Christian Defectors Group Plans to Build North Korean Girl Defector Statue
2014-03-11 10:06
To raise public awareness about North Korean defectors being forcibly sent back to North Korea by the Chinese government, a group of Christian North Korean defectors has decided to build a girl defector statue in front of the Chinese Embassy in Korea. On March 10, approximately 20 members of the Society of Defector North Koreans (SDNK) and the Chosen People Network (CP Net) held a press conference in front of the Chinese Embassy in Myeongdong, Seoul, and rallied against the Chinese government, which has ignored the recommendation of the United Nations Human Rights Council to recognize the defectors as legal refugees.
The model for the statue will be Kim Han-mi (3 years old at the time) who became well-known through the incident in which she was caught by Chinese police in May 2002 while entering the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang, China; later she met U.S. President George W. Bush. Funds for the statue will be raised through the Korean churches, and the unveiling ceremony is scheduled for sometime around the end of this year.
At the rally on this day, the participants sang “Hosanna in the Land of the North” and “Spring in Our Hometown,” and shouted, “Stop sending defectors back!”
Founded in 2007, Christian North Korean defectors group SDNK has been organizing the Wednesday rally in front of the Chinese Embassy, pleading with the Chinese government to stop its forcible sending of defectors back to the North. They also organized the senior choir “Spring in Our Hometown” to raise public awareness about human rights in North Korea, through concert tours to more than 10 countries including France and Germany. CP Net is a Christian NGO made up of ministers and lay leaders in their 40s and 50s.
Reporter Yeong Dae Yoo (ydyoo@kmib.co.kr), with Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)
Click here for the original article in Korean
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