London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Music, dance, discussion and documentary: an evening with Freedom Speakers International

Date: Saturday 21 October 2023, 5pm
Venue:
St Giles Hotel | 12 Bedford Avenue | Bloomsbury | London WC1B 3GH | | [Map]

Tickets: Free | Register via Eventbrite
Left: Ooberfuse | Right: poster for Mom's Strange Land
Left: Ooberfuse | Right: poster for Mom’s Strange Land

In support of North Korean human rights, join Freedom Speakers International, Ooberfuse, and the Seoul Larkspur International Film Festival for a concert in London on October 21, 2023 from 5-8 p.m. at St. Giles Hotel #6.

  • Music by Ooberfuse
  • Live Talk Show discussion with North Korean refugees.
  • North Korean human rights documentary: Mom`s strange land (엄마의 낯선땅)
  • A performance by North Korean refugee dancers.

You are invited to a screening of the documentary “엄마의 낯선땅”. The movie “Mom`s strange land” is a documentary based on the true stories of North Korean children whose mothers were trafficked in China. Viewers will follow their journey from China to freedom in South Korea

(Director) I hope many people will pay attention to children born in third countries.

Children born in third countries are more systematically and cognitively alienated than North Korean defectors. We want to find out who they are and what kind of difficulties they are having. Women who defected to China live in fear of not knowing when they will be repatriated to the North. Those who do not even have identification cards are likely to be subject to crimes outside the boundaries of the law. A Chinese broker threatens a North Korean woman who is in this situation to force a Han Chinese man to marry, lock her in a room, and make money by having a cyber sex video chat. In this process, children are born unwanted, and they are called “children of North Korean defectors born in third countries” in South Korea.

Over time, the woman runs away from China alone and goes to Korea, and after adapting to Korea, she brings a child in China. At this time, the child who came to Korea wanders in the confusion of identity. South Koreans, Chinese, North Koreans. For children who follow all three of these titles, the question of the existence of “I” is still a difficult task to solve.

Children who do not belong to a North Korean refugee mother who is unwillingly responsible for the child. I talked honestly about the institutional and psychological difficulties and feelings of alienation they experience in Korea.

Casey Lartigue

Yeongnam Eom

Yeongnam EomAfter serving in the North Korean military for a decade, Youngnam Eom escaped from North Korea in 2010. He is a rare graduate of both a North Korean University and a South Korean graduate school. In 2000, he graduated from a North Korean University with a degree in railway operations. In 2019 he graduated from Korea University in South Korea with a master’s degree in Public Administration. In 2015, he joined Freedom Speakers International as both ajublic speaker Band English language student. In 2019, he spoke at conferences at Harvard and Princeton Universities.

Taehee Kim

Taehee KimTaehee Kim escaped from North Korea in 1997 and escaped to South Korea in 2007. During the decade that she lived in China, she was repatriated to North Korea four different times. She is now the director of ‘North Korean Refugee Solidarity for Liberty and Human Rights. In 2019 she donated her part of kidney to a female North Korean refugee. In 2023, she was an operations director of the 3rd Seoul Larkspur International Film Festival focused on North Korean human rights movies and documentaries.

Eunju Kim

Eunju KimEunju Kim first escaped from North Korea in the late 1990s along with her mother and sister, but she and her mother were repatriated to North Korea. They later escaped again, making it to freedom in South Korea in 2006. Her memoir, A Thousand Miles to Freedom, has been published in seven languages, including French (2012) and English (2015). She first joined Freedom Speakers International (FSI) in June 2014 as an English language student and in February 2015, she was the winner of FSI’s 3rd English Speech Contest.

Moderator: Casey Lartigue

Casey LartigueCasey Lartigue is an American with two decades of experience empowering marginalized people. After graduating from the Harvard University Extension School, he earned a master’s degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education where he began focusing on improving access to quality education opportunities for low-income people. He is co-author with North Korean refugee Songmi Han of her memoir Greenlight to Freedom: A North Korean Daughter’s Search for Her Mother and Herself. He is the chairman and is co-founder with South Korean researcher Eunkoo Lee of Freedom Speakers International (FSI), the Seoul-based NGO that has empowered more than 500 North Korean refugees with English language tutoring, public speaking and career development.

North Korean dancers

  • Audrey Byeon
  • Grace Ju
  • Eunbi Kwon