NKHRFF is made up of a group of dynamic young social entrepeneurs, concerned with social justice and issues of human rights through the use of art. We are striving to become the leaders of human rights awareness in Canada.

We are seeking an experienced Graphic Designer who will work closely with us to re-brand our organization. This is a great opportunity to showcase your creativity and talent. If you are interested, please contact us at info@nkhrff.com, and we will provide you with more details.

]]> http://www.nkhrff.com/2013/04/04/help-us-rebrand-us/feed/ 0 http://www.nkhrff.com/2013/03/01/our-year-in-review/ http://www.nkhrff.com/2013/03/01/our-year-in-review/#comments Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:32:23 +0000 gilad.cohen http://www.nkhrff.com/?p=904 When we wrapped up our co-presentation of Total Control Zone – Escape from Camp 14 two nights ago, I was sitting there talking with a friend about the year NKHRFF just had. We tried to figure out when our organization “was born” and so I woke up this morning trying to figure it out. I had this grand plan to type in “North Korean Human Rights Film Festival” into my email search engine, sift through some emails and nail down the date we had our first meeting. The idea for this festival, like many human beings, was conceived after several glasses of scotch. On a flight back from Ecuador with too much time (and scotch) on my hands, I thought that Toronto could really benefit from a film-focused event specifically geared towards North Korean human rights. And so after typing in NKHRFF into Gmail’s search engine and being told that we had “1-20 of many” (the efficient way of saying “793″), I discovered that NKHRFF was officially born on Sunday, February 26th, 2012. But first: Damn! SEVEN HUNDRED AND NINETY THREE EMAILS! It took SEVEN HUNDRED AND NINETY THREE EMAILS to accomplish what we did in one year (and two days), plus several hundred more emails written by others on our team. The larger miracle here is how I managed to maintain a life, a job and any sort of relationship with anyone between all of that writing.

We held our first meeting on Sunday, February 26th, and just like first time parents, everything was incredibly awkward. Take “how do we hold this baby and what do we do when it poops itself”, mix in some human rights, give that baby about eight first-time parents and you’ve got our first meeting. We had some (read: too many) grand ideas (i.e. doing our first year at the Royal Cinema and I’m even seeing an email about doing something in Greece? Hmm… what?) but we eventually began to hone our mission, vision and activities. Here’s what we did in the 367 days since that first meeting:

• - Less than two months after that first meeting where we didn’t even have a name for ourselves, on April 19th we screened Liberty in North Korea’s (LiNK) documentary, The People’s Crisis at Innis Town Hall which was at full capacity. We also invited guest speaker Randall Baran-Chong of HanVoice, Canada’s largest non-profit organization working on North Korean human rights to share some insight on the film and the current context in North Korea.
• - Shortly after that, we ran Canada’s first and only #SaveMyFriend campaign where we added hundreds of Canadian signatures to a worldwide campaign asking China to not repatriate 30+ defectors back to North Korea where they would likely face torture, imprisonment or execution.
• - On June 9th, 2012, we held “The People’s Fundraiser,” an event featuring local musicians to raise awareness of the situation in North Korea while also raising funds for that year’s film festival. This ran in conjunction with our online fundraiser that helped raise enough funds to actually get our film festival off the ground.
• - From July 6-8, 2012, we held our inaugural film festival at Innis Town Hall. This deserves several sub-bullets.

1. We decided to host this event on what I would consider the hottest day in Earth’s history. I dare you to find a worse day to hold a human rights event. Let’s quickly go over our options for that day which peaked at 39°C. Beautiful summer evening. Friday night in a big, bustling metropolitan city. Patios serving cold beverages everywhere. You’ve worked hard all week and can either take advantage of the beautiful weather or go to a sweaty theatre and watch a human rights film that will most likely depress you for the rest of your weekend. Despite this, our fans and supporters came through! We love you guys! On that opening night where we featured the North American premiere of Winter Butterfly in front of more than 100 people, we also celebrated our first of hopefully many film festival nights.
2. In total, we screened seven films from five different countries including Tiger Spirit, directed by Toronto’s very own Min Sook Lee, a multiple award winning filmmaker who was also present for a very special Q&A. Ann Shin, another Toronto-based multiple award winning filmmaker was also on hand to offer a sneak-peak of her not-yet-released-at-the-time-but-will-hopefully-be-featured-at-NKHRFF-2013 film, The Defector.
3. Besides the filmmakers above, we also had special guest speakers Randall Baran-Chong and Erica Kim of HanVoice, Jack Kim, founder of HanVoice and one of Canada’s leading experts on all things North Korea, as well as two North Korean defectors who shared their experiences growing up and leaving North Korea.
4. Despite the beautiful weather over the weekend, more than five hundred people called that sweaty theatre their home for a few hours including the general public, media, members of Toronto City Council and the Consul General of the South Korean Consulate in Toronto. High five, team.

