July 14, Sunday. It was proposed in February this year by the South Korean Ministry of Unification to designate the 14th of July as a national day in honor of North Korean refugees. As such, the first North Korean Refugee Day Festival was celebrated at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, DDP, in central Seoul. The Designation Day initiative is part of broader efforts to raise awareness of human rights issues in North Korea.

The festival was attended by Koreans and foreigners with singing, dance, and business showcases. Various booths hosted by NGOs who work for North Korean defectors were busy handing out gifts, souvenirs, bookmarks, and information about North Korean refugees such as Freedom Speakers International (FSI) and Now Action & Unity for Human Rights (NAUH).

Here are some photos of the event:

At the festival, Pressenza got a chance to speak with Casey Lartigue Jr, co-founder of Freedom Speakers International (FSI) and co-author of the book “Greenlight to Freedom, published in 2022.

Casey Lartigue Jr, co-founder of Freedom Speakers International (FSI)

“I’m a co-founder of Freedom Speakers International. I write for the Korea Times as a columnist and blogger. We empower North Korean refugees to engage in public speaking. We’ve had about 600 North Korean refugees study the English language with about 1,200 volunteer tutors, coaches, mentors, public speaking, and career development. We started this in March of 2013, but purely volunteer. In 2016, we became an official organization, and now we’re under the Ministry of Unification’s authority. We’ve published four books now, three by North Korean refugees. We have another one we’re going to publish soon, probably in about a month. And then we have another one that we’re working on for next year. We get to talk to people in the public who are somewhat interested in North Korea and North Korean refugees.

North Korean escapee, Doctor Bonghee Han, who came to South Korea in 2001, is a mother of 3 children who studied oriental medicine for 8 years with her own established hospital in the suburbs of Seoul.

North Korean escapee, doctor Bonghee Han, holding her co-author book “My Father’s North Korea Story: Walk to Freedom”.

She is a co-author with her late father of the FSI book “My Father’s North Korea Story: Walk to Freedom,”. She told about the hardship faced while crossing borders to reach South Korea.

American volunteer J.Matteo Nagelberg , who has lived over seven years in Korea, was at the festival helping the FSI booth.

American volunteer J.Matteo Nagelberg.

“I moved to South Korea a little more than 7 years ago. And when I moved here I was looking for some kind of volunteer activity. I discovered this organization FSI. At the time they were focusing on teaching English to North Korean refugees. And I came here as an English teacher so I thought it would be a great opportunity for me. I wanted to work in some kind of international aid and development field. While I’m working on developing my career I wanted to do a little more work with North Korean refugees. I came back to this organization and now I do social media outreach. Whatever volunteering work they ask me to do. So here I am today helping out with a promotion. I’ve never heard of a North Korean refugee festival before this. And, amazingly, they set this up today.”

I am very happy. I’m glad that we can see more visibility for people who move from North Korea. They can get more chances to talk about what they’ve been through and what they want from the world. So this is important for them and that means it’s important to me too.”, he said to Pressenza.

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Photos by Bereket Alemayehu