Page 41 - NKHR Hawaii Conference 2023

“What do you think the North Korean people need to hear?”

And she said,

“Really they just need to hear that somebody knows what’s happening there
and that there are people who are f ghting for them, who are advocating for
them, who are their allies.”

And so I also think that producing messages that we send back that provide that
encouragement to people who have been suf ering for a long time is important. And those
same channels that get information in are often great channels for getting information
out, so thinking about that network as broadly as possible helps.

DR. STEPHEN NOERPER
T ank you Ambassador Turner. T ose types of approaches require vision and require a
dedication of resources. So what we’re hearing is we need more resources and need to be
supporting grassroots organizations. We have the Executive Director of of the Committee
for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK). Greg Scarlatoiu, here. Let’s support
organizations like that. And let’s put our money, our time, and our energy behind them.

Since you have mentioned it, what are average North Koreans aware of? I’d like to go to
Ambassador Tan with the question from the audience,

“Is the average North Korean aware that there are others outside their
borders with greater liberties?”

AMBASSADOR MORSE TAN
I will build on what has been shared so far. Even though there’s only an intranet that
the vast majority of North Koreans have access to, there is a whole array of ways in
which information is getting into North Korea: radio broadcasts, flash drives, laptops,
cell phones, radios. There are many different ways—smart balloons are another. There
have been a variety of dif erent methods used. I remember talking with a defector who
said very casually to me that the people in her village mostly have access to outside
information.

And even though the consequences could be rather severe they still avail themselves of it

NORTH KOREAN HUMAN RIGHTS HAWAII CONFERENCE 2023 41