March 16th 2021
I attended the virtual PPiNK, Freedom Speakers International, KSA, and UNA event that brought in Ken Eom, a North Korean refugee and former soldier. He escaped from North Korea in 2010 after a decade of serving in the North Korean military. I am currently Advocacy Head and am the incoming Vice President of UNA, so this event was part of our weekly meeting and the secretary of our club did a fantastic job in getting UNA involved.
Hearing from the perspective of a former North Korean soldier was extremely interesting. One aspect of his presentation that stood out to me was when he talked about the role of propaganda. There was a lot of anti-American rhetoric back then, and there is still today. He said the soldiers were entrenched in it, and therefore being there for a decade led to a very interesting experience for him coming out to the rest of the world. I think a lot of problems could be solved if common people from other countries began seeing common people from foreign countries as human beings, not the enemy just because they live in an unfamiliar state.
As an International Relations and Diplomacy major, this event related to my academic interests as one day I want to work in the State Department, and right now North Korea is one of the major threats against the interests of the United States. However, many important aspects need to be considered in foreign policy. The speaker did not touch on this, but he got me thinking about how sanctions can have negative effects on the common people of a country, which can build resentment over time (similar to brainwashing in a sense) for the foreign country that is inflicting these sanctions.