Yesterday, two North Korean defectors, Park Yeon-Mi, and Joseph Kim, went in front of the UN alongside two members of the State Department’s special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, Robert King and Tom Malinowski. They did this under very specific instructions from the US Secretary of State to put North Korean human rights on the agenda, and to not take it off until the issue has been investigated thoroughly and resolved.
Their statements included satellite images of the prison camps, as well as firsthand accounts of the horrific experiences that Yeon-Mi and Kim went through during their time in North Korea. They also pled for China to stop sending refugees back across the border, accusing them of the truth: that by complying with the expatriation treaty, they are participating in Nazi-level atrocities.
Unfortunately, such declarations have been made in front of the UN before, and not much has happened.
However, change will happen in North Korea, and statements like those given at the UN yesterday will only spread the message further, which will put the onus even more on the UN to take action.
In addition, Malinowski has said that North Korean human rights will stay on the U.N. Security Council agenda “permanently, until it no longer needs to be there.”
It’s one step in a long, long series of steps.
But it is at least one very large step.
To see a little bit more about who Park Yeon-Mi and Joseph Kim are, here are a couple of links:
and, here is a link to another video about another escapee, Hyeongseo Jo.
Think North Korea 