Since the fall of 2013, MSU’s chapter of Liberty in North Korea, a national organization, has been working to better the lives and image of North Korean refugees around the country.
MSU chapter’s Vice President of Finance at MSU Ryan Pun said the organization’s main interest, since its establishment in the fall of 2013, is to eradicate the stereotypes that Americans have about North Korea.
“The media basically say that North Koreans are evil, but we are here to correct that image of North Korea,” Pun said. “The North Korean government might be evil, but North Korean people is (sic) not.”
The national organization started in 2004 as an activist student group after a Korean-American student conference in Yale University and developed into an awareness nonprofit organization from there. It celebrated its 10th anniversary on Thursday.
The organization focuses on helping North Koreans and bettering their image in the United States.
Different members from the group’s headquarters in California visited MSU on Thursday to talk about the history of North Korea, the challenges that North Koreans are going through and how they are overcoming them.
One of the presenters is the “nomad” Natali Naranjo. According to the organization, a nomad is a member that tours through all North America spreading the word about North Korea.
“I took this in school and it took me a very long time to realize of (sic) people’s life in North Korea,” Naranjo said.
Naranjo said she condemns the tortures that the North Korean system gives to dissidents.
“I don’t believe political prison camps should be happening and I want to do something about it,” Naranjo said.
Pun said one of the efforts the MSU chapter does is raise money and send it to the organization’s headquarters in California.
With the money raised, the organization helps North Koreans with English translators, legal and financial assistance and scholarship programs.
“It’s important to know that North Koreans are still making the effort to escape North Korea because they realize how bad it is,” the organization’s rescue team intern Katie Nuber said.
For Nuber, North Koreans escape because of the political system in their country and the lack of opportunity in it.
“North Koreans realize that the risks (of escaping) are obviously very high but the opportunity they can get in another country are much greater,” Nuber said.
Nuber said the organization is a non-political organization and does not have a stance on what should happen to the regime or to the North Korean government.
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