North Korea Freedom Day Rally in Washington DC
Attendees from around the world demonstrated their concern and support for North Korean refugees.
Marc Guttman’s Tribute to Noguchi
At this moment my friend, Takayuki Noguchi, is sleeping in a prison in China, where he has been trapped for 4 months. Tak’s crime is aiding people escaping from the oppression of governments.
Henry David Thoreau said, ‘Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is in prison.’
Noguchi’s friend of many years, Marc Guttman, spoke. Read the text of his address here.
Tak is a just man in an unjust land. He has sacrificed his own liberty by trying to bring it to others.
This is not a small sacrifice for him. Tak is a profoundly happy person with a calm ease who enjoys life immensely and freedom and hiking and backpacking around the world.
It was not thoughtlessly that he risked these things. His compassion drives his actions. I was told Tak at one point refused release unless the North Koreans he was helping were freed as well.
Right now Tak faces a 5 to 10 year prison sentence. I don’t understand why the Chinese authorities want Tak imprisoned. I don’t understand why anyone would want to hold power over and restrain others. I do know that there is nothing more unnatural or wrong.
I hope they release Tak from captivity soon, so he can again enjoy self-ownership and freedom and the happiness they bring.
I hope everyone the world-wide speaks out and acts out against the initiation of force by unjust governments and men.
Let us believe in liberty and noncoercion.
Let us, like Tak, help other find this.
I miss you, Tak, and I hope to see you soon.
A number of US Congressmen spoke in support of North Korean refugees
Several LFNKR members also traveled from Japan to attend the rally