Liberty In North Korea’s 2025 Annual Report
Helping North Korean People Win Their Freedom
We’re excited to share LiNK’s 2025 Annual Report—a celebration of the work we accomplished together alongside a global movement of support for the North Korean people.
2025 Impact Highlights
- 17 rescued
- 22 resettled
- 122 supported in resettlement
- 144 empowered through LiNK programs
- $4,214,232 raised
- 11,833,136 reached ONLINE
- 2,746+ reached IN-PERSON
- 7 information access projects
Read the full 2025 Annual Report here
Our Work Towards Liberty in North Korea
- Refugee Rescues & Resettlement Support: Helping North Koreans refugees reach safety and supporting them as they rebuild their lives in freedom.
- Empowering Resettled North Koreans: Investing in the capacity of North Koreans to succeed and work towards changing the future of their country.
- Increasing Information Access for North Koreans: Developing and distributing tailored technology and content to help North Koreans access more uncensored information more safely.
- Global Awareness & Advocacy: Amplifying North Korean refugee voices to reshape how the world sees this issue and mobilize a global movement of support.
Note From Our CEO
It's been 20 years since my first visit to the border of North Korea and China.
To this day, I vividly remember Stitch—a 6-year-old boy I met on that trip, just days after his parents were caught and repatriated to North Korea. I still remember the silly faces he made at us as we were leaving the shelter that night. Perhaps it was a way to hide a grief he couldn't yet understand, or maybe he was just being a little boy. Later on, I thought about his mother. I couldn't begin to imagine how she must have felt being forced back across the border to a fate unknown, wondering if she would ever see her son again. That night changed everything for me. And for the last two decades, it has never let me go.
This past year, as I reflected on stories like Stitch’s that have stayed with me over the years, I was reminded that the urgency on this issue has not diminished.
Life inside North Korea remains profoundly difficult. Last year, in a follow-up to a landmark UN human rights report on North Korea from 11 years ago, it was found that “since 2014, control by the Government over its citizens has tightened increasingly. Under laws introduced since 2015, citizens have been subjected to increased surveillance and control in all parts of life. No other population is under such restrictions in today’s world.”
The regime continues to maintain near-total control through pervasive surveillance, arbitrary detention, torture, forced labor, and the increased use of public executions. All of this is happening while our attention is understandably pulled toward other crises at home and abroad. But just because it isn't in our daily newsfeed doesn't mean it isn't happening in North Korea every single day.
In 2025, the North Korean human rights movement faced its greatest crisis in decades. NGOs vital to the movement and on the frontlines—rescuing refugees, sending information into the country, and documenting abuses—were forced to downsize or potentially shut down due to a sudden collapse in funding and dramatic shifts in policy. According to reports, the North Korean government was watching all of this closely. They saw the weakening of these NGOs as a strategic advantage.
And yet, in the face of these challenges, your support made it possible for us to launch an emergency campaign to raise funds for four frontline organizations fighting to survive, while continuing our own work in these areas.
Together, we brought 17 North Korean refugees to freedom, and celebrated the milestone of our 1,400th rescue. Each one required navigating a landscape that has grown more difficult every year with China’s rapid expansion of biometric security systems and AI-enabled surveillance. On the other side of that journey, 22 people were newly resettled and began rebuilding their lives, while our team continued supporting 122 individuals in their resettlement.
We invested in 144 North Korean storytellers, advocates and leaders through our programs, equipping them with scholarships, language skills, leadership and advocacy training, and a community that believes in them. Two Advocacy Fellows traveled across the country, speaking at universities and Fortune 500 companies and meeting with congressional offices on Capitol Hill. Scholarship recipients completed graduate programs and are going on to shape policy: one recently received a fully-funded PhD offer; another will begin teaching international relations in Tokyo this spring. These are not just personal victories but the emergence of leaders who are working to change the future of their country.
We also made a significant bet on something we believe could irreversibly change the course of this issue: technology designed specifically for the North Korean context. We advanced seven information access projects last year, with the support of 68 North Korean defector collaborators helping us develop and test tools that give citizens safer access to far more uncensored information than a single thumb drive could ever carry, alongside digital security tools to protect them from the regime's surveillance. These are significant advances. But they are only the beginning.
We are so grateful for the ways you have shown up and supported the North Korean people year after year. This work belongs to all of us—and none of it would be possible without you.
As a North Korean friend reminded us last year, “Freedom is not given, but it is something we can achieve.”
Thank you for your shared belief in this vision. Together, we can see it happen in our lifetime.
With unwavering hope,
Hannah Song
CEO, Liberty in North Korea
Refugee Rescues & Resettlement Support
While escape from inside North Korea remains almost impossible, there is an urgent need to help North Korean refugees hiding in China, many who have been living in uncertainty for years. Liberty in North Korea ensures a safe and dignified pathway, without cost or condition, for North Korean refugees who make the brave decision to seek freedom.
In 2025, we’re grateful to have welcomed 17 North Korean refugees and their children to freedom, and celebrated the milestone of our 1,400th rescue.
