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Seoul
Exhibition
North Korean Holocaust
November
8-10, 2004
Pictures
of little Han-mi were broadcast around the world two years
ago when her family dashed into the Japanese consulate
in Shenyang seeking refugee status. Han-mi stood crying
while Chinese guards wrestled her mother to the ground,
dragged them out and arrested them. Han-mi, now age four,
accompanied LFNKR members when we visited South Korean
Parliamentarians. In a pause between talks, she models
a minature Japanese flag on her nose.
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Ribbon
cutting ceremony at the opening of the North Korean
Holocaust Exhibition in Seoul, November 8, 2004.
Participants
include former Korean Workers Party secretary Whang
Jang-yop, Defense Forum Institute president Suzanne
Scholte, Japanese Diet assemblyman Masaharu Nakagawa,
and Korean Grand National Party representative Kim Moon-soo.
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From
left are Takayuki Noguchi, who spent 8 months in a Chinese
prison for helping North Korean refugees, Japanese Diet
member Masaharu Nakagawa, Hiroshi Kato, who was detained
and interrogated in China for 7 days for supplying winter
clothing and food to North Korean refugees in hiding.
At right is a woman who miraculously survived 8 years
in North Korea's harshest political prison camp. Both
Noguchi and Kato are LFNKR members.
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Korean
Diet member Jeon Jae-hee signs petition requesting the
immediate release of Choi Yong-hun, the South Korean
aid worker now imprisoned in China. He was arrested
in January 2003 for attempting to help dozens of North
Koreans reach freedom. Chinese courts sentenced Choi
to 5 years for his part in the escape attempt, called
the Yantai boat people incident.
LFNKR,
accompanied by Choi Yong-hun's wife, visited more than
60 South Korean lawmakers requesting assistance.
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Just
before noon on November 9, news was released that China
had unexpectedly repatriated the 62 North Korean refugees.
The organizers of the North
Korean Holocaust Exhibition, Moon Kuk-han, Suzanne
Scholte
and Sin-U Nam, called an emergency demonstration in
front of the Chinese embassy in Seoul. Our group, LFNKR,
joined the protest, which was covered by more than a
dozen journalists from Asia and Europe.
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Han-mi
observes the crowd from her father's shoulders.
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Han-mi
works the crowd.
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Han-mi's
father holds a protest sign written in Japanese, which
says, "Choi Yong-hun's 5-year sentence is outrageous."
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As more
journalists arrived, the number of guards with plexiglass
shields and standing shoulder-to-shoulder also grew. The
guards formed a tight human wall to contain the protest.
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All photos copyright
© 2004
by LFNKR (Life Funds for North Korean Refugees)
All rights reserved worldwide.
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