Save North Korean Refugees Day

As part of the North Korea Freedom Coalition, we are joining in Save North Korean Refugees Day, and we are asking you to join us! This Friday at 5 pm there will be a demonstration and candlelight vigil at the park across from the Chinese embassy in DC.

Here are details of the event from Suzanne Scholte, the president of the NKFC:

Where in the world will you be on Friday, September 23rd? Will you join people around the world standing up for the people of North Korea, the most suffering people on Earth? Please join the annual Save North Korean Refugees Day scheduled for Friday, September 23, 2016.

Because of Kim Jong Un’s escalating nuclear threats and the rising tension between South Korea and China regarding THAAD, this year’s annual Save North Korean Refugees Day will emphasize “Save North Koreans!” as volunteers will deliver appeals to PRC embassies and consulates around the world calling for President Xi Jinping to end China’s support for Kim Jong Un and work with South Korea for peaceful unification. China’s leaders are realizing this is the only way to ensure peace and a nuclear free Korean peninsula.

Last year, NGO leaders and volunteers in twenty-two cities delivered letters to the PRC embassies and consulates throughout the world. Joining again this year are Kyung B Lee and Alain Dione of Council for Human Rights in North Korea-Canada, Arienne Moser of the Jubilee Campaign-The Netherlands, Ben Rogers of CSW and Jooil Kim in the United Kingdom, Teresa Ost of NKFC-Mexico, while Nicole Martin is reaching out to folks in Germany and New Zealand for help.

Here in the USA, we need to cover every city with a PRC consulate as we did last year. In Washington, D.C., the National Unification Advisory Council’s Washington Chapter is teaming up with the North Korea Freedom Coalition for events at 5pm on that Friday at the PRC embassy. Meanwhile Christine Han and Sharon Stratton of the North Korea Strategy Center are taking action in New York City. We have volunteers that want to help in Chicago and Los Angeles but we need coordinators. And where are you Houston and San Francisco?

These are simple actions that can have momentous results. Just deliver an appeal to Xi Jinping to end China’s support for the Kim regime that makes China complicit in crimes against humanity and, instead, work with South Korea for peaceful unification.

It’s true we have been demonstrating at the Chinese embassies for many years and sometimes we question whether we are having an impact. I can tell you honestly I have met North Korean refugees and former prisoners from Chinese jails who had given up all hope. What kept them alive was news that they were not forgotten, that people were standing up for them. Furthermore, these embassies and consulates must report back to Beijing. You will be heard, but only if you take a stand.

Wherever you are in the world, please join us. Here’s how you can take part on Save North Koreans Day:

1) If you live in a city with a Chinese embassy or consulate, please volunteer to be a city coordinator and plan to deliver a petition on that day, Friday, September 23rd. We have a letter of petition already drafted and ready to be delivered. You may also plan other events as NKFC and NUAC will hold a demonstration for unification and a candlelight vigil for the refugees at 5 pm that day in Washington DC, while the NKSC hopes to plan a special event in New York City in addition to delivering the petition. Jubilee Campaign-Netherlands is recruiting an MP to participate, while NKFC-Mexico is collecting signatories throughout the Spanish speaking world.

2) Be a solidarity city and plan an event in support of North Korea’s freedom and human rights by hosting a defector for a presentation or schedule a film screening and ask for support for the many NGOs working to save North Korean refugees and to get information into North Korea.

3) If you live in the Washington DC metro area, join us at 5pm, Friday, September 23rd as we gather at the park across the street from the Chinese embassy for a demonstration to Save North Koreans, the delivery of the petition and a candlelight vigil to remember the North Korean refugees.

We are working hard to connect folks around the world so that we can have as much participation as possible! Please be a part of Save North Koreans Day by emailing us and letting us know that you will join us and the city where you can help.

UPDATE: Save North Korean Refugee Day was a huge success! Petitions were delivered to Chinese consulates in at least 24 cities world wide! In Washington DC, Jubilee Campaign participated in a protest, the petition delivery, and Executive Director Ann Buwalda spoke about the vulnerable status of North Korean refugees. The events were even featured on SBS Evening News: https://www.facebook.com/sbsinteveningnews/videos/1210533942350062/