Date and Time:

March 05, 2019 10:00 am ~ March 05, 2019 12:00 pm

Location:

European Parliament Brussels, ASP A3E2

Speakers:

Lea PEREKRESTS, Greg SCARLATOIU, Amanda MORTWEDT OH, KIM Tae-Hoon, NAM Bada, HWANG In-Cheol

Host Organization:

HRNK, EPP, HRWF, PSCORE

Please RSVP by February 25, 2019. 

Lea PEREKRESTS, Human Rights Without Frontiers. Presentation title: Defending Human Rights in North Korea at the United Nations: a year in review

As the Deputy Director of HRWF, Lea Perekrests has worked on North Korean human rights issues for the past three years. She has specifically looked at the issue of North Korean overseas workers around the globe, presenting her research at Leiden University, the United Nations in Geneva, as well as in Brussels. Her knowledge expands regionally, as she has developed research regarding religious communities in China, South Korea, and South-east Asia. Created in Brussels in 2001, Human Rights Without Frontiers International (HRWF Int’l) is a non-profit association that seeks to shape European and international policy in ways that strengthen democracy, uphold the rule of law and protect human rights globally. 

Greg SCARLATOIU, Executive Director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) Washington, D.C.

Greg Scarlatoiu 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 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 sixteen 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, i24News Israel, 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. 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. 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.

Amanda MORTWEDT OH, JD, LLM, human rights attorney at HRNK

Amanda Mortwedt Oh is desk officer for the series of satellite imagery reports on North Korean prisons and prison camps published by HRNK and DigitalGlobe Analysis Center, and subsequently AllSource Analysis. Her research focuses on human rights, international criminal law, and North Korea’s prison camps. In 2017, Amanda co-authored “From Cradle to Grave: The Path of North Korean Innocents” with Robert Collins (HRNK, 2017) and “The Parallel Gulag: North Korea’s ‘An-jeon-bu’ Prison Camps with David Hawk. She currently conducts human rights research and interviews with North Korean escapees in South Korea for HRNK. She holds a Master of Laws in International Law (LL.M) degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where she wrote her thesis on North Korea and transitional justice.

KIM Tae-Hoon, President, PSCORE and Lawyers for human rights and unification for Korea

Kim Tae-Hoon previously served as a chief judge of Seoul District Court, a chief of the Special Committee on North Korea within National Human Rights Committee of Korea. Additionally, he was a member of the committee during the Korean war abduction from the Prime Minister’s office, the Deputy Chairman of the North Korean Human Rights Committee, and the Chairman of the Research Committee for Reunification at the Korean Bar Association. He also received the Human Rights Award at the 2013 Korea National Assembly Human Rights Forum.

NAM Bada, Secretary-General, PSCORE

Working for North Korean human rights and peacebuilding in the Korean peninsula since 2010. He also oversaw the production of multiple research reports including child labor within North Korea (2017), North Korean education system (2016), and overseas North Korean laborers (2015)

HWANG In-Cheol

Representative, 1969 Korean Air Abductees’ Families Association

He is the son of Hwang Won, a South Korean journalist who was abducted by North Korea in the hijacking of a civilian aircraft 1969. For the past 18 years, he has worked to break the silence that has surrounded his father’s abduction both domestically and internationally. In 2009, he established the 1969 Korean Air (KAL) Abductees’ Families Association, which carries out research, campaign, and advocacy projects aimed at establishing the fate and whereabouts of the KAL abductees and bringing about their repatriation.