Unshackle the Women of North Korea (2022-03-25)

Two North Korean refugees who are members of the Freedom Speakers International (FSI) North Korean Refugee Keynote Speakers Network were featured witnesses at a United Nations session.

Songmi Han (co-author of Greenlight to Freedom) and Minhee Na (YouTuber and TV commentator) were the featured witnesses, giving their most high-profile speeches.

I gave the closing remarks.

Songmi joined FSI in 2019 with no intention of ever telling her story. She had escaped to South Korea in 2011, and had remained silent about her story. Although she had not yet given a speech, I recommended her to the North Korea Freedom Coalition as a speaker at the UN event. Then worked with her to get her ready. She gave her first speech on February 19^th at an FSI event. Since then, she has given four speeches, with three different texts. So it hasn’t been a case of her repeatedly giving the same speech.

* * *

Minhee joined FSI in 2017, at that time she didn’t want to be identified as being from North Korea. She escaped to South Korea in 2015. She began opening up, first giving speeches with us with her identity still being revealed. She began appearing on South Korean TV and became a public speaker with FSI.

There were the usual hiccups that come with organizing an international event online, but we had an extra challenge when Songmi caught COVID-19.

In my case, I was working so much on getting Songmi and Minhee prepared (and the usual work that comes with being co-founder of an NGO) that it wasn’t until about 3 am the day of the event that I wrote my remarks. I had been scheduled to give the Opening Remarks, then that got switched to giving Closing Remarks.

Five organizations came together to make the event happen. North Korea Freedom Coalition, Jubilee Campaign, Defense Forum Foundation, the Isabella Foundation, and Freedom Speakers International.

Behind the scenes, FSI co-founder Eunkoo Lee helped coordinate everything.

It was the start of a busy day!

www.fsi21.org

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