that LiNK project

Nomads: The Call To Action from LiNK.

LiNK Nomads travel across the USA in a van, reaching out to anyone they can. By raising awareness and raising money, they are creating change for those suffering in North Korea.

I soon learnt that Nomads were individuals who spent 3 months volunteering with LiNK to raise awareness about the horrors in North Korea and funds to help support the incredible work that LiNK does. They do this by embarking on a road trip across the beautiful United States, where they host movie screenings, present speeches, and get LiNK merchandise out into the world. This collective action results not only in more and more people being inspired to make a difference to the lives of North Koreans, but also helps to get money together to assist people to escape from the regime.

Within a week, I had submitted my application. Within another, I had been accepted. In two weeks, I am off to the United States to change and save the lives of people I might never meet, but who I now know will experience a freedom that I take for granted on a daily basis. Join me on this incredible journey by following this blog, coming to one of my fundraisers, donating to support my Nomad Project via PayPal, or simply letting your friends know about what you've learnt about North Korea.

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P.S. The haunting images in this post were sourced from CompleteAll.

Millions starved, hundreds of thousands were imprisoned in concentration camps, and tens of thousands crossed borders seeking food, money, protection and even freedom that they never knew existed. That place was, and continues to be, a land with virtually no freedoms - of speech, assembly, religion, movement and more.

This is North Korea, and very little has changed since then. It is the Holocaust of the 21st Century.

In 2001, as more North Korean refugees made the harsh and dangerous trek to free nations, information about the human rights and humanitarian crisis in North Korea began to spread all over the world. Defectors began to testify before major institutions, books were written and reports compiled – all corroborating testimonies of human rights atrocities in North Korea.

In 2004, two passionate individuals learned about what was happening and felt a burden to share with the rest of the world what had gone unnoticed for too long. Educating a group of college students and young leaders about the crisis, together they formed LiNK (Liberty in North Korea) with the hope of spreading awareness and effecting real change. The organization quickly grew and became a movement of activists empowered by the stories of refugees and motivated by the urgency of the issue.

LiNK exists so that one day the crisis in North Korea will not. We operate under a mandate that does not allow us to remain silent about the human rights and refugee crisis that is a result of this emergency. We educate, protect, advocate, provide and empower the North Korean people so that one day they will have the opportunity to live in true freedom. Our roles are to:

EDUCATE: We share relevant stories of North Korean citizens and refugees through creative media, and we promote the truth about the humanitarian crisis inside and around North Korea to the world.

PROTECT: We protect North Koreans in pursuit of freedom, seeking asylum, and in need of assistance- wherever they can be reached.

ADVOCATE: We advocate on behalf of the North Korean people for human rights and fundamental freedoms. We call upon our leaders to do more because we know they can.

PROVIDE: Within the capacity of our resources and mandate, we offer assistance to North Koreans, NGO's, governments, and other partners working toward the same mission.

EMPOWER: We empower refugees with resources, assistance and guidance to reach freedom and to build new lives. We also empower citizens of the world to "take action" and make a difference in their individual lives.

The Movement
We exist to tell the world about the untold stories of North Korea. Whether it's through a national tour, benefit concert, art show, photo campaign, or a campus wide movement, we will rally the masses through creative mediums to tell the forgotten stories of our North Korean friends. This is where I come into the picture- as a LiNK Nomad, I will be sharing information, raising funds and inspiring others to get involved.

learn more here...

The Underground
LiNK protects North Korean refugees in its network of shelters and helps them escape from hostile to free countries that will accept them as refugees or permit them transit to a third country. We do not accept any form of payment from refugees in exchange for protection or transit, and every step of the way is entirely funded by LiNK or private donors. Our underground operations are run solely by LiNK staff, and as a purely humanitarian endeavor, we maintain a policy of not working with brokers or human traffickers, or using fake documents.

learn more here...

