In the face of famine, torture and oppression, hope prevails.
Students gathered Friday night to attend a presentation from Liberty in North Korea on the struggle for freedom and change within the communist nation. Sponsored by UT’s Korean Student Association, the talk detailed the suffering of the North Korean people while emphasizing the grassroots movement to establish change within the country.
Liberty in North Korea is a nonprofit organization that works to raise awareness of the plight of the average North Korean citizen and rescue and reintegrate those who escaped the country.
Shellie Palmer, LINK intern and the main speaker of the evening, brought attention to an issue she described as “one of the greatest challenges facing humanity today.”
As a part of their ‘jangmadong’ tour, the presentation focused on the widespread discontent with the Kim regime among the millennial generation of North Koreans.
“They grew up seeing the government not as a provider, but as an obstacle to get around,” Palmer said of the younger generation, whose exposure to the outside world through illegally smuggled media has helped to reshape their outlook on life.
Taylor Teachout, also an intern with LINK, hopes to reshape the harmful misconceptions surrounding the hermit kingdom through her work.
“When most people think about North Korea, they think ‘crazy dictator and weapons,'” Teachout said. “They don’t think about the 24 million people that are stuck inside of this really repressive regime.”
Johnny Rho, senior in biological sciences and member of the Korean Student Association, felt encouraged by the positive changes occurring within North Korea.
“(The event) was really eye opening,” Rho said. “It was awesome to see all the changes going on in North Korea and how people are beginning to think for themselves.”
While Rho found the information to be enlightening, he still recognized the necessity for public awareness in order to facilitate change.
“The really important step in this whole process is for the public to be more aware of this situation,” Rho said.
LINK showcased video testimonies of North Korean refugees and highlighted the horrors of the totalitarian government in an effort to raise enough funds to rescue another 200 North Koreans from the repressive country.
Citing LINK’s efforts to rescue North Korean refugees from China, Teachout hopes to inspire widespread action through education.
“A lot of people think, ‘North Korea, there’s nothing I can do about that because it’s so shut off,'” Teachout said. “No matter what your talent is, you can be an agent for change.”
