Skip to main content

2018-02-13 National Assembly Human Rights Forum


 


TNKR was one of the co-hosts of a Human Rights Forum at the National Assembly, to mark the 48th year that the criminals in North Korea have held onto 11 people it abducted in 1969 (it allowed 39 to return on 2/14/70). 

-- Date & Time: February 13, 2018 (Tuesday), 2PM~4PM
-- Venue: National Assembly Members’ Office Building, Meeting Room #9 (Room #212)
-- Theme: The moral imperative of repatriating the victims of North Korean abduction
-- Opening Remarks: Rep. Hong Il-pyo (Chairperson, National Assembly Human Rights Forum) was scheduled to lead the meeting but Rep. Kim Jong Seok stepped in.
-- Keynote Speaker: Hwang Cheol (Representative, KAL Abductees’ Families Association)
-- Campaign Intro: Peter Daley (Assistant Professor, Sookmyung Women’s University)
-- Panelists: 
* Signe Poulsen (Director, UN Human Rights Office-Seoul) 
* Kim Seok-woo (Former Vice Minister of Unification) 
* Lee Jung-hoon (Former Ambassador for Human Rights / Professor, Yonsei University) 
* Casey Lartigue Jr. (Co-founder, Teach North Korean Refugees)

-- Organizers: National Assembly Human Rights Forum, KAL Abductees’ Families Association, Teach North Korean Refugees (TNKR)

Dave Fry, TNKR Assistant Director was the MC.
Youngmin Kwon, Project Manager of the Bring My Father Home Campaign, was the main organizer.
Eunkoo Lee, TNKR co-founder, organized and helped in many ways behind the scenes, as usual.

Documentary shown at the forum:

Thanks to Shaquille James for the high quality photos.














































































































Popular posts from this blog

Get rid of that watermelon!

Part 1: When I was a youngster I used to collect Confederate money, posters and photographs with caricatures of blacks, and "No blacks allowed signs." I loved the money because it was a reminder of how far the sorry Confederacy had fallen. I had one poster of a dark-skinned black boy munching on a watermelon. I would look at that small poster and wonder, "What in the world is wrong with anyone wanting to eat watermelon?" Yes, white people, I'm talking to you. Your parents, grandparents, and other ancestors who thought making fun of blacks for eating watermelon were crazy ! Even people who say that nothing has changed in race relations must acknowledge that the many stereotypes of blacks are no longer prevalent. But then, there are also some ready to remind us of days-gone-by by debunking stuff that doesn't need to be debunked today. According to the Washington Post: The sound you just heard was yet another racial stereotype going kersplat ! Some ...

From nothing to something super special (2023-02-10)

FSI has moved into a better institutional neighborhood where we are the poorest in the area. In August 2022, I was elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Freedom Speakers International (FSI) and in January 2023 FSI achieved incorporation status in South Korea. This has meant that FSI must upgrade operations and structure and I am the one, as chairman and co-president, who will be blamed if it doesn’t happen. I really should not be the chairman, for a variety of reasons, but anyway I am. Eunkoo and I are not the typical executives of a growing organization. In addition to being mainly responsible for building and fundraising for the organization, we are the hands-on leaders who are constantly in contact with North Korean refugee speakers. We look forward to the day we can afford staff to handle many tasks. Until then we can expect to continue having more days like yesterday, even on Eunkoo’s birthday. 2023-02-10 Meeting #1: planning We started Eunkoo’s birthday with a planning...

Korea Times bloggers' night (2018-12-12)

  There are some well-known media outlets in this world that occasionally stumble upon Freedom Speakers International (FSI). But they usually pick themselves up and carry on as if nothing had happened. They sometimes quote or mention us after we help with a story but more likely they don't (especially NPR and the New York Times). The most important media outlet in the world for Freedom Speakers International: The Korea Times. They occasionally write stories about our work. I have a monthly column and a regular blog there. Here's my blog at the Korea Times, "Voices from the North." http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/sublist_728.html And my monthly column. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/sublist_626.html   Instead of the Korea Times stumbling across us from time to time, I get regular reminders from editors reminding me to send in my column and blog. I know that many of the people following FSI are clicking around the internet and following many organizati...

Column on The Root

I've got a column on The Root. It addresses Bruce Bartlett's suggestion that Republicans should support reparations for slavery. CJL The GOP's Next (Black) Idea? Trading slavery reparations for affirmative action. By: Casey Lartigue | Posted: March 5, 2008 at 11:41 AM Concerned that Republicans haven't tried hard enough to reach out to black voters, Bruce Bartlett, a former advisor to President Ronald Reagan and treasury official under President George H. W. Bush, suggests a shocker: Republicans should come out in favor of reparations for slavery. Republicans for reparations? Bartlett makes the suggestion in Wrong on Race , an expose on the "hidden" racist history of the Democratic Party. Bartlett skewers former Democratic presidents such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Woo...

Random photos from today

I went walking around today. Whereas some people like to go walking in the mountains, I enjoy walking around in the city. Well, not D.C. or other cities with many homeless, crazy and/or armed people walking around... * * * Here's where I had lunch today. About $1.90 for a hamburger hamberger.   * * * Ha-ha! Bet you never would have guessed that Batman is a drinking place in Korea! * * * Man Clinic? The Koreans walking by seemed to be very curious about why I was taking a photo of a "Man Clinic." They may know something I don't know...Actually, I wasn't curious enough to go in and find out what it was... * * * Right down the street from the Man Clinic...there's a Love Shop! I love the euphemism. "Love Shop" sounds much better than Sex Shop. I'm guessing that if you don't go to the "Love Shop" to buy condoms that you may need to visit the Man Clinic a short time later? * * * Nobo...