2014-06-04 Yeonmi even works on holidays

In Yeonmi Park's book "In Order to Live," she thanked me for believing in her from the very beginning.

I think this meeting on June 4, 2014, is an example.

Yeonmi and I met with the organizers of a TEDx event in Seoul. I had reached out to every TEDx organizer--only two responded. One said they couldn't fit the North Korean topic into their event. The other one responded that they were very interested, but not sure. They didn't want anything political.

So I told them what I was telling everyone during 2014: Just meet her.

Finally, they agreed. It was election day, so it was a holiday. After 10 minutes of them talking, one of the ladies said, "Wow! This is definitely a TED Talk!!!" They had gone from doubting she would be a speaker to thanking me for being persistent about meeting with them.

It wasn't going to be the big TED stage, but it would be a chance for Yeonmi to give a TEDx speech, in preparation for giving a TED talk later (which she did).

At that time, we were working at the now-defunct Freedom Factory. I wonder sometimes what we could have accomplished with a real budget. The week before, her op-ed had been published in the Washington, there were so many requests from people to meet her.

We held that meeting at a cafe in Seoul.

www.lovetnkr.org/donate

2019-12-19 Interview with Japanese reporter

"The interview is the honeymoon, publication is the divorce." --Shinae Chun I had a GREAT and FUN interview today with a reporter from Japan. Let's hope publication will also be great! www.lovetnkr.og

Michael Vick ain't got nuthin on me!!!

After football player Michael Vick admitted that he had been running a dog-fighting business I wrote that he was an idiot. If he was going to engage in such activity he should have gone to Indonesia or somewhere else. He certainly had the money to do so at that time. If he knew then what he knows now then he would have spent $10 million to run his dogfighting ring in Manila. Today I did something that probably not even Michael Vick ever did: I ate dog meat. I never expected that I would do so. It is a bit scandalous because Koreans don't just kill the dogs and eat them. Rather, they will beat them to death while they are still alive. That allegedly is to get the adrenaline flowing which allegedly makes the meat more tender which allegedly improves a man's stamina. I had told a friend that I wanted to give it a try. But as we sat down to eat I said: "I want to try this but don't give me any details until after we are finished eating." It just looked like regular me...

Still writing (Korea Times, 2023-12-19)

Still writing by Casey Lartigue Jr. The Korea Times December 19, 2023 https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2023/12/626_365284.html

Park Jin welcoming remarks to FSI (and Casey Lartigue)

National Assembly member Park Jin makes the welcoming remarks at FSI's conference featuring North Korean diplomats. Park Jin | Greeting message to FSI and Casey Lartigue mention - YouTube

A defector and a refugee join South Korea's National Assembly

Two North Korean refugees will be joining South Korea's National Assembly. They have taken two different paths to get to this point. The defector : Thae Yong-ho was part of North Korea's elite. He was educated to represent North Korea, going to the best schools and having the best tutors the North Korean system could pay. He was working as a diplomat for North Korea when he escaped. He was intimately aware of the flaws with North Korea's system, as an insider expected to lie for it. He could have continued with the easy life of a diplomat. The refugee : Ji Seong-ho was starving in North Korea when he was injured in an accident, he passed out while on a train and ended up getting run over by it. He lost a leg and suffered in many ways. After he went to China in search of food, he was arrested, tortured for a week, had his crutches taken from him. He later escaped, hobbling across China and SE Asia. North Korea had become unbearable for him, living with only one leg. A ...

The Casey Lartigue Show!

Search This Blog