On the other side of the rescue journey, LiNK helps North Koreans rebuild their lives with a strong foundation. Based on need, our team connects them to resources and services, conducts home visits, and provides financial assistance.
- 17 rescued
- 22 newly resettled
- 122 supported
“Up until the very last moment before leaving home [in China], I was terrified and hesitant. I was afraid of being arrested and worried about my family back in China. Now that I'm in South Korea, I realize I would have regretted it if I hadn't left. Living in freedom with ID feels like a dream. I'm excited to get vocational training, find a job, and adapt to South Korea well!”
– Won-mi, rescued in February 2025
Empowering Resettled North Koreans
North Korean refugees have unlimited potential, but they do not face an even playing field after arriving in South Korea or the US. We identify current challenges faced by resettled North Koreans and invest in their success through education, skill-building, and leadership opportunities.
With the right support, North Koreans consistently prove their potential and become key players in driving change. They’re reaching their academic and career goals, sending money and information back into North Korea, and building global understanding and support for this issue. This next generation of North Korean leaders, entrepreneurs, storytellers, and advocates will be the ones to determine the future of their country; LiNK’s programs grow their capacity and partner with them as agents of change.
- 144 empowered through our programs
“LiNK’s program has helped me organize my thoughts and see my story as valuable. Seeing how others gain comfort or courage through my story, I feel that my difficult experiences have become meaningful points of connection. The storytelling and presentation training I received has allowed me to speak with responsibility rather than fear.”
– Ree Ha Kim, LESP participant
Increasing Information Access for North Koreans
North Koreans live in one of the most closed and limited information environments in the world. To protect the effectiveness of their propaganda, the regime tries to maintain a complete monopoly on information and ideas inside the country. Their narratives emphasize the outside world as being dangerous and the threat of war as imminent, justifying the dictatorship and its draconian restrictions.
Increasing the North Korean people’s access to uncensored outside information is therefore one of the most effective levers for change in the country.
Liberty in North Korea works with North Korean defectors and engineers to develop tailor-made technology and content to help people inside the country access more information more safely. Empowered with the truth, North Koreans gain resilience against the regime’s propaganda and are emboldened to scrutinize the government, imagine a different future, and build pressure for change and opening.
- 7 technology projects
- 68 North Korean defector collaborators
- 80,000+ lines of code written
“This will have a major impact on the people of North Korea… Right now, because of the new law punishing so-called ‘non-socialist behavior,’ morale is very low. But if this program spreads inside North Korea, it will help people regain confidence.”
– Anonymous North Korean user tester
*In order to protect end users, partners, and our projects, we are limited in what we can share publicly.
Global Advocacy and Awareness
For decades, North Korea has been reduced to a caricature—part threat, part joke. Dictators and geopolitics dominate headlines, making the country seem hopeless and unchanging. The global community’s inattention and inaction has only helped the regime to maintain the worst dictatorship on earth.
Liberty in North Korea partners with North Koreans to build an alternative narrative focused on their perspectives, resilience, and potential. Our objective is to reshape how the world sees and responds to North Korea, increasing pressure on governments to act and mobilizing the support that the North Korean people deserve.
Participants from LiNK’s programs have gone on to contribute to South Korea’s policy towards North Korea and engage at the highest levels of international politics, including at the United Nations Security Council and in the Oval Office.
- 11,833,136 reached online
- 2,764+ reached in-person
“As an Advocacy Fellow, I discovered new parts of myself, built confidence, and learned lessons that changed the way I see the world and my own story… With these lessons as my guide, I plan to stay dedicated to the cause of North Korean human rights and remain closely connected with the people I’ve met, building a lasting bridge of solidarity together.”
– Hannah Oh, 2025 LiNK Advocacy Fellow
Read the full 2024 Annual Report here
Chuseok for North Koreans | No Way Home for the Holidays
Autumn is a significant season for many people and cultures around the world. It’s a period of transition and reflection, gratitude for the days gone by, and celebration of the harvest.
In both North and South Korea, this time of year is celebrated with Chuseok, or the mid-autumn festival. Also known as “Korean Thanksgiving,” it’s a major holiday that predates the division of the peninsula. Chuseok is observed on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, when the harvest moon shines brightest. Traditionally, people return to their ancestral hometowns to gather with family, share a variety of delicious foods, and pay respects to their ancestors.
But for North Korean refugees, there is no going back. Holidays like Chuseok can be a bittersweet time, one of both gratitude for a life in freedom and grief over being unable to celebrate with family still inside North Korea.
“The first Chuseok in the US felt very empty and lonely. It was just me and my two-year-old daughter, Mia, back then. It didn’t feel like a holiday. I had multiple emotions at the same time. Loneliness, emptiness… there were so many feelings that I couldn’t even put into words.“
– Holly, escaped North Korea in 2013
Chuseok celebrations have evolved to look a little different in North versus South Korea, and even in countries like the US where the Korean diaspora have resettled.
Chuseok Traditions in South Korea
In South Korea, Chuseok is considered the largest and most important holiday of the year. It’s celebrated over three days, during which a “national migration” takes place as people all over the country travel to their hometowns or to go sightseeing. Tickets for planes, trains, and buses are sold out months in advance, and freeways are packed with bumper-to-bumper traffic during the holiday period.