• - Few times in life does your life change over tacos. I can name two. The first was when I was sixteen, at the mall, crushing tacos from The Bell and spotted this beautiful girl who I immediately fell in love with. Problem was, I’m pretty sure that at sixteen, the only females that talked to me, on purpose, were my mom, grandma and sister. Took me three years of hard work, but I finally persuaded that girl to date me. Three years of pursuing someone? They just don’t build us like they used to. The second time when tacos changed it all was last August when I was eating some with a friend and got an email inviting me/NKHRFF to come and “participate at the 19^th session of the UN Human Rights council meeting in Geneva.” Participate? But how? Who cares, we’re in! And so I made my way to Geneva to represent NKHRFF, alongside my friends in South Korea from the NGO, People for Successful Corean Reunification (PSCORE), and co-presented the World Premiere of 48M on September 14th, a film that captures the struggles of those who try to cross a river separating North Korea and China. We spoke, made some great connections and this was truly an incredible experience.
• - Upon returning  to Toronto, we were back into things with a co-presentation of Stateless Things at the 16^th annual Reel Asian Film Festival on November 7^th. Director Kim Kyung-mook was on hand for a number of workshops and Q&A.
• - On January 18^th, 2013, we teamed up with the Monsters and Martians Science Fiction Film Festival to co-present Pulgasari, a North Korean made film directed by Shin Sang-ok. This marked the first time we screened a film actually made in North Korea and supported by the regime there. The reason we chose to co-present this was due to the larger backstory which we wanted to shed light on. Shin Sang-ok was essentially kidnapped by Kim Jong-il and practically held hostage in North Korea for a number of years where he was forced to make films for the country. Kim Jong-il, a huge cinephile, did this in hopes of bolstering the country’s international film presence. Let’s just say it never really worked out. Shin eventually escaped but not before creating this piece of crap gem of a film.

And this brings us back to last night where we did our most-attended co-presentation, the screening of Total Control Zone – Escape From Camp 14 at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. I am so incredibly proud of the NKHRFF team for recommending this film to HRW, having one of our Board members run the Q&A with the filmmaker live from Germany as well as a post-film Q&A with Shin Dong Hyuk and sharing the TIFF stage at such a prominent event. Sitting next to Shin during the screening was an incredible experience and having 300+ people attend and learn about his story overwhelms me with happiness. It’s true awareness in action. It’s the definition of what we are.

Along the way, we’ve shared our story on several campuses and events and also with a variety of media outlets including newspapers, television programs and radio stations including CBC’s Here and Now as well as the Voice of America and numerous interviews with Radio Free Asia. The last two I mentioned were particularly proud moments for us as they were broadcasted into North Korea for North Koreans to hear. We shared our story of compassion and concern and are glad that people in North Korea, even if just a few, were able to hear it.

After the screening last night, I bumped into Shin outside, we chatted for a bit and he hugged me goodbye. This brings me back to one year (and two days) ago and I could not have ever imagined that all of this would have happened in such a short time. Yes, it took 793 emails to get here, a few awkward meetings and yes it took dozens and dozens of staff, Board, volunteers, advisors, friends and supporters to make it happen, but it happened. And we will carry this momentum forward into the next year (and two days). We have a lot of exciting events happening. Here’s a snapshot of 2013:

• - From October 25-27, we will be holding our second annual film festival at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. What an incredible honour to have this facility to be able to do our thing from. We hope that with a larger stage, we’re able to attract and teach more people and bring in more guests to help us out with this process. Alongside film, we also plan on holding workshops throughout the city where people can have more intimate learning experiences from experts, artists, defectors, staff and more.
• - March 9^th marks a huge day for our organization as we’re holding our first chapter screening at the University of Guelph. In one day we plan on screening three films and feature some guest speakers in hopes of raising awareness and attracting a crowd outside of Toronto. The following day, March 10^th, marks another huge day as we hold our second chapter screening at Wilfrid Laurier University. These chapter screenings define our growth and we look forward to reaching more campuses across the province and country.
• - And finally, without giving too much away, we’re in the middle of a huge rebranding/defining-ourselves-phase right now. Last year, we essentially threw a bunch of crap at the wall and saw what stuck and luckily for us, most of it did (minus an apparent event in Greece?). But with bigger dreams and a larger audience comes a need for more clarity in how we define and present ourselves and so we look forward to announcing and showing our new selves off in the coming months.

