Members of grassroots organization Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) came to the Korean Culture Club during B-block on Friday, Oct. 5th. Prepared with video documentaries, paper “manifestos,” and T-shirts, the members shared the stories of North Korean refugees who had defected from the totalitarian state and discussed how high school students could get involved in the mission to assist the defectors.
The members of LiNK advertised their new movie, “Shift,” which stressed the importance of media attention on human rights violations in North Korea, rather than attention to North Korea’s nuclear experimentation and ruling family.
“The LiNK videos were inspiring to see because they emphasized that we shouldn’t focus on the political aspect of North Korea, but focus on how humans are living in very unfortunate circumstances and don’t even have basic human rights,” junior Jay Hebert said.
At the end of the presentation, LiNK members collected “manifestos” from students who pledged to help spread awareness about the horrific situations of the North Korean people, and encouraged everyone to join “rescue teams” which raise money to rescue North Korean defectors in China and safely relocate them to the United States or South Korea.
“It usually costs $2,500 to rescue a refugee and provide them with education, food, shelter, clothesand travel through the underground system,” LiNK member Chi Ko said. “We want everyone to watch ‘Shift,’ and we want it to stick in people’s minds. We want this to be a sustainable issue that will get the media’s attention, and hopefully the world’s.”