Hannah Song is the president and CEO of US nonprofit

Liberty in North Korea Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. It has offices in Long Beach, California, United States, and Seoul, South Korea. The organization rescues refugees hiding in China and resettles them in South Korea or the Un ...

(LiNK), which raises awareness of the human-rights situation in

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

and provides resettlement support to North Korean refugees.

Early life and education

Song grew up in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. She is one of three children born to

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

n immigrants and the granddaughter of a woman who emigrated to the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

before the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

from what is now North Korea.

Career

Before joining LiNK, Song worked in advertising at OgilvyOne and

Mindshare Mind share relates to the development of consumer awareness or popularity, and is one of the main objectives of advertising and promotion. When people think of examples of a product type or category, they usually think of a limited number of bra ...

, with a focus on digital media and emerging technologies. Song, who had previously been unaware about the situation in North Korea, says that she was changed by her reading of '' Aquariums of Pyongyang'', the true account of a boy who spent 10 years in a North Korean prison camp in North Korea. In 2006, she started working full-time at LiNK's headquarters in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

She worked as Deputy Director until 2008, when Hong chose her to become the organization's new CEO and Executive Director. The next year, headquarters was moved to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. LiNK's headquarters are currently located in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

. LiNK's revenue more than doubled between 2008 and 2009.

Other professional activities

In a

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

talk entitled
Changes in North Korea
, given in

Tripoli, Libya Tripoli (; ar, طرابلس الغرب, translit= Ṭarābulus al-Gharb , translation=Western Tripoli) is the capital and largest city of Libya, with a population of about 1.1 million people in 2019. It is located in the northwest of Libya o ...

, in 2012, Song said that while "many people have written North Korea off, saying that it is hopeless," the fact is that "North Korea is changing," and that that change "is being driven by the people." The change is not at "the level of high politics" but is "on the ground." Although the country is "still incredibly closed off and incredibly impoverished," the changes that have occurred in the last ten years have also been "incredible," and if they continue, a dramatic transformation is "inevitable." She spoke at an event, "North Korea's Political Prison Camp System and the Plight of North Korean Refugees," held at the

Museum of Tolerance The Museum of Tolerance-Beit HaShoah (MOT, House of the Holocaust), a multimedia museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, is designed to examine racism and prejudice around the world with a strong focus on the history of the Holocaust. Th ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

in October 2012, sponsored by the

Committee for Human Rights in North Korea The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), formerly known as the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, is a Washington, D.C.-based non-governmental research organization that "seeks to raise awareness about conditions in Nort ...

(HRNK), The Simon Wiesenthal Center, and LiNK.

References

External links

LiNK WebsiteBio: Liberty In North Korea
{{DEFAULTSORT:Song, Hannah American human rights activists Women human rights activists Human rights in North Korea Nonprofit chief executives Women nonprofit executives American people of Korean descent Living people Year of birth missing (living people)