I would like to use this final paragraph to extend my gratitude to my incredible co-workers (current and past) as well as our Board of Directors and advisors for the year that was. We have reached so many people and have made so many incredible bonds and friendships along the way. I truly feel that although North Korea is an incredibly tough issue to tackle, we’re playing a role in working towards some kind of solution, even if at this point it’s just raising awareness of the issues. Thank you so very much and cheers to 2013.

Gilad Cohen
Founder & Executive Director
North Korean Human Rights Film Festival

Camp 14 – Total Control Zone is a fascinating portrait of a young man who grew up imprisoned by dehumanizing violence yet still found the will to escape. Born inside a North Korean prison camp as the child of political prisoners, Shin Dong-Huyk was raised in a world where all he knew was punishment, torture, and abuse. Filmmaker Marc Wiese crafts his documentary by quietly drawing details from Shin in a series of interviews in which Shin’s silence says as much as his words. Weaving anecdotes from a former camp guard and a member of the secret police with powerful animated scenes capturing key moments in Shin’s life, Wiese pulls audiences into Shin’s world. Shin escapes and becomes a human rights ‘celebrity,’ but as we see, his life outside the camp is often just as challenging as it was inside it. Courtesy of Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment in the UK. Official Selection Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival 2012 and Toronto International Film Festival 2012

For tickets and more information, please visit http://ff.hrw.org/film/camp-14-total-control-zone?city=1

Eight years after being kidnapped, Shin managed to escape while in Vienna on a film festival. He later lived in the USA and South Korea where he eventually passed away in 2006 at the age of 79.

We decided to co-present Pulgasari alongside the Monsters and Martians Film Festival at The Projection Booth on Friday January 18th at 9:00pm to bring awareness of Shin Sang Ok and his story as well as the countless other individuals who have been abducted by the North Korean regime over the years.

Tickets and information available here:
https://guestlistapp.com/events/142761

NOVEMBER, 19, 2012
NEWS RELEASE

CIRCLE THE DATES:
NORTH KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2013 DATES AND VENUE

TORONTO - On the heels of its first year of operation, the North Korean Human Rights Film Festival (NKHRFF) announces that its second film festival will take place from October 25 to 27, 2013. NKHRFF’s first film festival featuring the North American premiere of a South Korean film, Winter Butterfly, successfully launched on July 6 this year, and the 3 day film festival and surrounding events were attended by nearly 1000 attendees including multiple filmmakers. On September 14, 2012, NKHRFF presented the world premiere of a South Korean film, 48M, at the United Nations Human Rights Council meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland.

NKHRFF is excited to be co-presenting Stateless Things at the Reel Asian Film Festival on Wednesday, November 7th, 2012.

Stateless Things is a dark and dreamy parable that tells the story of two disparate, lonely young men trapped both physically and psychologically by their status in the heartless megacity of Seoul. North Korean migrant Jun scrapes by at menial jobs, working at a gas station and handing out flyers. He lives in constant fear because of his illegal status. Meanwhile, rudderless young gay hustler Hyeon is in over his head with no place to go, and is being held hostage emotionally by his very rich and very married older lover.

Busan native Kim Kyung-mook portrays the city of Seoul in a way not often seen–as fragmented and broken, just like Jun and Hyeon. Reflecting the city, Stateless Things is structured in separate pieces: Jun inhabits the older, established North Side, while Hyeon resides in the nouveau riche South. Crossing over in glimpses, Jun and Hyeon’s stories eventually converge in the fateful third act, and the previously distinct narratives come together in tragedy and hope.

Critic, programmer and leading Asian film advocate Tony Rayns noted that, “no director has arrived on the Korean indie scene with more impact than Kim Kyung-mook.” Kim is a true independent whose films address the unseen margins of Korean society in both fiction and documentary genres. Stateless Things is a thought-provoking look at how one can escape one’s personal prison, and shows Kim’s fearless dictum that rules, both in filmmaking and society, are made to be broken.

