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Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwan President Lai Ching-te will on Friday make his first visit since taking office in May to the sensitive Kinmen islands that sit next to the Chinese coast and have been the scene of stepped up tensions between Taipei and Beijing.

Taiwan has controlled Kinmen, and the Matsu islands further up the Chinese coast, since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taipei in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists. No peace treaty or armistice has ever been signed.

The scene of on-off fighting during the height of the Cold War, China’s coast guard has since February conducted regular patrols around Kinmen following the death of two Chinese people on a speedboat which Beijing blamed on Taipei.

Lai’s office said on Thursday that he would travel to Kinmen on Friday for events marking the 66th anniversary of a key military clash with Chinese forces, better known internationally as the start of the second Taiwan Strait crisis.

“Located in the first island chain, Taiwan faces the immediate threat of China. But Taiwan will not be intimidated,” Lai told a security forum in Taipei on Wednesday.

China views democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory and has repeatedly denounced Lai as a “separatist.” He rejects Beijing’s sovereignty saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future, but has also offered talks with China.

Kinmen faces the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou and at its closest is less than two kilometers away from Chinese-controlled territory.

The 1958 crisis was the last time Taiwanese forces battled China on a large scale.  

In August of that year, Chinese forces began more than a month of bombardment of Kinmen, along with Matsu, including naval and air battles, seeking to force them into submission.

Taiwan fought back at the time with support from the United States, which sent military equipment like advanced Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles, giving Taiwan a technological edge.

The crisis ended in a stalemate, and Taiwan observes Aug. 23 every year as the date it fended off the Chinese attack.

Late Wednesday, Taiwan’s defense ministry held a concert in Taipei that celebrated the “glorious” anniversary, with songs about shooting down Chinese MiG fighter jets and bemoaning the “red catastrophe” of communism.

Formerly called Quemoy in English, Kinmen today is a popular tourist destination, though Taiwan maintains a significant military presence.
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TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s defense spending will rise 7.7% next year, outpacing expected economic growth, the Cabinet said on Thursday, as the island adds more fighter jets and missiles to strengthen deterrence against a rising threat from Beijing.

China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has ramped up military and political pressure over the past five years to assert those claims, which Taipei strongly rejects.

Taiwan’s Cabinet said following a regular weekly meeting that 2025 defense spending would rise 7.7% year-on-year to $20.25 billion, accounting for 2.45% of gross domestic product and exceeding the government’s expectation for economic growth of 3.26% for the year.

The spending includes a special budget worth $2.8 billion to buy new fighter jets and ramp up missile production. That was part of the military’s extra spending worth $7.5 billion announced in 2021 over five years.

Taiwan’s government has made military modernization a key policy platform and has repeatedly pledged to spend more on its defenses given the rising threat from China, including developing made-in-Taiwan submarines.

China’s air force flies almost daily missions into the skies near Taiwan, and in May staged war games around the island shortly after President Lai Ching-te took office, a man Beijing brands a “separatist.” Lai rejects China’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

The budget will still need to be passed by parliament, where the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lost its majority in January elections.

Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang, has repeatedly expressed its support for firming up the island’s defenses, though it is currently involved in a standoff with the DPP about contested reforms to give parliament greater oversight powers the government says is unconstitutional.

China is also rapidly modernizing its armed forces, with new aircraft carriers, stealth fighter jets and missiles.

China in March announced a 7.2% rise in defense spending for this year to $234.10 billion outpacing the economic growth target of around 5% for 2024, though accounting for only some 1.3% of GDP according to analysts. 
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WASHINGTON — A New York man was charged on Wednesday with operating as an illegal agent of the Chinese government in the United States, accusing him of spying on Chinese pro-Democracy activists and dissidents, the Justice Department said.

The DOJ alleges that Yuanjun Tang, 67, acted as a Chinese agent between 2018 and 2023 at the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security, its principal intelligence agency.

Tang gave to MSS intelligence officers information about individuals and groups viewed by China “as potentially adverse” to its interests, including prominent U.S.-based Chinese dissidents, the DOJ said.

He helped MSS infiltrate a group chat on an encrypted messaging application used by numerous Chinese dissidents, the DOJ said.

