As part of the 7th New Malden Arts Festival (19th July ~ 2 August 2014), Theatre4All are presenting an evening focusing on the lives of North Koreans in New Malden.
Life of North Koreans in New Malden
Malden Centre | Blagdon Road | New Malden | KT3 4TA
Saturday 26 July 2014 7:30pm ~ 9:00pm
R.S.V.P. to [email protected] www.theatre4all.com
Because New Malden has the largest group of North Koreans in the world outside of North Korea. Theatre For All has created a Q & A debate platform on the violation of Human rights that has been prevalent over the years within North Korea. This is a part of the New Malden Arts Festival program.
North Korea defector, Joo-il Kim, who currently lives in New Malden, will lead this talk. Kim is a North Korean defector who was a former Captain in the North Korean army. He is also a Secretary-General of the UK North Korean Residents Society, Director of the Democratisation Broadcasting System & founder of Free NK, a newspaper covering North Korean issues. Kim is a long standing champion of human rights and gave a speech at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy in 2012. His works have been the subject of BBC reports and broadsheet newspaper articles including Independent, Financial Times and The Guardian.
Also on the panel will be Ben Rogers and Bona Shin.
Benedict Rogers is East Asia Team Leader at Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), where he specializes in North Korea, Burma and Indonesia. He is a co-founder of the International Coalition to Stop Crimes Against Humanity in North Korea (ICNK), and campaigned for the establishment of the UN Commission of Inquiry on North Korea. In 2010, he visited North Korea with Lord Alton and Baroness Cox. He is the author of many articles on human rights in North Korea, in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post and Conservativehome.com
Bona Shin is a director of Theatre for All and Kingston Environment Centre. She is also the owner of the Hairline salon in New Malden. Bona has translated for BBC and has a long friendship with Jooil. Jooil is the first North Korean she ever met. As a South Korean, she will talk about her views and experiences working with North Koreans in New Malden.
The festival aims to shed light on human rights abuses and will focus on oppressive regimes that traffic women and children, execute defectors and exile freedom fighters. Theatre for All believes the open debate will give people the opportunity to learn more about the strength of the human spirit in times of grave difficulty.
(automatically generated) Read LKL’s review of this event here.