WED NOV 7, 9:15PM – Innis Town Hall

Director Kim Kyung-mook | South Korea 2011 | 115:00 | Toronto Premiere | Director in Attendance

A North Korean migrant worker and young gay man are trapped by their social status, both physically and psychologically in the heartless megacity of Seoul in this dark and dreamy film by internationally acclaimed indie director Kim Kyung-mook.

Founded in Seoul, South Korea in 2006, PSCORE is a non-profit organization striving for mutual understanding and harmony between the two Koreas and aims to provide a platform to discuss topics such as democratization, human rights and social issues. PSCORE recently received the UN ECOSOC’s Consultative Status and remains the sole North Korean human rights organization in the world to hold this unique position.

NKHRFF, founded in 2012, is an annual non-profit film festival based in Toronto, Canada. Its first film festival featured the North American premiere of Winter Butterfly, directed by Kim Gyu-min, a North Korean defector. Since February, NKHRFF has interacted with more than 1000 people and aims to raise awareness of North Korean human rights abuses through the arts.

사단법인 성공적인 통일을 만들어가는 사람들(이하 성통만사)와 북한인권 영화제(이하 NKHRFF)는 북한 주민들과 탈북자들의 현실을 고발한 영화 ’48M’를 전 세계 최초로 공개합니다. 영화 ’48M’는 북한의 인권침해 현실을 알리기 위해 300명 이상의 탈북자들이 함께 참여해 제작한 영화 입니다. 영화의 제목은 북한과 중국을 가로지르는 두만강의 가장 짧은 거리를 의미하며, 탈북자들의 꿈과 희망 그리고 현실의 생활을 이야기 하고 북한과 중국을 가로질러 더 나은 삶을 위해 강을 건너는 이야기들을 전달 합니다. 북한의 인권상황을 알리기 위해 탈북자들이 주요 투자자로 참여한 영화 ’48M’는 9월 10일부터 시작되는 스위스 제네바의 UN 인권위원회에서 상영될 예정이며, 9월 14일 UN빌딩 E, 1층 24번 방에서 상영될 예정입니다.

성통만사는 2006년에 대한민국 서울에서 시작 되었으며, 남북간의 이해와 조화를 위한 NGO 이며 민주주의, 인권 그리고 사회적 문제에 대한 토론의 장을 제공하고자 합니다. 성통만사는 최근에 UN 경제사회이사회로 부터 협의기구 지위를 부여받았으며 북한인권 단체들 중에서는 최초의 일 입니다.

NKHRFF는 2012년에 시작 되었으며 캐나다 토론토에 근거를 둔 비영리 영화제 입니다. 탈북 감독의 영화 겨울나비(감독 김규민)를 북미대륙에서 최초로 선보인 영화제 이며, 지난 2월부터 NKHRFF는 1천명 이상의 사람들에게 북한의 인권유린 상황에 대해 예술을 통한 접근으로 알리는 역할을 해 왔습니다.

North America’s first North Korean human rights film festival concluded Sunday after 3 days of programming.  The festival, held at Innis Town Hall in Toronto, was considered a success and featured a varied lineup of guests, speakers and films to highlight ongoing abuses happening in the regime.

Programming kicked off Friday night with the premiere of Winter Butterfly – a South Korean drama directed by DPRK defector Gyu-min Kim.  The film, depicting the story of a mother and son’s struggle for survival in rural North Korea, was screened in front of over a hundred patrons at Innis Town Hall.

Before the screening, founder and director of NKHRFF, Gilad Cohen, offered an introduction to the festival explaining that, “North Koreans have a story worth knowing and worth hearing about.”

Randall Baran-Chong and Erica Kim of HanVoice spoke after the screening about the movements their organization is making with helping North Korean defectors based in Toronto.

A small lineup formed for Saturday’s day screening of Yodok Stories which documents the life of former inmates of North Korea’s Yodok prison camps amidst the backdrop of a musical interpretation of the same.  Ann Shin, director of the forthcoming The Defector, spoke afterwards with a former North Korean citizen, Mr. Heo. Mr. Heo  was able to give a broader illustration of life in the Hermit Kingdom and the challenges of moving on in a democratic society.

The day continued with screenings of documentaries Dear Pyongyang and Friends of Kim – both of which offered real-life inside looks of North Korean life.