Tang is also accused of making false statements to the FBI when he claimed he was no longer able to access an email account used to communicate with his MSS handler, the department said.

Tang is a former Chinese citizen who was imprisoned for his activities as a dissident, according to the department. He was granted political asylum in the U.S. and later became a citizen.

The Chinese Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters was unable to contact Tang.
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WASHINGTON — Two U.S. Pacific territories are moving closer to a status upgrade from observer to associate member, elevating their status within the region’s political and economic policy organization, the Pacific Islands Forum.

The PIF leaders’ meeting is set to open Monday in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa.

Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni has confirmed there will be a vote on new associate members. “Guam and American Samoa have applied,” he told ABC Pacific recently. “We’ll be actually tabling a paper for the leaders to consider.”

Foreign ministers from the Pacific bloc reviewed the applications for associate member status from the two U.S. territories during their meeting on August 9. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown noted that there is “widespread support” for the applications.

On Tuesday, forum leaders will engage in talks with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, associate members and forum observers. A senior State Department official will represent the United States.

The Pacific Islands Forum has 18 member states, with Australia and New Zealand being the largest economies in the bloc. Neither the United States nor China is a full member, but both countries are dialogue partners.

U.S. greenlights

Until recently, U.S. Pacific territories Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands held observer status for the forum.

In June, however, the U.S. government eased restrictions, allowing these territories to join the PIF as nonvoting associate members, provided they do not take foreign policy positions. This change modified a longstanding policy that had previously barred their participation in international organizations.

Although the French territories of French Polynesia and New Caledonia have become full PIF members, analysts currently do not anticipate that U.S. Pacific territories will be approved for full membership soon.

“It would be a bit like Nebraska voting at the United Nations,” Cleo Paskal, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told VOA.

“The degree to which constituent parts of the U.S., such as Guam and American Samoa, can participate as full members in multilateral organizations is complex,” she said. “On one hand, the people of those islands understandably want to be represented in a forum that claims to speak for the region. On the other, they can’t legally sign up to foreign policy positions for the U.S.”

U.S.-PIF summit

A State Department spokesperson told VOA that the United States has made broader and deeper engagement with the Pacific Islands a key priority of its foreign policy.

The spokesperson cited the U.S.-hosted summit meetings with Pacific Island leaders in Washington in September 2022 and 2023.

But neither the White House nor the State Department would confirm whether a third U.S.-Pacific Island Forum summit will take place this year.

In recent years, U.S. policymakers have recognized that U.S. presence and influence in the Pacific cannot be taken for granted, especially in the face of increased Chinese interest and engagement in the region, according to Kathryn Paik, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Paik recently wrote in a CSIS publication that Washington’s realization has led to a series of high-level visits, the opening of several new embassies, the return of the Peace Corps to the region, and numerous financial initiatives across the fisheries, health, law enforcement and economic sectors.
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JAKARTA, Indonesia — A flood of Chinese products into Indonesia has hit local manufacturers hard, prompting the government to look for ways to placate domestic producers while avoiding angering the country’s biggest trading partner.

Garment makers — both home-based piecework producers and factories — have appealed for help as they lose market share to low-cost apparel and textiles from China. A surge of products bought online has added to the problem.

A protest by workers in Jakarta prompted Indonesian Minister of Trade Zulkifli Hasan to announce in July that the government will impose import tariffs of up to 200% on some products from China, particularly textiles, clothing, footwear, electronics, ceramics and cosmetics, to try to protect local businesses and prevent layoffs.

“The United States can impose a 200% tariff on imported ceramics or clothes, so we can do it as well,” Zulkifli said, to ensure micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises and industries “survive and thrive.”

But China is Indonesia’s largest trading partner, with two-way trade exceeding $127 billion in 2023. Imposing higher tariffs could prompt Chinese manufacturers to invest in more in factories in Indonesia, but could also backfire, leading Beijing to retaliate. As a result, the government announced in July that it was setting up a task force to monitor and handle problems related to certain imports.

