April 28, 2018
Mr. Donald J. Trump
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington DC 20500
Dear President Donald Trump,
We are writing to you today as defectors from North Korea who have survived and left the most oppressive regime on the earth.
Today, we are holding the 15th North Korea Freedom Week event and are sending this letter to let you know how we, North Korean defectors, feel about freedom and liberty for the North Korean people.
Your meeting with Kim Jong-un has only come about because of your policy of ‘maximum pressure and engagement’ against North Korea. Please know that this meeting gives a great deal of hope to the 25 million North Koreans. Most of the North Korean people hope that the Kim dynasty, which has been in existence for 73 years, will end.
The thirty-two thousand North Korean refugees, who have left their beloved parents, family members, and relatives in North Korea, would like you to consider the following:
- Please take steps to eventually remove nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula. The North Korean nuclear weapons only help to keep the Kim Dynasty in power, but cause the North Korean people unparalleled suffering and poverty. Kim’s third-generation nuclear weapons and missiles are destroying the North Korean economy. In the last 25 years, nearly 3 million people have died under the Kim regime. In addition many of the remaining North Korean people have been victimized in some form or another. Also, be aware that North Korea may likely try for more time by using the same past negotiation techniques they used during past talks. Mr. President, if this happens, please do not stop your pressure on North Korea until they remove all nuclear weapons and that such action is verifiable and that such action results in the irreversible denuclearization of North Korea. We have suffered, but we must not pass that suffering on to our children and children’s children.
- Please strongly urge Kim Jong-un to dismantle the political prison camps. Currently, there are hundreds of thousands of political prisoners in these brutally repressive camps. North Korean people can be imprisoned, often for life, without due process simply by criticizing the Kim regime, by crossing the border without permission, or by listening to outside broadcasts. You stated in your 2018 State of the Union Address that “… no regime has oppressed its own citizens more totally or brutally than the cruel dictatorship in North Korea.” The regime is a regime that harshly represses North Koreans.
- Please do not be fooled by Kim Jong-un’s ‘fake peace’ strategy. The three Kim regimes have been consistent and have never given up their goal of conquering South Korea by force. We can guarantee that the North Korean regime will never give up. If a peace treaty is concluded with the United States, they will demand the withdrawal of US forces from South Korea and ultimately try to reunify the peninsula by force. A peace can be welcomed for the moment, but comes with the potential of bringing misfortune to tens of millions of South Koreans.
- Please strongly urge Kim Jong-un to end the enslavement of the North Korean people. The North Korean people have been virtual slaves under the Kim Dynasty for almost 70 years. They have never experienced true freedom and democracy.
America has long had a historic tradition of liberating mankind from slavery and you now have an historic opportunity to be the liberator of the North Korean people. Please, in the name of God, save the 25 million North Korean. They will welcome the elimination the nuclear weapons and the removal of all political prison camps.
Kim Seong-min
Chairman of the Joint Preparation for 15th North Korea Freedom Week
Attachments:
- Free North Korea Radio
- Fighters for Free North Korea
- Association of the North Korean Defectors
- Committee for Democratization of North Korea
- NK Refugees Human Rights Association of Korea
- NK information
- Assistant Center for North Korean refugees
- North Korea Strategy Centre
- New Korea Women’s Union
- North Korea People’s Liberation Front
- North Korea Freedom Coalition
- People for Successful Korean Reunification
- North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity
- Association of North Korean defectors for Unification
- North Korean Writers in Exile PEN Literature
- Coalition for the North Korean Refugees
- Center for Liberty & Reunification
- Solidarity for Unification of North Korean
- The United Christian of North Korean Refugees
- North Korea Cultural Freedom Solidarity
- Sungui-Association of NK defectors
- Research Institute of North Korea
- Federation for Unified Korea Future
- North Korea Freedom & Movement
- Association of Save the North Korean refugees
- North Korean Defectors Group
- Association of North Korean Mothers
- North Korean Artists Welfare Foundation
