 A still image from An Egalitarian Society, the grand prize winner of Young NK’s UCC Film Contest. Image: Youtube Screen Grab |
Students Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea [Young
NK], a nonprofit organization with members from 18 universities across South Korea advocating for North Korean human rights, held the award ceremony for its user
content created [UCC] film contest on December 10th in Seoul.
The organization received 27 entries
overall and eight were selected for awards. Submissions were limited to 60
seconds of footage to encourage creativity and fresh perspectives on North Korean human rights from
participants.
Yoon Ji Hye, a student at Kookmin
University, won the grand prize for her entry titled, An Egalitarian Society. The footage highlights the contradictions hidden behind the word “equality” in
North Korea.
“I hope that by viewing this film more
people can understand the reality of conditions in North Korea and develop
interest in working to improve the human rights situation there,” Yoon stated after receiving the award.
The gold prize went to Kim Kyung Ah of
Konkuk University for her submission, North Korea from 1 to 10, which uses numbers to highlight the brutal human rights violations and oppressive dictatorship in North Korea.
In her acceptance speech, Kim mentioned that while progress is being made in some areas, namely the recent passing of a resolution on human rights in North Korea by the U.N.’s Third Committee, there is still much work to be done. “I hope that
South Koreans, particularly students and the youth, who previously had no
interest in North Korean human rights will give this issue attention, and that
the South Korean National Assembly will finally pass the North Korean human
rights bill,” she said.
Silver and bronze prizes were awarded to other top entries: My Movie, submitted by Jeong Sung Kyung, a student at the University
of Texas at Austin; North Korean Human Rights Must Be Improved by Hong Won Hee
of Anyang University; Human Rights for North Korea Now, a work by Kwon Jae
Sung, a student at Dong-A University; The Urgency of Legislation for North
Korean Human Rights, by Kang Soo Jeong of Sungshin University; and Balloons of Unification by Kang Sung Jin of Chung-Ang University.
Moon Dong Hui, president of Young NK, spoke at the award ceremony about the goal of the contest, stating, “We opened this contest to foster interest
on North Korean human rights and unification of the two Koreas among university
students and young people; we hope that this interest will inspire them to work to improve human rights conditions in
North Korea.”
