Welcome to BASE21

A non-governmental organization (Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights) based in Seoul, Korea has been working to improve the human rights situation of North Koreans in North Korea, refugees in China and defectors resettling in Korea. They began their work in 1996 and held their first International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees in 1999 and since then have held two consecutive successful conferences in order to inform and build international solidarity in order to break the silence about North Korean human rights violations.

As an outsider, with little prior knowledge of the reality of the situation of the North Korean people, it was a shock to read testimonies of the atrocious experiences of those that survived. By reading these personal testimonies as well as looking into the eyes of the survivors, who plainly described their past as something of a reality for the majority of their people, seemed surreal. Their physical scars of stunted growth and imperfections of their stance or walk are nothing compared to the scars they carry in their memory. The memories they try to shut away in order to start a new life and function in a democratic society in order to survive once again in a system they are still unfamiliar with.

They don't shed tears when they share their stories; instead their glassy eyes look into yours to see if you will understand the depth of the words they are saying, plain and true to who they are. Even through the barrier of the language, one can easily drift to weeping while listening to both the native tongue and the translations. I realized that through the translations, a layer of understanding and feeling is lost with only the basic facts of grotesque acts and numbed memory of feelings and the psyche of the survivor becomes non-traceable. As it was my first exposure to such testimony, one feels the urge to inform others of what has already been found to be a systematic pattern of human rights violations by the numerous testimonies collected from both defectors living in Korea as well as those residing along the border in China. The one place that is the cause for the border crossings and migrations, which have led to issues of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, has been difficult to enter to perform a fact-finding mission that could verify to the International Community of the critical seriousness of the North Korean Human Rights situation.

Even with the small encounters of foreign diplomats visiting Pyongyang to meet with Kim Jong-Il, the issue of human rights is hardly on the agenda for open discussion. With this lack of support from the visiting diplomats, the work for those who are tirelessly striving for recognition of the existing human rights violations becomes a double obstacle in informing both the nationals of Korea as well as international citizens. Therefore, the movement of information through media, internet, conferences, seminars and word of mouth is vital in order to continue to voice our knowledge and end the silence about the North Korean Human Rights situation.