Since 1945, the United States has maintained a significant military presence in the Republic of Korea (also known as South Korea). Currently, about 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed on military bases throughout the country. Beginning in the 1950s, U.S. Forces in Korea (USFK) identified the need to provide entertainment in order to maintain high levels of morale among U.S. troops stationed there. The USFK and South Korea cooperated to establish centers of “rest and relaxation” for American troops called kijichon near American military bases. What began as a well-meaning effort to keep homesick American troops amused, and Korean citizens employed, resulted in an exploitative network that has spanned international borders and four decades. [Read more →]

Jean M. Geran, Ph.D., is Senior Fellow at the Legatum Institute in London and former Director for Democracy and Human Rights on the National Security Council.

WASHINGTON AND LONDON — We just finished a trip to four cities in Japan, laying the groundwork for increased dialogue between the US, UK, Japan and other industrialized democracies on best practices to attack their human trafficking problems. These are the trafficking-demand and migration-destination developed-world democracies , or the 4 D countries. [Read more →]

FUKUI, JAPAN – South Korea ended a program of foreign trainees working in the country because of their vulnerability to gross exploitation. I heard firsthand why Japan ought to consider doing the same with its program – the vulnerability to labor abuses which can amount to human trafficking.

The foreign trainee program (“Industrial Training and Technical Internship Program”) is designed to help workers from developing countries come to Japan and gain skills to take back to their country. [Read more →]

When I heard about the detention of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, by North Korean authorities in March, my first thought focused on their courage and the importance of their mission to document the little-reported stories of North Korean refugees in China.  The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea had recently released a comprehensive report on North Korean refugees victimized by human traffickers. Grassroots organizations such as Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) have also worked to raise awareness through video presentations. [Read more →]

Political prisoner in North Korea

The world rightly is concerned about how the North Korean regime continues to threaten its neighbors with its nuclear capability and, more recently, missiles to deliver them.  However, it is no less urgent to consider how that same regime threatens the security of its own people.  It is all a piece of a North Korean government threatening people’s welfare. [Read more →]