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Staff & Interns
Greg Scarlatoiu
Greg Scarlatoiu Executive Director
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Greg Scarlatoiu is the Executive Director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) in Washington, D.C. He has coordinated 28 HRNK publications addressing North Korea’s human rights situation and the operation of its regime. He is a visiting professor at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul as well as instructor and coordinator of the Korean Peninsula and Japan class at the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Service Institute (FSI).  Scarlatoiu is vice president of the executive board of the International Council on Korean Studies (ICKS). He is also a member of the advisory board for The Korea and World Politics Institute. Prior to HRNK, Scarlatoiu was with the Korea Economic Institute (KEI) in Washington, D.C. He has over six years of experience in international development, on projects funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. For fifteen years, Scarlatoiu has authored and broadcast the weekly Korean language ‘Scarlatoiu Column’ to North Korea for Radio Free Asia. A seasoned lecturer on Korean issues, Scarlatoiu is a frequent commentator for CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and other media organizations. He has published op-eds and letters to the editor in newspapers including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He has published academic papers in volumes produced by organizations including The Hanns Seidel Foundation, The Asan Institute for Policy Studies, and the International Journal of Korean Studies. He has appeared as an expert witness at several Congressional hearings on North Korean human rights. Scarlatoiu holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School, Tufts University, and a Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts from Seoul National University’s Department of International Relations. He graduated from the MIT XXI Seminar for U.S. national security leaders in 2016-2017. Scarlatoiu was awarded the title ‘Citizen of Honor, City of Seoul,’ in January 1999. He is fluent in Korean, French, and Romanian. A native of Romania born and raised under that country’s communist regime, Scarlatoiu is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Sabina Silkworth
Sabina Silkworth Accounting Consultant
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Sabina E. Silkworth is the Accounting Consultant at HRNK. Mrs. Silkworth has been with the Committee since its inception in October 2001. She has over 25 years of experience in the accounting and non-profit field.  A Washington, D.C. native, Mrs. Silkworth graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Catholic University of America with a B.A. in Financial Management and Summa Cum Laude from George Washington University with a Master of Accountancy. She is married, has four kids, and resides in Maryland.

Raymond Ha
Raymond Ha Director of Operations and Research
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Raymond Ha is the Director of Operations and Research at the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK). He was previously the Office Manager & Outreach Coordinator (2014–16) and served as an Editorial Consultant (2016–21).

He has participated in editorial work on HRNK publications, including Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: The Role of the United Nations, Lost Generation: The Health and Human Rights of North Korean Children, 1990–2018, and North Korea’s Organization and Guidance Department: The Control Tower of Human Rights Denial. He has provided interpretation for North Korean escapees, including political prison camp survivors, and was a member of the team that participated in an outreach campaign focused on the UN General Assembly in New York in October 2014.

He graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a B.A. in Politics and received an M.A. in Political Science from Stanford University.

Doohyun Kim
Doohyun Kim Social Media Associate
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As the Social Media Associate, Doohyun Kim manages HRNK’s social media platforms and creates new content to engage HRNK’s supporters and raise awareness of the North Korean human rights situation to new audiences. His work includes increasing HRNK's brand awareness, such as analyzing engagement data, identifying trends in customer interactions, and planning digital campaigns to build the HRNK community online. He leverages his skills, bilingual talents, and experience and knowledge as a North Korean to interview North Korean escapees, create new videos for HRNK’s YouTube channel, assist with research and satellite imagery analysis, and conduct interviews with members of the press.

As a defector who miraculously escaped North Korea, Doohyun Kim seeks to fight for freedom and human rights alongside HRNK. He knows firsthand the operations of the North Korean government and its systematic, ruthless human rights abuses. His father died in a North Korean prison camp. He was sentenced to eight years, but died after two, and Doohyun could not claim his father's body until the full eight-year sentence was complete. Doohyun understands North Koreans’ needs. He understands the pain and struggles that they suffer when they defect. Fighting for human rights for North Koreans is his mission in life.

Doohyun Kim studied at Utah Valley University and received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a Global Politics Emphasis. He also studied at Seoul Cyber University in South Korea, majoring in Business Administration. He maintains his own YouTube channel called “Escaping Paradise.”

Lauren Chung
Lauren Chung Operations Associate
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As Operations Associate, Lauren Chung assists the Executive Director with the daily operations of HRNK's headquarters. She helps manage donor relations, public relations, and communications while also maintaining the Executive Director's schedule. She also contributes to other tasks, including background research for HRNK publications as well as U.S. and international media monitoring.