It’s an urgent matter, Hasan said, given the flood of imported products that has caused closures of textile factories and mass layoffs. From January to July 2024, at least 12 textile factories shut down operations, causing more than 12,000 workers to lose their jobs, according to the Nusantara Trade Union Confederation.

In Bandung district in Indonesia’s West Java province — an area famous for textiles such as batiks, handwoven fabrics and silks — imports of Chinese products have left thousands of workers idle and without regular incomes, said Neng Wati, a manager at manufacturing company Asnur Konveksi.

“Now they take turns. The number of workers stays the same, but the work is divided up and not all get some. Some of them have been off for two weeks, some of them haven’t gotten work for a month,” Wati said.

That’s a hard blow coming after the slow days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when many workers were shifted to e-commerce to make ends meet, said Nandi Herdiaman, head of a local organization of small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs. Only 60% of the 8,000 members of the association kept working after the pandemic.

Now, the biggest challenge is cheap imports from China. In the past two months, output from home-based industries has fallen by 70%, the industry organization says.

The uptick in imports of Chinese products is partly seen as the result of trade friction between the U.S. and China, which has led to increased American tariffs on Chinese goods. But it also reflects rising trade within Asia as the region implements various free trade pacts, as well as weakening demand in Western markets for Chinese exports.

Industry groups in Thailand have also expressed increasing concern about an influx of cheap products from China, which they say have greatly hurt sales by domestic producers who are unable to compete.

In what it called an urgent measure, the Thai government imposed a 7% value-added tax on all imported products, a change from the previous rule that only collected taxes on imported products that cost more than 1,500 baht ($44). The policy is only in effect from July until December this year to give the government time to study the issue before a longer-term solution can be applied.

In December, Indonesia issued a regulation to tighten monitoring of more than 3,000 imported goods, including food ingredients, electronics and chemicals. But the regulation was reversed after domestic industry said it hindered the flow of imported materials needed for local production, and the government began considering steep tariff hikes instead.

While smaller manufacturers have suffered the greatest setbacks, big factories are also hurting.

Jany Suhertan, managing director of PT Eksonindo Multi Product Industry, which makes clothing and accessories like backpacks and handbags in West Java, wants the government to raise import duties on finished goods from China but not on raw materials needed to make products in Indonesia.

Nearly half of the materials his company uses are from China.

“I don’t agree with imposing (higher tariffs) on raw products, since the government should protect the supply chain. If it is not secure, it will impact production,” Suhertan said.
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tokyo — During his term, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has transformed Japan’s defense posture amid growing threats from China, Russia and North Korea.

After nearly three years in power, however, Kishida is set to leave office, having announced earlier this month that he would not run in September’s election to lead his ruling Liberal Democratic Party, amid low approval ratings and corruption allegations within the LDP. 

At question is whether his successor will build on that legacy or take Japan in a new direction. Regardless, Kishida said he would support the new leader.

War anniversary

Kishida marked the 79th anniversary of his country’s defeat in World War II on Thursday, leading a solemn ceremony in Tokyo alongside Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako.

Speaking to delegates in what will likely be one of his last major public events, Kishida reiterated Japan’s long-held position on its devastating 1945 defeat.

“We must never again repeat the devastation of war. Although 79 years have now passed, no matter how time flows, we will remain committed to this resolute pledge, passing it down across generations,” Kishida said.

But his speech also reflected Japan’s changing role on the global stage.

“Japan will do its utmost to resolve the various challenges facing the world as it works to maintain and strengthen the free and open international order based on the rule of law while placing human dignity at the very center. In this way, we will carve out the future of our nation,” he added.

Global challenges

Japan lies at the intersection of several of those global challenges, and Kishida’s successor will likely continue his approach to defense and security, said Tomohiko Taniguchi, an adviser to the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and now a special adviser at Fujitsu Future Studies Center.

“The scope of options for Japan is indeed narrow because of the troubling neighborhood that Japan finds itself in,” Taniguchi told VOA.

“Russia, North Korea and China — three of the nuclear-powered [armed] nations — none of which has exercised anything akin to open democracy. And all three of those countries are all fostering hostility and hate, intentionally and institutionally, towards Japan and the U.S.-Japan alliance,” he said.

