On July 15, 2025, NKDB participated in the Seoul Forum on North Korean Human Rights, held at Seoul City Hall as part of the official Defector’s Week program.
The forum brought together policymakers, diplomats, researchers, and civil society actors to reflect on this year’s theme: “The Future of Unification That We Envision, and North Korean Human Rights.”
Representing NKDB, Executive Director Hanna Song delivered a presentation titled "Our Role in Advancing Unification." Her intervention emphasized the importance of documenting the lived experiences of North Korean escapees as a foundation for future transitional justice and reconciliation. She reminded the audience that “each testimony is a piece of truth, a piece of history.”
She also addressed the concerning decline in defection numbers and the sense of fatigue that often accompanies the slow progress toward human rights accountability. Instead, she stressed the need for coordinated, sustained action, and called for a more intersectional lens.
Her closing message was a call to collective responsibility: “We must act now, so that one day we may truly say: we didn’t just watch. We remembered, and we acted.”
On July 15, 2025, NKDB participated in the Seoul Forum on North Korean Human Rights, held at Seoul City Hall as part of the official Defector’s Week program.
The forum brought together policymakers, diplomats, researchers, and civil society actors to reflect on this year’s theme: “The Future of Unification That We Envision, and North Korean Human Rights.”
Representing NKDB, Executive Director Hanna Song delivered a presentation titled "Our Role in Advancing Unification." Her intervention emphasized the importance of documenting the lived experiences of North Korean escapees as a foundation for future transitional justice and reconciliation. She reminded the audience that “each testimony is a piece of truth, a piece of history.”
She also addressed the concerning decline in defection numbers and the sense of fatigue that often accompanies the slow progress toward human rights accountability. Instead, she stressed the need for coordinated, sustained action, and called for a more intersectional lens.
Her closing message was a call to collective responsibility: “We must act now, so that one day we may truly say: we didn’t just watch. We remembered, and we acted.”