July 30, 2016: Here is Mr. Hwang’s speech at Seoul University of Foreign Studies at the second “Stories from the North” speech forum organised in conjunction with Teach North Korean Refugees.
Month: July 2016
NK Refugees to Share Their Stories at Joint Panel Event
July 27, 2016: North Korean refugees will share their stories at a panel event with scholars, activists and volunteers. The mini-conference, hosted by Teach North Korean Refugees and Seoul University of Foreign Studies, will feature two panels…
The refugee speakers will include North Korean-American Cherie Yang and Hwang In-Cheol, the son of a man who was on the 1969 airplane hijacked by a North Korean agent. Lartigue said he was telling his story to help efforts to get his father freed. Continue reading at The Korea Herald.
UN Requests NK to Release Fate of 14 Abductees Including Former KAL Crew
July 19, 2016: The United Nations has officially called on North Korea to release information on the fate of 14 people held captive in the reclusive country, including a South Korean plane crew kidnapped 47 years ago, a U.S.-based media outlet said Tuesday.
Radio Free Asia (RFA) said the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) also requested the Pyongyang regime confirm whether the five North Korean defectors who were forcibly taken back to North from China and six people who were arrested in North Korea for their anti-state activities are still alive. …
The request comes as a South Korean politician said recently that North Korea is still holding more than 500 South Koreans abducted since the end of the Korean War in 1953, including 11 from a Korean Air Lines (KAL) passenger aircraft. Continue reading at Yonhap News.
After 43 Years Trapped in NK, A Survivor Fights Back
July 5, 2016: Kawasaki Aiko is currently the head of an NGO that helps defectors in their attempt to set up their new lives in Japan. She is also behind a major international effort to conduct an investigation to discover the truth behind the repatriations.
Kawasaki Aiko is extremely busy these days, preoccupied with the task of bringing these issues to the public’s attention. In the process, she has become a nuisance to the North Korean authorities, Chongryon (the pro-Pyongyang federation of Korean residents in Japan), and the Japanese government. That’s because she insists that the repatriations are not some piece of forgotten history that can be easily swept under the rug, but a collection of human rights infractions that continue to this day. Continue reading at Daily NK.
Son Crusades to Meet Father Hijacked to NK
July 4, 2016: When Hwang In-cheol was 2 years old, his father disappeared. … It wasn’t until Hwang was in the third grade that his father’s brother decided he should know the truth.
Hwang Won was a 32-year-old producer for Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) based in Gangwon. On Dec. 11, 1969, he boarded a Korean Air flight from Gangneung, Gangwon, for Gimpo International Airport in Seoul to attend an MBC internal meeting. A senior colleague who was supposed to attend was busy. He ordered Hwang to fill in for him. Continue reading at The Korea JoongAng Daily.
Letter to the UN Secretary-General by Mr Hwang & Petition
Please sign the accompanying petition in English, Korean, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, or Chinese.
Dear Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon:
My name is In-cheol Hwang, and I represent the Families of the KAL Passengers Abducted by North Korea. As I am writing you this letter with a heart anguished beyond repair, I am still desperately longing to see my father. Continue reading “Letter to the UN Secretary-General by Mr Hwang & Petition”