Ukraine ties

Shortly after Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Kishida warned that “Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow,” a statement that appeared to resonate with many regional allies.

The Japanese leader forged close ties with Kyiv, visiting the town of Bucha in 2023, where Russian troops are alleged to have committed war crimes, including mass killings and rape. Moscow denies the charges, despite widespread evidence.

Kishida then invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to attend the 2023 G7 summit in Hiroshima.

Under Kishida’s leadership, Japanese lawmakers approved a doubling of defense spending by 2027. He forged closer alliances with regional allies, and in July, successfully negotiated an upgrade of the United States’ military command in Japan.

South Korea

Over the past two years, Japan’s Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol overcame historical grievances to forge a close alliance. 

In a joint statement issued Sunday, the United States, Japan and South Korea reaffirmed their pledge made a year ago at a historic trilateral summit at Camp David.

“We stand by our commitment to consult on regional challenges, provocations and threats affecting our collective interests and security,” the statement said.

But uncertainties remain, said analyst Taniguchi.

“There is no assurance whatsoever that the improved South Korea-Japan relationship is going to continue as it is. President Yoon has passed the midpoint of his term. The rest of his term is going to be increasingly a lame-duck administration. The opposition parties are sniffing blood already — and the easiest target for the opposition party is to say that the incumbent administration is too weak vis-a-vis Japan,” Taniguchi told VOA.

Likely successor?

Kishida has no obvious successor. Several LDP lawmakers, including numerous government ministers, are expected to put themselves forward for the Sept. 27 vote for the party presidency. 

“There are some (candidates) who have shown uneasiness… as if Japan was a puppet of the Big Brother of the United States,” Taniguchi said.

Japan’s next prime minister will also have to win over the Japanese public and rebuild trust that has been eroded by a recent scandal over political funds.

“The public supports in principle are boosting Japan’s defenses and the defense budget hikes, but they are actually unwilling to pay higher personal taxes in order to do so,” said Yee Kuang Heng, a professor of international relations at the University of Tokyo. 

He added that the Japanese public now largely accepts the need for a stronger defense capability, “but nevertheless remains quite cautious about a more aggressive military posture.”

Global reaction

The United States’ ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, wrote on X that Kishida had “helped build a latticework of security alliances and partnerships across the Indo-Pacific region that will stand the test of time.”

Beijing, meanwhile, said it would work to build a constructive and stable China-Japan relationship with Kishida’s successor.

The next prime minister will require staying power, Taniguchi said, “because the next five, six or seven years is going to be crucial for this ongoing long game between China and Japan. And nothing can be achievable for a prime minister who stays in office only for one or two years.” 

He added, “So, the next prime minister has got to come up with a good plan with which he or she could stay in office, manage difficult tasks, strengthen Japan’s alliance networks, and beef up Japan’s defense spending.”
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Beijing — Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to strengthen ties with Fiji in a world beset with “turmoil” as he met the Pacific island’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka in Beijing on Tuesday.

China has stepped up its courtship of South Pacific nations in recent years, triggering concern among Western powers — particularly the United States and Australia — that have historically held sway over the region.

Rabuka met Xi in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People after touring the length and breadth of China for more than a week.

“(Our) two countries have always supported and helped each other as good friends, good partners, and have become a model of being equals and friendly cooperation between countries large and small,” Xi told Rabuka.

He said Beijing was keen to “promote the building of a China-Fiji community with a shared future in a world of turmoil and chaos, and to bring more benefits to our people.”

Xi also praised Fiji’s recent sporting successes in rugby, for which it won a silver medal at the Paris Olympics last month.

Rabuka thanked the Chinese leader, telling Xi that “Fiji stands ready to send rugby coaches and players to come to China to play with Chinese teams.”

He also hailed Xi’s meeting last year with US President Joe Biden in San Francisco, where he said “you might have achieved peace for the world.”

Rabuka has taken a more cautious line over China’s growing security interests in the Pacific, praising Fiji’s warming ties with Beijing while saying he preferred to deal with democratic “traditional friends” on security.

