Featuring Suzanne Scholte
Chair, North Korea Freedom Coalition; President Defense Forum Foundation;
Vice-Chair, Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
May 2024
An estimated 3 million North Koreans have perished under North Korea’s dictatorship since the mid -1990s. Families continue to starve and the government detains, tortures, and executes its citizens, including children, in a large network of prison and labor camps.
Dr. Suzanne Scholte is considered one of the world’s leading activists in the North Korean human rights movement having spent over two decades working to promote the freedom and dignity of the North Korean People. She advocates on behalf of the North Korean people, speaks and writes to raise awareness and change policies that affect North Koreans, and has assisted in the rescue of North Koreans fleeing North Korea. She also has established the Sin U Nam Rescue Fund which helps to support the rescue of hundreds of North Korean refugees through the underground railroad.
In 1996, she began a program to host the first North Korean defectors in the United States, giving them a platform to speak out about the atrocities that are committed against the North Korean people. Dr. Scholte has led international efforts to pressure China to end their reparation policy and has been involved in the rescue of hundreds of North Koreans escaping from North Korea. Dr. Scholte’s work includes helping author and present “The Seoul Statement” on North Korean Human Rights in 1999 at the First International Conference on North Korea Human Rights and Refugees.
In addition, Dr. Scholte has testified before the United States Congress and at the United Nations regarding the plight of the North Korean people. In Congress, she has organized the first and subsequent Congressional hearing on the North Korea’s political prison camps in 1999 and 2011; the first Congressional hearing on the trafficking of North Korean Women in 2005; the first Congressional hearing on South Korean and Japanese Abductees, South Korean POWs, and North Korea’s Illicit Activities in 2006; and the first Congressional hearing witnesses on the persecution of Christians in North Korea in 2008.
Dr. Scholte’s efforts and work on behalf of the North Korean people is vast. She is the Chair and Founding Member of the North Korea Freedom Coalition, an organization of over 65 nongovernmental organizations and individuals around the world promoting the freedom and human rights of the North Korean People. In addition, Dr. Scholte serves as the Honorary Chair of the Free North Korea Radio, the only defectors-run radio program broadcasting news and information into North Korea. She also serves as the Honorary Chair of the North Korea People’s Liberation Front, elected unanimously by former North Koren soldiers who are working against the Kim Jon-un regime and pro-communist groups in South Korea. Dr. Scholte also serves as Vice Chair and Founding Board Member of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, an organization that publishes factual information about North Korea human rights issues.
Dr. Suzanne Scholte’s work advocating on behalf of the North Korean people and raising awareness of human rights concerns affecting North Koreans within and outside of North Korea is impactful and inspiring.