Sunday’s screening of Tiger Spirit was followed by the director, Toronto-based Min-Sook Lee, speaking on key talking points from the film as well as expanding on the issue of family division and the possibility of reunification in the two Koreas. Goodbye Pyongyang bookended the story started with its Dear counterpart and was followed by a thorough information session from CanKor’s Jack Kim.

Crossing, another South Korean drama, screened in front of an ample audience and was able to move many to tears.  “Jake”, a North Korean defector based in Toronto, spoke immediately afterwards to humanize the story.  He hoped that the film festival helped shed light on where he was from and would inspire people to share his story.

Before the festival closed out with a performance from local violinist Dr. Draw who was accompanied by Satoshi Saito and Bob Vespaziani, Cohen thanked everybody who attended throughout the weekend, citing the festival as a success.  “Now we can rest and think about NKHRFF 2013,” he said.

“The harsh reality faced by North Korean workers and students is unpaid forced labor and exploitation. Those who refuse face being sent to forced labor camps where they must do hard labor, face physical abuse from guards, and are treated as less than human.”

-Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch

Recently, over the past six months, Human Rights Watch interviewed approximately 65 North Korean defectors in South Korea and Thailand. They listened to detailed accounts of life in North Korea, and asked specific questions about the unpaid forced labour system. When students finish school, they are given work placements without any say in the matter. They are forced to work long hours with no pay or a minimal substitution of food rations. In North Korea, not going to work or quitting your job, is grounds for severe punishment. If a North Korean misses one day of work, they are severely beaten by their manager or a government official. If they miss more than one day or stop coming to work altogether, the government will find them and send them to a forced labour camp for as little as three months to as long as two years.

Although North Korea’s constitution strictly forbids child labour, defectors have told Human Rights Watch that children in secondary school are regularly given work assignments in the afternoon and only attend school in the morning. In some of the poorer areas of North Korea, children are forced to work as early as age 8. Phil Robertson quoted, “While the North Korean government puts on grand shows of children dancing and performing in synchronized pageants for the world to see, the daily reality for many children is grinding, forced labour made worse by a lack of necessary food.”

Not surprisingly, North Korea is one of the few countries in the world that is not a member of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Human Rights Watch is encouraging North Korea to join the ILO and abide by internationally recognized labour standards. Children are being exploited at a time when they should be enjoying life, receiving a proper education and getting sufficient nutrients. As the years pass, more defectors are coming forth and sharing their stories with the rest of the world about this exploitive economic system. The truth is out there, it’s time to act. International organizations and governments need to put pressure on North Korea to change it’s labour standards and join the 21st century.

-Michelle Ragno

Read the full article here from Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/06/13/north-korea-economic-system-built-forced-labor

I’m often asked what sparked my interest in North Korea. Well, here we go…

Back in June 2008, I was presented with an opportunity to travel to North Korea. It was only a day trip, a little bit more expensive than I could afford and a tough sell when I was in South Korea with the intentions of saving money. I’m not sure whether this applies to me, my friends or just males in general but there comes a few times in life where bragging is absolutely important. You know, the “I just won $650 at that poker tournament” or “I just drank 5 litres of eggnog in a contest to win an iPad, vomited, lost but man, three people cheered me on and it was great!” I’ll be the first to admit that although I couldn’t financially justify a trip to North Korea at the time, bragging was (and usually is) of utmost importance and so if $250 was the price tag to show off, I was more than happy to be a customer. Heck, buy me two. I’ll bring my partner along. Because really, who gets to say they went to North Korea?

A few weeks later we took a five or six hour overnight bus from Masan (way down in the south of South Korea) to Seoul, slept in a PC room and before we knew it, we were on a bus to North Korea. As we were sitting there in our bus, somewhere in the middle of the DMZ, I remember the sight of our South Korean military escort turning around and heading back south of the DMZ after having driven in front of us for the better part of the last hour. In what seemed like somewhere between 10 minutes and forever, we sat there, an entire bus silent, wondering what the heck was going to happen next. Why are we not moving? Where did the South Koreans go? Is this trip over? Why is nobody saying anything? Thought after thought crossed my mind and although a bus full of passengers sat quietly and waited, you just had to know that everyone on that bus was thinking the same thing. It’s like being at a grade 8 dance where the boys and girls stand awkwardly, each group on opposite sides of the gym, as K-Ci and Jojo’s “All My Life” plays in the background. Take that tension, remove the hormones, place it on a bus and drive that bus to the demilitarized zone of two countries at war since 1950. That’s what that felt like.

