Another North Korea refugee related event this Wednesday at the LSE. This is a public event, but please signify your attendance on the event’s Facebook page or by emailing R.Faruq at lse.ac.uk so that they can register your name for security purposes. At time of writing there are 120+ attendees, so I hope they’ve got a big room.
Escape From North Korea – Panel Discussion
Escaped across a frozen river, sold as a wife to a Chinese gambler, arrested and forced to leave her son behind imprisoned in a labour camp… we are very lucky to have North Korean defector Park Jihyun come and speak to us about her experiences and human rights abuses in North Korea.
A groundbreaking UN Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea, due to be published in March, is expected to reveal the extent of human rights abuses and probably, crimes against humanity. Head of the Inquiry Michael Kirby said he was moved to tears by a number of testimonies.
As well as Park Jihyun, we have some amazing speakers lined up for you:
- Professor Heonik Kwon, Senior Research Fellow and Distinguished Research Professor at Trinity College, Cambridge. He has co-authored the book “North Korea Beyond Charismatic Politics”.
- Dr Ramon Pacheco Pardo, Lecturer at KCL and researching the comparative financial markets and government monetary and fiscal policies of different East Asian countries
- Dr James Hoare, currently Research Associate at the Centre of Korean Studies at SOAS. James previously worked for the FCO stationed in Seoul and Beijing, and was appointed British Chargé d’affaires in Pyongyang from 2001-2002.
- Morgan Potts, studied International Relations Theory (MSc.) with a focus on the Korean Peninsula at the LSE, and is currently Assistant Editor at Sino-NK, a scholarly collective focusing on North East Asia.
The event will be held at room 2.02, Clement House, Aldwych (bottom right in below map), Aldwych.
The event is organised by the LSE Student Union branch of Dare To Think (www.d2think.com), a political and philosophical alternative think tank associated with London universities.
Links:
- The event’s page on Facebook
- Park Jihyun’s testimony to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (Word doc on OHCHR website)