The Hanoi Summit – We Asked Jihyun Park What Happens Next in U.S.-North Korea Relations
Jihyun Park
Security, Asia
"Please remember North Korean people. Peace and freedom cannot come to us for free."
“Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea and chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, arrived at home on Tuesday after successfully wrapping up his official goodwill visit to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” states the front page of the Rodong Sinmun.
What was successful? Why did they not mention the United States-North Korea summit?
On March 5th, 38 North and CSIS’s Beyond Parallel published that North Korea had commenced activity at the Sohae rocket launch site within forty-eight hours of the Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi.
Recently, the United Nations published that North Korea’s food production is the lowest in more than a decade. An estimated eleven million people inside the country—nearly 44 percent—are undernourished. However, why did the summit again not mention North Korean human rights?
Moreover, The United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) established evidence that Michael Kirby described as something we would see in a “Holocaust Museum.” The COI heard from over two hundred witnesses, including myself, where I spoke of my personal experiences of life and abuse under the North Korean government.
In response to my testimony and the testimonies of other North Korean refugees, the European Union and other members of the international community passed a UN resolution that asked for the North Korean leadership to face justice at the International Criminal Court.
I am a North Korean refugee. I escaped from North Korea, and I now live in the United Kingdom and I work to help others.
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