Without warning and in the distance, we saw a jeep driving towards us. Few moments in life happen in slow motion. For me, it’s my first kiss, proposing to my fiancée, seeing my friends and family at the airport after being gone for a long time, eating a perfect meal and this moment in the bus. You knew who was on that jeep ahead by the soviet style military uniform the passengers were wearing. You knew where they came from and if the goosebumps on my arms were any indication of the feeling during that exact moment, you knew that something cool and somewhat rare was taking place. I remember my thoughts at the time and how I must have felt just like Elliot from E.T. when he first saw that alien, because really, who gets to drive behind a jeep full of North Korean soldiers in you know, North Korea? Oh man, the things I’ll tell my friends. What’d you do today? Eat a grilled cheese? Go to work? Take a flight to Fiji? Unless you were on a rocket to the moon, I win, because I got to go to North Korea.

I’m glad to say that my first introduction to North Korea evolved beyond my ability to brag to everyone. Admittedly, I knew very little about North Korea before arriving there. I knew that it was a closed off society and something about nuclear weapons. I knew a little about the regime and the control it had over its people but to be completely honest, I didn’t know much more. But quite a few times throughout that short trip, I saw things that raised questions in my mind. Why do these roads look so wide? Why aren’t there any cars driving on these roads? Where is everyone? Why does everyone I see look so happy? Is everyone happy? People here do dress much more conservatively than they do in South Korea. Why is that? Why’s everyone wearing a pin of Kim Il Sung? What happens if they don’t wear one? Why are Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il the only authors for the books in this store? What is this place? What the heck is going on?

Upon returning to South Korea, I had to know exactly what North Korea was. What was going on over there and to what extent. Over the next three years, I spent a lot of time asking questions, reading, researching and meeting people who knew some answers: South Koreans, North Koreans, Canadians and others. While I will admit that it has not always been easy learning about what happens in the North, the most surprising thing after all these years is not the information I have come across, but my feeling that a larger part of the world has no clue that all this stuff is going on.

Enter the North Korean Human Rights Film Festival. I want to take that feeling I felt in 2008 – the feeling as I was driving back to South Korea after that bizarre trip – the feeling that inspired me to learn more and tell others. I want the viewers at NKHRFF to walk away feeling the same way. 

- Gilad Cohen

At a grander scale of history, the Korean War and the North-South divide was inevitable and in no way was it avoidable. If you look at the historic period of the Cold War, both Western and Communist regime had no choice to protect its own interest and the territorial influence of its surrounding region was crucial in protecting itself.

Certainly, there was a divide amongst Koreans about development of Korea after being colonized by Japan. Certainly, there were different views amongst scholars, politicians and Korean people. But, as a South Korean, I cannot help but to feel that we were merely pawns to protect Western/Communist ideologies in the East Asian region.

With the same line of reasoning, I am skeptical of the possibility of the reunification of the Koreas. China’s economical and political power is disrupting the hegemonic position of the Western ideology. Within the East Asia region, China enjoys the kind of power U.S. used to enjoy during post-Cold War period. Certain countries have started to trade with Yuan as their main currency and China has assertively started to demand a re-negotiation of its sea territorial boundaries.

Therefore, how likely would it be for China to want the reunification of the Korean people and have a democratic government, based on Western ideology, right next to its boundaries?

Not very likely.

It is saddening, and somewhat infuriating, to know that your own people had to suffer from a major civil war because of an ideology split between major powers and because we were a country that was, at the time, powerless to control our own fate.

But, South Korea is starting to become an economical power house, and along with it, our political influence is increasing. Also, with China’s recent condemnation towards North Korea there is certainly hope.

Therefore, as active citizens, we must inform our governments that human rights should not be subjective to politics, and this includes the rights of the North Korean people. That’s why I believe awareness campaigns like North Korean Human Rights Film Festival is so important because for any change to occur we must begin with knowing or understanding the problems.

As you come and watch our films in July, I hope you will understand that this isn’t just about watching an interesting movie or documentary, this is about real life social problems. Problems that are affecting close to 20 million people in North Korea and we could, if we choose to, gather support for a mass global campaign to pressure North Korea and its close allies to provide a better future for North Korean citizens.

- Yun Sik Shin