Skip to main content

2021-04-29 James at the University of Utah

 


Thanks to the University of Utah (Asia Campus) for hosting Freedom Speakers International (FSI) at a forum yesterday. 

Our featured speaker was JeongCheol (James).

James first joined us back in 2015 as a student when we were TNKR, worked in our office as a staffer back in 2018, and is now a Keynote Speaker with FSI. It was so touching when he commented about how wonderful the organization has been to him over the years. 

How did this event happen? One thing leads to another! It all started with an event that I held on Black Lives Matter at the FSI office during the summer of 2020. A professor in the audience that day invited me to speak on the University of Utah campus a few months ago. 

Then another professor in the audience that day then invited me to return to speak with a North Korean refugee. James gave a thoughtful and humorous talk about North Korea, his escape, and adjustment. He is not seeking to become a public speaker, he now has a full-time job as a producer at a media company. He said that he does enjoy these opportunities to reflect on North Korea. 

Here's his YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoKiFcRgfhscM5KsmMRNEfA






Popular posts from this blog

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

Mentoring while Black (Korea Times 2/16/2023)

  Mentoring while Black by Casey Lartigue Jr. February 16, 2023 www.patreon.com/caseylartigue

Chosun Monthly magazine [Korean language]

  Chosun Monthly Magazine has made an announcement (in Korean) about the Seoul Honorary Citizenship award that I received on December 9, 2022.  Our Korean staffers say that the magazine is a big deal in South Korea. Here's the overall roundup of media about the award. In the next two months, I have extended interviews coming up in two different magazines, one in the USA and one in South Korea. Both articles will be in respected publications so they should raise awareness of FSI's work that your support makes possible. * * * Support FSI via Stripe or PayPal . https://donate.stripe.com/3cs28F5IAcc85IAaEF or PayPal .

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

North Korean defector seeks justice (Korea Times)

  It was international news when 12 North Korean waitresses and a male manager who worked at a restaurant operated by the North Korean regime in China arrived in South Korea in 2016.  The waitresses have mostly maintained a low profile. There have been numerous accusations and assertions, with some saying the waitresses didn't want to escape, some accused the Park Geun-hye administration of playing politics by releasing details of the case, etc., etc., etc. My blog at the Korea Times today features an exclusive interview with one of the former North Korean waitresses who filed a criminal case against the former manager. You can read about it here on the Korea Times website. https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2023/02/728_345165.html   Keep in mind that there are many more facts to the case and that it is much deeper than this brief excerpt of her comments. She also shared legal documents that I shared with the Korea Times well in advance to give them time to review t...