Alliance for Korea United – Washington, President Yusook Kim

The USA Capitol Hill Forum 2025: The 80 Years of Korean Liberation focused on the dream of a free and peaceful unified Korea. The hybrid event, which was held on May 3, 2025, at the Congressional Auditorium and Atrium in Washington, DC, was titled “Opportunities amidst Crisis, Achieving Free and Peaceful Unified Korea through the US-ROK Alliance.” The role of human rights in achieving the Korean Dream of unification was at the forefront of discussion throughout the event.

After welcoming remarks by Yusook Kim, President of the Alliance for Korea United (AKU) in Washington, DC, several distinguished guest speakers presented their viewpoints on Korean unification to the attendees. They spoke about the human rights abuses that North Koreans face on a daily basis, key areas of focus, and strategies to advocate for a free and peaceful unified Korea.

First, Dr. Suzanne Scholte, the Chair of the Defense Forum Foundation and North Korea Freedom Coalition, centered her remarks on three things: refugees, human rights, and information. When discussing the crisis situation with North Korean refugees, she noted that repatriated North Koreans face torture, imprisonment, and even execution and stressed, “This is a horrific ongoing crisis that could be solved overnight.” Dr. Scholte highlighted the work of rescuers such as Gia Park, who established the first Underground Railroad that saved 7,000 lives, as she reiterated that all North Korean lives must be saved.

She then emphasized the need to focus attention on the human rights violations taking place in North Korea, which is often diverted by Kim Jong Un and his regime by shifting focus to other issues, such as nuclear weapons. Dr. Scholte emphasized the underlying need to make human rights the number one issue. To provide relief from their government-imposed isolation, she stated that North Koreans need to learn the truth regarding human rights violations and what freedom looks like. Dr. Scholte noted that organizations, like “Operation Truth,” provide this much-needed information sharing with North Koreans while also providing food and other items, including rice, Bibles, booklets, shortwave and multimedia radios, flash drives, gloves, etc.

Following Dr. Scholte, Retired Colonel David Maxwell, Vice President of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy and Senior Fellow, Global Peace Foundation (GPF), reiterated the significance of human rights and cautioned the attendees to remember the following twelve words, “Unification first, then denuclearization. The path to unification is through human rights.” He emphasized that unification is possible through a three-pronged strategy: a human rights first strategy, a campaign to share information and influence North Koreans to seek change, and support for both North Koreans and South Koreans in their unification efforts.

Next, Ambassador Morse Tan, Former Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice at the United States Department of State and current Dean of Liberty University School of Law, gave the first keynote address. He opened by giving a brief overview of the history of the Korean Peninsula’s division into two separate entities and touched on his family’s personal experience during the Korean War. Ambassador Tan contrasted the current prosperity of South Korea with an economy based on a  free market system and democracy to North Korea, stating that “In the north, you have a totalitarian communist dictatorship that has strangled its own country and its own people.”

Further, Ambassador Tan underscored his belief that the human rights situation in North Korea is the worst in the world, with the murder of around 15 million North Koreans having occurred at the hands of their own government. He noted that ongoing atrocities are still occurring at concentration camps, where a descendant can be detained for merely being a relative of someone who was once considered an enemy of the regime.

According to Ambassador Tan, unification is the solution to stopping this brutal assault against innocent people. “Not a unification under the Kim dynasty, but a unification of the Koreas that would adopt free markets, that would be democratic, that would allow for the re-evangelization of North Korea, that would be a stable and reliable ally of the United States of America in the midst of a critical region.”  He further emphasized that a unified Korea alliance with the United States and Japan would be beneficial for all parties.

Inteck Seo, Co-Chair of Action for Korea United, concluded the forum as the second keynote speaker. He presented his perspective on the unification of the Korean Peninsula, recounting the Korean Dream of a new nation where the ideal of Hongik Ingan, “To broadly benefit all humankind,” is realized— a “great change” will be achieved through “people power.” Mr. Seo concluded his presentation by discussing the 2025 Hangang River Miracle: Korean Dream Unification Festival.

Every person is inherently entitled to basic rights and freedoms regardless of where they are born, their ethnicity, religion, gender, or any other distinguishable traits. GPF’s vision of One Family of God is grounded in our shared humanity, where human rights are universal. GPF partners with multiple organizations to advocate for the Korean Dream, where the human rights of North Koreans are restored and unification with South Korea is achieved.