Freedom House Press Release

WASHINGTON, DC, July 8, 2005 — North Korea’s horrific human rights crisis will be the focus of a first-ever international conference, to be held July 19, 2005 in Washington, DC, Freedom House announced today.

The conference, titled “Freedom for All Koreans,” will feature Kang Chol Hwan, a defector to South Korea and author of “The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag,” and Natan Sharansky, former Soviet dissident, political prisoner and Israeli cabinet minister, and author of “The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror.”

The conference will take place at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. The gathering is part of Freedom House’s new Human Rights in North Korea Project, a year-long campaign to galvanize world opinion and alleviate the plight of the 20 million Koreans suffering under the dictatorship of Kim Jong Il.

Conference details, including an agenda, are available online here. The agenda also follows below this alert.

This day-long event will highlight the work of many dedicated individuals championing the cause of human rights in North Korea. Participants will include leaders of non-governmental organizations, human rights groups, religious leaders and government and civic leaders from across the United States, the Korean peninsula, Japan, and Europe. The goal of the conference is to generate awareness of ongoing, egregious human rights abuses occurring daily in North Korea, and to plan concrete and effective actions to alleviate the humanitarian crisis there.

Conference program highlights include:

— Opening remarks by Congressman Jim Leach, followed by the screening of the documentary films “Seoul Train” and “Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story;”

— North Korean defectors forum, including testimony from women victims of human trafficking in China;

— Luncheon keynote address by Natan Sharansky, distinguished senior fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem;

— Conversation with Natan Sharansky and Kang Chol Hwan, moderated by Senator Sam Brownback;

— Remarks by Congressman Frank Wolf.

The conference will conclude with a concert organized by LiNK (Liberation in North Korea), a university students group with over 70 chapters worldwide.

For more information on the Human Rights in North Korea Project and to register for the conference, click here.

Located at the Promenade in front of the Grand Ballroom.

The opening remarks will be given by Ambassador Mark Palmer, Freedom
House Board Member.

Opening Statement: U.S Congressman Jim Leach

SEOUL TRAIN. Introduced by Jim Butterworth, producer and director. With
its riveting footage of a secretive underground railroad,Seoul Train is the gripping documentary expose into the life and death of North Koreans as they try to escape their homeland and China.

Special Guests: Tim Peters and Ki-Won Chun (to be confirmed).

ABDUCTION: The Megumi Yokota Story. Introduced by Directors Chris
Sheridan and Patty Kim. Japan, 1977. A young girl walks home from school on a dark lonely road that leads to the windswept shores. She says goodbye to her friends. They turn a corner. Then, 13-year Megumi Yokota vanishes without a trace. Years later, the shocking truth is revealed. In a stunning announcement, North Korea admits it kidnapped Japanese citizens to train North Korean secret agents. The true story of one family’s fight to find the truth. And a nation’s struggle for justice.

Special Guest: Norbert Vollertsen (to be confirmed)

Moderator: Carl Gershman, President of National Endowment for Democracy.

The session will include testimony from women victims of human trafficking in China.

Speech Title (TBA)

Natan Sharansky was born in Ukraine in 1948 and studied mathematics in
Moscow. He worked as an English interpreter for the great Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, and himself became a champion of Soviet Jewry and a worker for human rights. Convicted in 1978 on trumped-up charges of treason and spying for the United States, Sharansky was sentenced to 13 years in prison. After years in the Siberian gulag, he
was released in a U.S.-Soviet prisoner exchange in 1986 and moved to
Israel, where he founded a political party promoting the acculturation of
Soviet immigrants. He is the author of The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror and currently a Distinguished
Senior Fellow at the Shalem Center.

Moderator: U.S. Senator Sam Brownback

Ambassador John R. Miller, Director, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking In Persons.

Panelists: Rev. Richard Cizik (Vice-President, National Association of
Evangelicals) (to be confirmed), Rabbi Abraham Cooper (Associate Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center), Dr. Richard Land (President, Southern Baptist
Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission) (to be confirmed), Rabbi David Saperstein (Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism) (to be confirmed), and Suzanne Scholte (President, Defense Forum
Foundation).

This is a closed working group meeting at Freedom House’s Ballroom.
(1319 18th St., NW)

KCNK (Korean Churches for North Korea) will host short lectures and multi-media presentations in a non-denominational and welcoming setting.
Featured musical guests, Glorious Lampsa choir from the Philadelphia area
will perform.

– Natan Sharansky, The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, (Korean Language Version).

– Kang, Chol Hwan, Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean
Gulag. Speak with the author who has recently met with President Bush to discuss human rights abuses in North Korea.

Master of Ceremonies: Peter Ackerman, Freedom House Board Chairman
VIP Guests to be announced . . .

LiNK (Liberty in North Korea) is a grassroots human rights organization
with over 70 chapters world wide.

The concert will feature dynamic groups including The Ides, Kevin So, and Culture Shock Dance Troupe, as well as special presentations by LiNK featuring recent footage from North Korea and China, and a general presentation on how the younger generation of students and young professionals has stepped up to take part in the movement for North Korean human rights worldwide.