The North Korean Army

Or that the North Korean government practices infanticide within these camps, both by testing its nuclear weapons on infants and by performing forced abortions on women who become pregnant as a result of being raped by guards?

Just one of the millions of North Koreans who are dying from starvation as a result of the government food distribution program

North Korean defector Bang Mi-sun shows her torture scars at a press conference in Washington, D.C. (link to full story).

Can you imagine waking up tomorrow and knowing that not only you, but your parents, siblings, children and grandchildren, would be sent to a concentration camp if you made an unguarded remark about being hungry, or sang a line from a South Korean pop song, or accidentally looked displeased about a new government policy that further restricted your freedom and rights?

A North Korean woman, Lee Sun-hee, is forcefully dragged away from her daughter and from freedom whilst attempting to enter the South Korean embassy in China in order to avoid being tortured, imprisoned or executed (link to full story).

In the meantime, below is some more in-depth information regarding North Korea. There is further information available from Wikipedia, Google, the LiNK website, YouTube and other sources regarding North Korea, the Concentration Camps, the Human Rights abuses, and stories shared by North Korean defectors and survivors.

Official Name: Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)
Capital: Pyongyang
Government: Centralised Communist state. One-man, one-party Dictatorship of "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il and the Korean Workers' Party
Population: 22.7 million

Two children pose in the only way they know how: subserviently

Lack of Fundamental Freedoms: The North Korean government prohibits freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association. Not only wrong-doers, but "wrong-thinkers," are punished, the press is centrally controlled, and there is virtually no access to outside information. Freedom of religion, physical movement, and workers' rights are also severely restricted. Human rights monitors are banned from the country, as are radio or internet communications between citizens and outsiders.

Loyalty Groups: The North Korean government divides its citizens into three castes based on their perceived loyalty to the Dear Leader: "core" (haeksim kyechung), "wavering" (tongyo kyechung), and "hostile" (joktae kyechung). Most of the wealth is concentrated among the "core," while the "hostile"- a category that includes all members of minority faiths, as well as descendants of perceived 'enemies of the state'- are denied employment and subject to starvation.

'Hostile' citizens of North Korea are denied employment and starved

Enforcing Patriotism: The North Korean government enforces loyalty and obedience through its Ministry of People's Security, which requires citizens (including family members) to spy on each other. Anyone who is overheard saying anything perceived as critical to the government is subject to a reduced loyalty group rating, torture, execution, or imprisonment in one of North Korea's brutal concentration camps.

North Koreans bow down to a Hitler-esque statue of Kim Il Sung

Controlling the Flow of Information: All radio and television stations, newspapers and magazines, and church sermons are government-controlled and focus on praise of the Dear Leader. Anyone who makes contact with foreigners in any way, or listens to foreign radio stations (some of which are accessible in North Korea), is in danger of any of the penalties described above. Traveling outside of North Korea is also forbidden, and can carry a penalty of death.

A North Korean woman who escaped and made her way to Thailand is arrested

Food Crisis: Over one million people perished in the devastating famine in the mid-1990s due to natural disasters, the collapse of the PDS (Public Distribution System) and gross government neglect and mismanagement. In 2010, 33% of the population is undernourished, 23% of children under the age of five are underweight, and a near-total breakdown in the public health system has left an entire generation of children physically and mentally impaired. The World Food Programme has estimated that 6.2 million North Koreans are short of food. Malnourished Children: 37% stunted, 23% underweight, and 7% wasted (World Food Programme, 2004).

Political Concentration Camps: Currently, over 200,000 "violators" are overworked, tortured, raped or publicly executed in political prison camps across the country. There are five major prison camps in North Korea, verified by corroborating testimonies of North Korean defectors and satellite images. Up to 3 generations of each family are imprisoned, including children, because a relative had committed a crime such as expressing disloyalty to the government. Conditions in the camps are extremely harsh and systematic and widespread human rights abuses occur. Most prisoners are not expected to survive due to such extreme conditions, and approximately 25% die in the first year. Some reports have estimated that more than 400,000 prisoners may have already died in this system.

