Remarks
Michael R. Pompeo
Secretary of State
Treaty Room
Washington, DC
August 23, 2018

SECRETARY POMPEO: Good morning, everyone. I’m excited to announce this morning that Steve Biegun is joining our team as the special representative for North Korea.Steve will direct U.S. policy towards North Korea and lead our efforts to achieve President Trump’s goal of the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea, as agreed to by Chairman Kim Jong-un.

Translation:

By Suzanne Scholte, Seoul Peace Prize Laureate

For over twenty years now, I have had the great honor of working for the freedom and human rights of the North Korean people.  As a result of this work, it is not unusual for the North Korean regime to attack me on their propaganda website, Uriminzokkiri.  Because I believe that North Koreans are deserving of the same freedom and human rights as South Koreans and Americans, the Kim Jong Un regime has labeled me “a female monkey”, a “dirty miser”, “an ugly political swindler”,  “a witch” and other unprintable words.  They even depicted me as a kangaroo in a cartoon attacking the annual North Korea Freedom Week when we first hosted it in Seoul.

But in July something happened that went way beyond these typical slurs and attacks.  I got this message directly in my email: “To Suzanne Scholte, This is your destiny.  You will DIE!! We see you everywhere.  We will Kill You.  Go home, and Wait Die.”  The threat was accompanied by a horrific real photo of a badly mutilated woman’s head.  The message and the photo haunted me for a day or two, and I was very ashamed about it and did not want anyone to even know about it.  It is something truly rattling to have someone hate you so much to have taken the time to have sent that message and to have taken the energy to search for the most horrific photo to accompany the death threat.  I did not want anyone to see the message or the photo for fear they would think of it when they thought of me.

Since the death threat was sent on the same day as other death threats against North Korean defectors, I knew it was from someone acting on behalf of the North Korean regime.  And it pained me that someone who does not even know me, could hate me so much simply because I wanted them to be free. I then finally realized how I should respond to this death threat: I prayed to God for this person and I now long for the day when I can meet them in person and tell them how much I love and care about them and that is why I do this work.  It is only because they are blocked from the truth by their regime that they could send such a message.

Then, something else happened about a week later: eighteen postcards arrived from South Korea.  The death threat from North Korea came on July 7^th, but on June 29^th, someone in South Korea, who also I do not know, arranged for 18 South Korean young people to send these postcards- all handwritten with illustrations from students in South Korea .  All were mailed from Korea on June 29, 2018 from “GY. DEOKYANG” and each of them had the same return address: “South Korea, A letter from Heaven” and the same message ” I love Scholte” and then different notes of encouragement with illustrations, Bible verses, etc. on the reverse side.

One wrote: “The reason I wrote this letter is to give you strength”; another wrote: “Jesus will give you strength All the Time”. Almost all wrote: “Thank you for helping the people of North Korea.”

And I realized that at the same time when someone in North Korea was looking for that horrible photo to send me and preparing a death threat, God was prompting someone in South Korea to encourage these students to send these powerful messages of love and support and prayers for freedom for North Korea and wisdom and strength for me.

It was truly awesome because I do not have any idea who is the North Korean who sent the death threat or who are the South Koreans who sent the postcards?  The reason why I decided to write this OPED is because I hope this message will reach them all.  These young South Koreans need to know how much their messages meant to me and how the timing was so important.  And they all need to know I have the same message for both: I love you, North Koreans and South Koreans.

I choose to stand on the messages in those 18 beautiful “Letters from Heaven” and I hope that one day I can thank the South Koreans in person who sent them, and one day soon I also hope to meet and hug that North Korean who sent a different kind of message, so they will know how much I care about them.

This article was originally published by Munhwa Daily.

JULY 23, 2018

by Victor Cha

On Friday, President Trump signed the North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act of 2017 into law.  This legislation is the latest update to the original North Korea Human Rights Act, which President George W. Bush signed into law in 2004.  

The law provides support for efforts to get information into the largely isolated country, including broadcasting and other efforts; NGOs that are providing assistance and conducting research on human rights conditions inside North Korea; and provides for a State Department Special Envoy on North Korean Human Rights. As with the previous versions of the law, the extension signed last week had strong, bipartisan support in Congress. 

What does this act mean for U.S. – North Korea relations?  George W. Bush Institute Fellow Victor Cha answers our questions.

Continue reading “President Signs North Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act” →

Join us at 9 AM Friday, June 8 for the Victims of Communism Memorial for the annual Wreath Laying Ceremony: We will once again be representing the people of North Korea and laying a wreath to remember the millions of innocent men, women and children who have died because of the Kim family dictatorship.  It is very fitting on the days just before the Trump-Kim summit to remember that North Korea is one of five remaining dictatorships where the people continue to suffer and die under the tyranny of communism that has already killed over 100 million people worldwide.   Everyone is welcome to join us for this event. Note for the media:  Park Sang Hak of Fighters for Free North Korea and Grace Jo of NKinUSA will be attending the event and available for press interviews.  You can learn more here:

https://www.victimsofcommunism.org/events

April 28, 2018

Mr. Donald J. Trump
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington DC 20500

Dear President Donald Trump,

We are writing to you today as defectors from North Korea who have survived and left the most oppressive regime on the earth.

Today, we are holding the 15th North Korea Freedom Week event and are sending this letter to let you know how we, North Korean defectors, feel about freedom and liberty for the North Korean people.

Your meeting with Kim Jong-un has only come about because of your policy of ‘maximum pressure and engagement’ against North Korea. Please know that this meeting gives a great deal of hope to the 25 million North Koreans. Most of the North Korean people hope that the Kim dynasty, which has been in existence for 73 years, will end.

The thirty-two thousand North Korean refugees, who have left their beloved parents, family members, and relatives in North Korea, would like you to consider the following: Continue reading “Letter to President Trump from North Korean Defectors” →

Download PDF

Continue reading “Report on Congressional Soellal Messages to North Korea” →

Forced Return Threatens Torture, Sexual Abuse, and Mistreatment

Sophie Richardson
China Director
Human Rights Watch

All day, Park anxiously checked her cell phone, awaiting news of her sister, who was being transported along with six other North Koreans from China’s northern Liaoning province to southern Yunnan province.

Then came the news she dreaded: a text message saying Chinese police had apprehended her sister and two other North Koreans, including a teenager, while they were waiting for a train that day in late March. The other four members of the group briefly hid out in a safe house, but they too were apprehended a few days later.

Today, Park, who only uses her surname for fear of retaliation against relatives living in North Korea, joined a gathering of North Korean exiles and their supporters outside China’s embassy in Seoul, South Korea. The group meets monthly to call on the Chinese government to stop forcibly returning North Korean refugees back across the border to face torture, forced labor, sexual abuse, and worse.

“My sister has only me,” Park said. “And we need to do all we can before China decides to send her back to unimaginable horrors of torture, beatings, threats, and being treated like less than an animal.”

Continue reading “China Detains 7 More North Korean Refugees” →