On the morning of Chuseok, families hold a memorial service for their ancestors at home, known as charye (차례). A table of food is prepared as an offering, typically featuring rice cakes, fresh fruits and vegetables, meat dishes, and the favorite meals of deceased loved ones. Families will also visit ancestral gravesites, a custom known as seongmyo (성묘), to pay their respects and tend to the graves.
From the ancestral table to large family meals, food is a central part of Chuseok celebrations. The defining dish of this holiday is seongpyeon (송편), a chewy, sweet, and nutty half-moon shaped rice cake steamed in fresh pine needles. It’s traditionally made with rice from the year’s harvest, finely milled into flour. Preparing seongpyon becomes a family activity as each piece is shaped by hand and filled with red bean paste, toasted sesame seeds, or chestnuts.
Other holiday foods include pajeon(파전), a crispy, savory pancake made with green onions; galbijjim (갈비찜), sweet and savory braised short ribs; and japchae(잡채), glass noodles stir-fried with meat and vegetables.
How Chuseok is Celebrated in North Korea
In North Korea, Chuseok is just a one-day celebration. While it is considered a key traditional holiday, its importance has been minimized relative to national holidays like the birthdays of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, and the anniversary of the founding of the Worker’s Party.
On both traditional and national holidays, North Koreans are urged to visit the statues of Kim family leaders or the Kumsan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang, where the bodies of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il lie.
It is much less common for widespread travel to take place during Chuseok due to severe travel restrictions and poor transportation infrastructure. However, these constraints have also made it so that generations of North Koreans remain in close proximity to their hometowns and relatives. For Chuseok, people gather with their nearby family members. Just like in South Korea, they’ll prepare special foods as offerings for charye, and then visit ancestral grave sites to pay respects.
After ancestral rites, festivities become a community affair with traditional food and folk games shared amongst family, friends, and neighbors. Songpyeon is also a holiday staple, but the North Korean version is made with a minced meat and vegetable filling, and are twice as big as South Korean ones. Common folk games are yutnori (윷놀이), a board game, and ssireum (씨름), or Korean wrestling.
Holly & Mia: A Legacy of Freedom
It’s been over a decade since Holly left her hometown in North Korea. But whenever she makes pajeon (파전), it takes her right back to her childhood—sitting by the frying pan and watching her mom cook, eagerly awaiting a taste. “Pa”(파) means green onion and “jeon”(전) refers to foods that have been pan-fried or battered. There are many varieties of “jeon,” made with everything from potatoes to zucchini, seafood, kimchi, and more.
Holly saw her mom cook this dish countless times in North Korea. It was an inexpensive, everyday staple, but also an essential part of the holidays. Every year for Chuseok, the mouthwatering aroma of oil and batter would draw everyone to the kitchen, where a colorful assortment of jeon was being prepared.
Holly now lives halfway across the world from North Korea, but every year during Chuseok, she sets out an offering table for charye. For hours, she prepares foods like pajeon with great care, remembering and honoring her parents and loved ones, who she can’t be with for the holidays.
In 2016, Holly reached freedom through LiNK’s rescue networks with one-year-old Mia in her arms.
Mia is now at an age where she’s able to understand some of the things her mother went through. Holly has begun to open up more about her life in North Korea, and does her best to keep their small family connected to their Korean heritage. She takes Mia to Korean language school on Sundays, and makes an effort to celebrate cultural holidays, like Chuseok. What can’t be put into words, Holly communicates through food—their dinner table is always full of delicious Korean cooking.
In 2024, Holly received her US citizenship, nine years after her resettlement!
"When I obtained my US citizenship, it felt like my escape journey was finally complete. I cried and felt so grateful to the US for giving me a new life. My greatest happiness is seeing Mia have a childhood free of the painful hardships that defined mine.”
These days, Chuseok has become a lively gathering with the many friends and neighbors they’ve met over the years! Holly gathers with other Koreans in the community, and they go all-out preparing delicious seongpyeon and pajeon. She takes great pride in wearing traditional hanboks with Mia, and explaining each dish when guests arrive. The festivities always continue long after dinner, with Korean games like jegichagi, a version of hacky sack, and yutnori, a board game.
Living in the US, Holly and Mia have been introduced to new traditions too. Just a month after Chuseok, their community gathers again to celebrate Thanksgiving with turkey and pumpkin pie, in true American fashion.
Holly still has hope that in her lifetime, she’ll be able to celebrate Chuseok with all her family and bring Mia to visit her hometown in North Korea.
We’re working towards the day when families don’t have to be separated. To date, LiNK has rescued almost 1400 North Korean refugees and their children, reuniting over 500 people with their families in freedom. As we’re helping North Koreans, like Holly, build new lives, we’re also leading initiatives to increase change inside North Korea, through advocacy, information access, and more.
Become a monthly donor and create a long-lasting legacy of freedom. Your support will rescue North Korean refugees waiting for their chance to escape right now, and fuel work that is increasing change and opening inside North Korea.
