North Korea Research Group

As part of its ongoing speaker series, the North Korea Research Group, a joint undergraduate and graduate student initiative sponsored by the Munk Centre and Asian Institute at the University of Toronto, recently hosted two discussions on the subject of North Korean human rights.

On March 12, Gordon Flake, Executive Director of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation and member of the U.S. Committee on Human Rights in North Korea, spoke at the University of Toronto about the current human rights situation in the country and the challenges facing organizations seeking to effect change.  Flake, widely considered an expert on North Korea and a current advisor to the Obama administration on Asian issues, discussed a range of issues including refugees, famine, the prison camp system and what he considers to be a lack of meaningful dialogue about the human rights violations that characterize the Kim regime.

Among other insights, Flake said that much of the policy response to the problem of human rights in North Korea has been inadequate.  Although the North Korean Human Rights Act was passed with unanimous support in 2004, it was largely symbolic and has not resulted in any real action on the part of American politicians.  Flake predicted that the Obama administration is unlikely to depart from the policies laid out by George W. Bush, but expressed hope that non-governmental organizations inside and outside North Korea will continue to coordinate their efforts to advance human rights initiatives.

The North Korea Research Group also organized a March 16 presentation by Mike Kim, author of Escaping North Korea: Defiance and Hope in the World’s Most Repressive Country (Rowman & Littlefield).  If Flake's seminar was insightful in providing a context, Kim provided the human story to the entire issue. Kim, a Korean-American who spent four years living on the North Korean-Chinese border and founded Crossing Borders Ministries, discussed his experiences helping a number of North Koreans escape via the “Asian underground railroad.”

Kim praised the “heroic” Korean-Chinese network of individuals who continually risk their lives to help those fleeing North Korea, and stressed the difficulties of providing care to people who have experienced torture, starvation, sex trafficking, indoctrination and other human rights violations committed by the North Korean government.  Kim also spoke about the influence of Christianity on these networks, citing it as one of the most important motivating forces, and of the intense repression of Christian doctrine within the communist state.

Upcoming events organized by the North Korea Research Group include a presentation on March 24 by Suk-Young Kim, Assistant Professor of Theater and Dance, University of California at Santa Barbara, entitled “Dancing Through the Revolution: Performing Revolutionary Women in China and North Korea.”

Media Coverage by Korea Times: http://koreatimes.net/article/chk_09031820.html (article in Korean)

Photos of Gordon Flake's Seminar (2009.03.12)

Photos of Mike Kim's Seminar (2009.03.16)

(Photographed by Michael Motala)