Chung graduated from American University with a B.A. in International Studies, specializing in U.S. Relations & Foreign Policy in East Asia and the Pacific.

Rick Herssevoort
Rick Herssevoort International Outreach Associate
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As International Outreach Associate, Rick Herssevoort communicates to the United Nations, European Union, United Kingdom, and other international entities, governments, and interested persons about HRNK’s objectives, published works, research findings, upcoming events, and policy recommendations for improving the human rights situation of North Koreans on behalf of HRNK and the Executive Director. He also engages in grant development for HRNK. Mr. Herssevoort works under the supervision of HRNK Director of International Advocacy and Development Amanda Mortwedt Oh and Executive Director Greg Scarlatoiu.

Mr. Herssevoort recently graduated from The Hague University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, pursuing a B.A. in European Studies with a specialization in politics. He is a recipient of the Huayu Enrichment Scholarship awarded by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Diletta De Luca
Diletta De Luca Research Associate
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Diletta De Luca is an Editor and Researcher at the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK). She developed her research skills throughout her university experience, where she explored authoritarian governments, international relations, and East Asian affairs. She holds a BSc in Social Sciences and a MSc in International Relations from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. As a researcher, Diletta continues to explore the authoritarian practices of the North Korean regime and the role of the international community in the reunification of the Korean Peninsula. Moreover, she advocates for human rights in North Korea by expanding HRNK's outreach in Europe and beyond.

Damian Reddy
Damian Reddy Legal Counsel and Project Development Associate
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Damian Reddy serves as Legal Counsel and Project Development Associate at the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK). He is a Law graduate of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and he is also an admitted attorney in South Africa. He is currently completing his Master of Laws degree in Human Rights and intends to focus his final thesis on the human rights violations being perpetrated in North Korea and the duty of the international community in uncovering and prosecuting such violations as crimes against humanity.

Albert Buixadé Farré
Albert Buixadé Farré Wikipedian in Residence & Scholarly Communications Specialist
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Albert Buixadé Farré is the Wikipedian in Residence & Scholarly Communications Specialist at HRNK. Since 2015, he has edited Wikipedia articles and advised HRNK on Wikipedia coverage to more effectively disseminate reports and insights into North Korea’s human rights, prison camps, media, as well as the regime’s structure, history, and recent developments. He also conducts research on the history of the regime and its human rights practices, and explores new avenues for continuing to broaden HRNK's reach.

His drive is to democratize knowledge towards a more learned and virtuous polity for today and tomorrow. He seeks to distill copious and daunting amounts of published information into approachable and useful knowledge; and to more effectively preserve and disseminate it to make for better educated citizens, better equipped researchers, and better informed policymakers. He has pursued these aims through conference organizing, podcast production, academic publishing, Wikipedia editing, and scholarly outreach.

He holds a B.A. in Business Management from the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya and an M.A. in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

This report explains how the Kim regime organizes and implements its policy of human rights denial using the Propaganda and Agitation Department (PAD) to preserve and strengthen its monolithic system of control. The report also provides detailed background on the history of the PAD, as well as a human terrain map that details present and past PAD leadership.

HRNK's latest satellite imagery report analyzes a 5.2 km-long switchback road, visible in commercial satellite imagery, that runs from Testing Tunnel No. 1 at North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test facility to the perimeter of Kwan-li-so (political prison camp) no. 16.

This report proposes a long-term, multilateral legal strategy, using existing United Nations resolutions and conventions, and U.S. statutes that are either codified or proposed in appended model legislation, to find, freeze, forfeit, and deposit the proceeds of the North Korean government's kleptocracy into international escrow. These funds would be available for limited, case-by-case disbursements to provide food and medical care for poor North Koreans, and--contingent upon Pyongyang's progress

National Strategy for Countering North Korea
Joseph, Collins, DeTrani, Eberstadt, Enos, Maxwell, Scarlatoiu
Jan 23, 2023

For thirty years, U.S. North Korea policy have sacrificed human rights for the sake of addressing nuclear weapons. Both the North Korean nuclear and missile programs have thrived. Sidelining human rights to appease the North Korean regime is not the answer, but a fundamental flaw in U.S. policy. (Published by the National Institute for Public Policy)

North Korea’s forced labor enterprise and its state sponsorship of human trafficking certainly continued until the onset of the COVID pandemic. HRNK has endeavored to determine if North Korean entities responsible for exporting workers to China and Russia continued their activities under COVID as well.

