Yoshino Yamauchi is a junior at American University, and is currently pursuing her Joint Bachelor of Arts in Global International Relations at American University’s School of International Service and Ritsumeikan University’s College of International Relations, with a regional focus on East Asia and the Pacific.

As a native Japanese speaker, Yoshino has previously interned at the Washington, D.C. bureau of The West Japan Daily, a regional Japanese language news agency. Growing up between Tokyo, Japan and McLean, Virginia, her academic interest was sparked in bridging diplomatic and cultural gaps in inter-East Asian and U.S.-Asia contexts, an interest that evolved into a passion for transitional justice work in the East Asian and postwar contexts. Listening to a guest lecture by a family member of a Japanese victim of North Korean kidnapping sparked her interest in North Korean human rights issues, and led to her decision to intern for HRNK.

During her internship, she hopes to utilize her knowhow and research experience cultivated through her transnational background and education, and also to find intersections between human rights concerns in North Korea and geopolitics in the Asia-Pacific. Her goals post-HRNK includes pursuing a Masters in East Asian Studies, followed by a career in human rights advocacy or diplomacy in this field.