Southlanders Join Capitol Hill Rally for Rights in North Korea

Cal Poly Pomona senior Sarah Oh, of Anaheim, and Yale junior Adrian Hong of San Diego have plenty of schoolwork to do. But they skipped classes to be on Capitol Hill today to participate in a daylong series of events inaugurating “North Korea Freedom Day.”

The two Korean American students are among hundreds of human rights advocates, including high-ranking federal officials, who are joining 20 North Korean defectors at today’s rally on the Capitol steps.

Oh said she felt it was her responsibility to get involved in trying to improve human rights in North Korea. “I want to be able to say that I did my best to make a difference,” she said.

The event highlighting North Korea was also timed to draw attention to legislation proposed by Sens. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) that would allow officials to give refugee status to North Koreans on a case-by-case basis.

About 200,000 North Koreans are held in prison camps, and as many as 300,000 are hiding in northeast China, according to Brownback, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asian and South Pacific affairs.

Brownback has made fact-finding trips to Asia and has met with numerous North Korean defectors and refugees in China, at the border with North Korea. He says he doesn’t know of a worse human rights situation in the world today.

This afternoon, the House International Relations Committee’s subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific is holding a hearing, during which North Korean defectors will testify.

Today’s activities will also include meetings with congressional officials and a display of satellite photos and drawings purported to show gulags run by the North Korean government.

On Thursday in Los Angeles, Korean American college students will hold a 6:30 p.m. benefit concert at the downtown Patriotic Hall to draw attention to the issue.

“The general public is not really aware of what’s going on in North Korea,” said Elliot Lee, a UCLA student and a coordinator of the event.

“Even many second-generation Korean Americans are uninformed because they tend not to get involved in politics and community activities, and concentrate on their studies.

“For me, it’s a call to duty,” Lee said.