Fiji and China signed a series of bilateral deals on trade, military aid, infrastructure and Chinese-language education during Rabuka’s trip, according to statements by both governments.

Premier Li Qiang pledged at a meeting with Rabuka on Sunday to boost imports from Fiji and encourage Chinese investment there, according to a Chinese government readout.

Rabuka also hailed Beijing’s “tailor-made innovative poverty alleviation strategies” during a trip to Ningde city in eastern China’s Fujian province.

The Fijian premier last met Xi at an Asia-Pacific economic summit in San Francisco last year, when the Chinese leader committed to helping Fiji safeguard its “security and sovereignty.”

Rabuka said after those talks China could help develop Fiji’s ports and shipyards and praised Beijing’s record of aid to his country in fighting Covid-19, developing agriculture and revamping infrastructure.

China alarmed Western countries when it signed a secretive defense pact with Solomon Islands last year, sparking fears it could deploy military forces there.

The Solomons’ Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele visited China in June and the Pacific nation later said Beijing would inject $20 million into its government budget.
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Bangkok — Politicians in Thailand must reform the judiciary to prevent interventions that have the country “going around in circles,” a recently banned opposition figurehead said, after two big rulings that dissolved his party and dismissed a prime minister.

Pita Limjaroenrat, whose now defunct Move Forward Party was blocked from forming a government last year, said a 10-year political ban would not weaken his resolve to lead Thailand and start major reforms, including stopping independent institutions from being politicized.

Thailand has been trapped in a tumultuous two-decade cycle of coups and court rulings that have toppled multiple governments, as part of a power struggle between popularly elected parties and an influential establishment with powerful connections in the military and key institutions.

“It’s back to square one and nothing has been achieved for the people,” Pita told Reuters, reflecting on upheaval that saw Move Forward dissolved and Srettha Thavisin dismissed as premier in the space of a week, both by the same court.

“We confuse movement with progress,” he said. “It’s almost like we’re going around in circles and we’re thinking we’re going somewhere but actually we’re going nowhere.”

His remarks came as 134 Thai academics and legal experts in a statement criticized the court, which they said overstepped its jurisdiction and damaged the public’s trust in legal and democratic systems.

Pita will return to Harvard University as a democracy fellow following his ban over his party’s plan to amend a law that punishes royal insults with up to 15 years in jail, a campaign the court said undermined Thailand’s constitutional monarchy.

His predicament provides a snapshot of Thailand’s cutthroat politics, with Pita hugely popular yet forced onto the sidelines, despite leading Move Forward to a surprise election victory that gave a ringing public endorsement of its progressive, anti-establishment platform.

Pita, 43, has polled consistently as the most preferred prime minister choice in Thailand, long after army-appointed senators thwarted his bid to become premier.

He and 43 colleagues could be subject of another pending case over the campaign on the lese-majeste law and face lifetime political bans by the anti-corruption commission, which has a remit that goes beyond graft cases.

He said the issue shows elected politicians need to reform institutions such as the commission and courts to guarantee their independence and accountability to the public.

“Penalize someone because of differing ethical standards or morality standards – that’s a bit too much for our democracy,” he said.

Though the two verdicts shook Thai politics and sparked concerns about the outlook for its stagnating economy, the status quo remains after casualties of both cases quickly regrouped within two days of the decisions.

Move Forward formed a new vehicle, the People’s Party, while the Pheu Thai Party-led coalition rallied behind Srettha’s replacement, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who won the overwhelming backing of parliament on Friday and was endorsed by the king on Sunday.

Paetongtarn is daughter of divisive political heavyweight and billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, whose populist parties have been worst hit by Thailand’s tumult. He is indicted for an alleged royal insult, though his lawyer on Monday said witness testimony will not start until July 2025.

Pita is planning a memoir of his roller-coaster ride and to give speeches and seminars on Southeast Asian affairs, hoping to return to politics stronger.

“I’ll be waiting for my time, you know I still very much want to bring about change in Thailand,” he said.

“I’ll be accumulating knowledge and experiences so when I return to be the leader of the country, I’ll be a better person then.”
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Seoul, South Korea — Just two years ago, Zane Han couldn’t have imagined his life today: living in Seoul and writing whatever he wants about the North Korean government, which once tried to control his every move. 

