rights and dignity of the North Korean people through raising awareness and action. It was first established in 2004 as a single day to galvanize public support in the United States for the North Korea Human Rights Act. On April 28, 2004, the first North Korea Freedom Day, one thousand people came to Capitol Hill in support of North Korea’s freedom and human rights. It was the largest gathering for North Korea that had ever been held outside the Korean peninsula and Members of Congress credited that day with leading to the unanimous passage of the North Korea Human Rights Act.
The following year the event was expanded to a week featuring rallies, Congressional hearings, the North Korea genocide exhibit, film screenings and many different events. It was held in Washington DC up through 2009. During that period it gave North Korean defectors the opportunity to meet with the President of the United States, led the U.S. Congress to host hearings featuring eyewitnesses who testified on North Korea’s political prison camps, the trafficking of North Korean women in China, North Korea’s involvement in abducting South Korean and Japanese citizens, South Korean POWs still being held in North Korea, North Korea’s persecution of Christians and its illicit and illegal activities.
In 2010, it was moved to Seoul, South Korea and hosted by North Korean defectors, many of whom had been part of the visiting delegations to NKFW in the U.S. It is being held in Washington D.C. again this year.
NKFW 2015: This year’s North Korea Freedom Week will focus on what can be done for North Korea to be free and for the peaceful unification of Korea as we celebrate the 70th anniversary of South Korea’s freedom. North Korean defectors will release the latest information from inside North Korea and discuss their role in working for the transformation of their homeland into a free and democratic society. Special witnesses will testify in Congress about the current and ongoing human rights violations by the Kim regime, the tragic situation facing refugees in China, and reveal the illegal activities of the Kim regime that sustain its existence. For the first time NKFW will include a special Silent Auction and Dinner to raise much needed funds to help the North Korean defector organizations.
> For the Schedule of Events for NKFW 2015.
> For the NKFW 2015 Delegation List with Bios.
> To view the article “What NK Defectors Mean to Us” written by Ok Cha Soh, Ph.D., published in The Korea Daily-Washington, D.C. on April 14, 2015, click here.
> To view the article about North Korea Freedom Week 2015 in the Korea Times on April 18, 2015, click here.
Themes of the events:
Time for North Korea’s Freedom and Reunification
Can 2015 Be the Year of North Korea’s Freedom?
Role of Defectors in Helping Advance North Korea’s Freedom
Importance of Passing the North Korea Sanctions Bill
