Hello, my name is Justin, and it is an honor to be here today.
Thank you OKN for giving me the opportunity to speak at the press conference.
I was born in North Korea, in Ryanggang Province. I have fond memories of growing up and living in North Korea, despite the difficult situation with the food scarcity and harsh living conditions.
Our family ended up having no choice but to leave North Korea in 2005. Prior to this, I lost two siblings to starvation.
We stayed under the radar in China for almost three years, and then finally we were able to make it across the border to Laos, and into the US Embassy; where we were under protection for almost a year before being admitted to the US as refugees in 2009.
When I see people supporting and pushing for a peace treaty between the US and North Korea, and this overall peace-in-the-Korean-peninsula movement, and read the details of who these people are, and what this movement means, I am filled with indignity and anger at the foolishness and stupidity of these people.
To have a peace treaty with North Korea, and to give acknowledgment and status to the regime without accountability and responsibility of the regime, is so dangerous and risky, and it will bring nothing but instability and danger to millions of people.
In past years I have had many encounters with these pro-North Korea, regime supporting people. These people have never protested for North Korean refugee women being trafficked in China; these people have never called for the closure of the political prison camps in North Korea.
In fact, in my opinion, they just act like puppets of the North Korean regime, always taking their side and blaming everything on America and South Korea.
I want peace, and unification on the Korean Peninsula – but not at the cost of forgoing accountability and an apology from the North Korean regime that has enslaved and given misery to its people for more than 70 years.
I am now a proud American, and I love my life here in America. I want my people in North Korea to be free, and I want the people in South Korea to not have to live in fear of a dictator. Most of all, I do not want the United States to have a peace treaty with North Korea unless the regime answers for all the wrongs it has done:
For causing the death of millions of its own citizens due to starvation while pursuing nuclear weapons.
For causing the misery and human rights violations of its citizens who fled to China and lived like slaves and forcibly sent back to North Korea.
For threatening South Korea and the region with its nuclear tests and rocket launches.
For my own two younger siblings, only one-year-old and a newborn infant, who died because there wasn’t any food to feed them.
I hope that more and more Americans will wake up to the reality of what HR1369 means for the United States and for South Korea, and for North Koreans also. And more importantly, I hope that American politicians will not support fake peace, but work to achieve responsible, TRUE peace that will bring hope for everyone.
Thank you again for your attention and time.
