Reflection on the LiNK presentation and the RAND Conference

I recently attended an evening hosted by the group Liberty in North Korea (LiNK). The representative detailed LiNK's work in transporting North Korean defectors living illegally in China (where they are not considered refugees and are therefore subject to deportation back to North Korea) to nations in South East Asia. LiNK essentially pay smugglers to get the refugees over the border, at which point LiNK representatives join the refugees and take them to either the US or South Korea to be resettled. After finding homes for the former North Koreans, LiNK representatives continue to monitor and aid refugees in their adjustments to American/South Korean culture, both of which are vastly different from that of North Korea. LiNK performs all of these services at no cost to the refugee and makes no effort to gain from them any monetary "return" on LiNK's "investment."

The representative went on to describe how we students and social-media-savvy youth could aid LiNK. I have become a LiNK fundraiser and will be detailing the cause for and soliciting donations from my classmates, family, and friends in the near future. I have to say that the speech made by the rep was a little business-pitchy. It is likely that LiNK reps have some form of script they use to be effective and to promote fundraising, but I think I would have been more emotionally connected to and motivated by the speech had it been a little less structured.

By happy accident, this evening was scheduled around a week before a half-day conference that I attended at the RAND Corporation, a world-renowned think-tank based in Santa Monica. The conference was focused on the feasibility of Korean reunification, which represents the only realistic hope of prosperity for the North Korean populous should the current regime persist (and there is little indication that it will not). The depth and breadth of understanding demonstrated by the panel was as impressive as the titles of its constituents, among them the former Minister of Unification under the current South Korean leadership, a higher-up in the Ministry of Unification, and the Vice Presidents of two major, well-respected South Korean think-tanks (the Asan and Sejong Institutes). Too many fascinating things were discussed for me to try and summarize the conference here, but talk to me, and I will tell you about it in greater detail than you ever wanted. I'll give you a good quotation though. Coordinating the panel was Bruce Bennett, a senior analyst for the RAND Corporation. He posed this question (I am doing my best to quote him, but I suppose it is technically paraphrasing): "People always talk about the cost of unification, but what is the cost of division?"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOH, right? Anyway, really cool stuff. Yeah, that's pretty much it for now.