George Hutchinson's The Suryong, the Soldier, and Information in the KPA is the second of three building blocks of a multi-year HRNK project to examine North Korea's information environment. Hutchinson's thoroughly researched and sourced report addresses the circulation of information within the Korean People's Army (KPA). Understanding how KPA soldiers receive their information is needed to prepare information campaigns while taking into account all possible contingenc

North Korea’s Political Prison Camp, Kwan-li-so No. 14, Update 1
Joseph S. Bermudez, Jr., Greg Scarlatoiu, and Amanda Mortwedt Oh
Dec 22, 2021

This report is part of a comprehensive long-term project undertaken by HRNK to use satellite imagery and former prisoner interviews to shed light on human suffering in North Korea by monitoring activity at political prison facilities throughout the nation. This is the second HRNK satellite imagery report detailing activity observed during 2015 to 2021 at a prison facility commonly identified by former prisoners and researchers as “Kwan-li-so No. 14 Kaech’ŏn” (39.646810, 126.117058) and

North Korea's Long-term Prison-Labor Facility, Kyo-hwa-so No.3, T’osŏng-ni (토성리)
Joseph S Bermudez Jr, Greg Scarlatoiu, Amanda Oh, & Rosa Tokola
Nov 03, 2021

This report is part of a comprehensive long-term project undertaken by HRNK to use satellite imagery and former prisoner interviews to shed light on human suffering in North Korea by monitoring activity at civil and political prison facilities throughout the nation. This study details activity observed during 1968–1977 and 2002–2021 at a prison facility commonly identified by former prisoners and researchers as "Kyo-hwa-so No. 3, T'osŏng-ni" and endeavors to e

North Korea’s Political Prison Camp, Kwan-li-so No. 25, Update 3
Joseph S Bermudez Jr, Greg Scarlatoiu, Amanda Oh, & Rosa Tokola
Sep 30, 2021

This report is part of a comprehensive long-term project undertaken by HRNK to use satellite imagery and former detainee interviews to shed light on human suffering in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, more commonly known as North Korea) by monitoring activity at political prison facilities throughout the nation. This report provides an abbreviated update to our previous reports on a long-term political prison commonly identified by former prisoners and researchers as Kwan-li-so

North Korea’s Potential Long-Term  Prison-Labor Facility at Sŏnhwa-dong (선화동)
Joseph S. Bermudez, Jr., Greg Scarlatoiu, Amanda Oh, & Rosa Park
Aug 26, 2021

Through satellite imagery analysis and witness testimony, HRNK has identified a previously unknown potential kyo-hwa-so long-term prison-labor facility at Sŏnhwa-dong (선화동) P’ihyŏn-gun, P’yŏngan-bukto, North Korea. While this facility appears to be operational and well maintained, further imagery analysis and witness testimony collection will be necessary in order to irrefutably confirm that Sŏnhwa-dong is a kyo-hwa-so.

North Korea’s Long-term Prison-Labor Facility Kyo-hwa-so No. 8, Sŭngho-ri (승호리) - Update
Joseph S Bermudez, Jr, Greg Scarlatoiu, Amanda M Oh, & Rosa Park
Jul 22, 2021

"North Korea’s Long-term Prison-Labor Facility Kyo-hwa-so No. 8, Sŭngho-ri (승호리) - Update" is the latest report under a long-term project employing satellite imagery analysis and former political prisoner testimony to shed light on human suffering in North Korea's prison camps.

Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of Korea: The Role of the United Nations" is HRNK's 50th report in our 20-year history. This is even more meaningful as David Hawk's "Hidden Gulag" (2003) was the first report published by HRNK. In his latest report, Hawk details efforts by many UN member states and by the UN’s committees, projects and procedures to promote and protect human rights in the DPRK.  The report highlights North Korea’s shifts in its approach

South Africa’s Apartheid and North Korea’s Songbun: Parallels in Crimes against Humanity by Robert Collins underlines similarities between two systematically, deliberately, and thoroughly discriminatory repressive systems. This project began with expert testimony Collins submitted as part of a joint investigation and documentation project scrutinizing human rights violations committed at North Korea’s short-term detention facilities, conducted by the Committee for Human Rights