Han, a broad-shouldered, energetic man approaching middle age, has lived a dizzying life. As a teenager, he survived the 1990s famine; later, he attended an elite Pyongyang university, where bribes were often necessary to get passing grades. Eventually, he worked for a North Korean construction company in Russia, where brutal conditions led him to seek freedom. 

Now, sitting in an office in central Seoul where he works as a journalist, Han struggles to describe what it feels like to have gone from the rigid outdatedness of North Korea to the vibrant modernity that now surrounds him. 

“It’s like experiencing a time machine,” he told VOA in an interview. 

Han is one of a strikingly small number of North Koreans to escape in recent years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea tightened border controls, intensifying a crackdown that began when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un took power in 2011.  

Forced labor 

Han’s escape began in the far-western Russian city of St. Petersburg, where he worked grueling 15-hour days as a migrant laborer — pouring concrete, installing rebar, and laying bricks at a series of construction sites. 

Han said he and his North Korean colleagues were given only two days off each year. Confined to temporary container housing on the construction sites, they were rarely allowed to leave — usually about once a year. 

At first, Han didn’t see himself as a slave. It wasn’t until he overheard his Russian coworkers referring to him as a servant of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — the pawn of a mafia boss — that the reality of his situation began to sink in. It was a moment of self-awareness and what Han describes as the first shock that set him on the path to escape.  

“Of course, I [knew] we have no freedom inside North Korea,” he said, “But I didn’t imagine that North Korea’s image [in the outside world] was so poor.”  

Still, he pushed on, trying to make the most of what he had been assured was a rare opportunity to leave North Korea and send money back to his family in Pyongyang.  

Dramatic escape 

The breaking point came during the COVID-19 pandemic when North Korean authorities demanded an even larger cut of overseas workers’ earnings. Han suddenly found himself keeping just $100 to $150 a month, half of what he had been earning before. 

He’d had enough. The next time Han was allowed to leave the construction site, he called the United Nations refugee agency office in Moscow, using a cellphone that he had purchased from an Uzbek coworker for about $30.  

The U.N. office helped facilitate his escape, first to Moscow then through a third country. Within 20 hours of fleeing the construction site, he had landed in South Korea, one of just 67 North Koreans to reach the South in 2022. 

New pattern 

Han’s escape reflects an important trend, according to Lee Shin-wha, who until earlier this month was South Korea’s ambassador for North Korean human rights.  

Like Han, most recent escapees were already outside North Korea — mostly living in China and Russia working as diplomats, businessmen, or migrant laborers, said Lee. Some had lived abroad for 10 or 20 years before fleeing Pyongyang’s control, she said.  

According to a U.N. report this year, around 100,000 North Korean workers remain overseas, earning money for the North Korean government despite U.N. Security Council resolutions that prohibit such activity.  

Activists have long tried to reach overseas North Korean workers, who despite being in tightly controlled environments, might have some access to outside information.  

But Lee also emphasized the plight of those trapped inside North Korea, especially since the pandemic, when North Korea cracked down on unauthorized border crossings.  

“Ordinary North Koreans’ chances [of escape], I think, are almost zero,” she said. “That is my big concern.” 

Speaking out 

Han, whose entire family remains in North Korea, is also motivated by those who cannot leave. 

After spending three months at Hanawon, a government-run facility that helps defectors adjust to life in the South, Han settled in Seoul and now writes for NK Insider, an English language website that aims to elevate North Korean voices. The project, funded by the U.S.-based Human Rights Foundation, launched earlier this year. 

Using his contacts back home, Han has written stories that help uncover rights abuses, such as sexual violence at North Korean prison camps, as well as a new system to incentivize North Koreans to spy on their neighbors.  

Though Han speaks with urgency — almost an evangelistic zeal — he is also cautious, using a pseudonym in part to protect his family, which he has not spoken with, two years after defecting.  

Despite the challenges, Han sees his work as crucial for revealing the true conditions inside North Korea. 

“Nobody can imagine what the situation [in North Korea] is like,” he said. “[But] I was there — I know.” 
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