Crimes Against Humanity: Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines 11 categories of acts that constitute crimes against humanity: murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation/forcible transfer of population, imprisonment, torture, rape/sexual slavery/enforced prostitution, persecution, and enforced disappearance of persons, apartheid, and other inhumane acts. With the exception of apartheid, every single one of these crimes against humanity is being committed on a systematic basis in North Korean political prisons.

Contracted Labor: North Korea maintains labor contracts with countries through government entities and foreign firms. North Korean laborers who work under such arrangements are denied freedom of movement and a large portion of their salaries are deposited into government accounts. There are an estimated 10,000 to 70,000 North Korean laborers worldwide and many are subjected to harsh conditions in jobs involving construction and logging.

Estimates of up to 300,000 refugees have fled to neighboring China and are hiding in the underground. In violation of the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, China repatriates all North Koreans who have illegally crossed the border; these refugees therefore risk torture and execution if captured. A fraction of North Korean refugees escape to third countries with the intention of seeking asylum.

Over 80% of North Korean refugees, the majority of whom are women and children, are victims of human trafficking in China. Within North Korea, children are routinely forced into child labor, and are subject to extremely abusive or dangerous situation; women, on the other hand, are trafficked for sex.

Severe Food Shortage: North Korea relies heavily on international food aid, especially as that it is experiencing a severe food shortage that may very likely reach the crisis level of the mid-1990s famine. Less than 23% of its land is arable, as farmers removed trees for food, resulting in deforestation, soil erosion, nutrient depletion, and increased susceptibility to flooding. Recent flooding and heavy rains have increased North Korea’s grain shortfall to 1.3 million tons, and the WFP has estimated that 6.2 million North Koreans are short of food.

South Korean Political Stance: The South Korean Constitution recognizes all North Korean defectors as South Korean citizens. The South Korean government previously promoted a policy of rapprochement with the North, during the course of which human rights were severely neglected. Inter-Korean relations have sharply deteriorated under President Lee Myung-bak's administration. At the outset of his term, Lee advocated a policy of increased reciprocity and improvements of human rights. The North subsequently cut off official dialogue and demanded that Lee implement agreements reached in the 2000 and 2007 Summits. However, when Lee expressed a willingness to engage, tensions increased after a South Korean citizen was shot and killed at the North Korean Mount Geumgang resort on July 11, 2008.

North Korean Official Stance: The North Korean government categorically denies any human rights violations within the DPRK and maintains that the “people-centered socialist system” champions the rights of its people. North Korean officials have claimed that “the customary allegations [of human rights violations] based on unsubstantiated information are a part of a parcel of the US policy of isolating and stifling the DPRK.”



GET INVOLVED AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
So, now that you know all about the crimes against humanity that are being perpetrated in North Korea, what can you do about it? It's easy- get involved! You can:

- Learn even more about North Korea and what's being done to change the situation at the LiNK website

- Come along to one of our fundraisers- either a craft class or a movie night- and help raise much-needed funds to support my LiNK Nomad Project (whilst also having a great time!)

thatLiNKproject is hosting two fundraisers- a Craft Class and a Movie Night. Come along! (click on the pictures to enlarge)

- If you can't come along but still want to make a difference, donate! Even $5 can make a difference, and most of us have that to spare. I'm accepting donations of all sizes for my Nomad Project via PayPal- simply click on the link below! (EFTPOS, Bank Cards, Credit Cards and PayPal Account payments are accepted)

- Speaking of donations, LiNK are always looking for one-off and longer-term supporters to help more people escape from North Korea and start new lives elsewhere.

- Become a follower of thatLiNKproject to stay up-to-date with what's happening

- Spread the word! Let your friends and family know about how much the North Korean situation has shocked you, point them to the LiNK website, or grab them by the wrist and bring them along to one of the fundraisers!

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