Image: Books and sunlight by quinn.anya on 2009-05-18 06:48:58
A New York committee was formed yesterday to nominate a dissident North Korean writer known as Mr. Bandi (Bandi Teacher) to the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The formation of this committee took place in Flushing, New York, under North Korean defector Ma Young-ae, the chairperson for the new organization.
The committee also included the CEO of the Americas Human Rights Association and the CEO of the Korean Veterans Association of the East Coast.
“The movement to promote Bandi Teacher as a Nobel Literature Prize candidate began two years ago and we decided to form an official committee after the book was officially published in Seoul last winter,” Ma said at the committee’s first meeting.
“Bandi is like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974 for criticizing Stalin’s regime. Bandi risked his life by writing this book that exposes the harsh political system in North Korea”, she added.
The dissident author currently lives in North Korea. His pseudonym is a shortened form of the word for “fireflies” in Korean, chosen to reflect his desire to bring light to the country of North Korea.
Bandi started writing to expose the North Korean regime and his book Gobal (“Charge”) talks about the realities of North Korean people’s lives.
The manuscript of this book was smuggled through China and published by the Seoul-based Chogapje Dot Com in autumn last year.
This is not the first time committee chairman Ma has been in the spotlight. The North Korean defector has given lectures in the U.S. on North Korea’s human rights violations, and has taken part in one person protests in front of North Korean UN mission in New York.
Her stance has attracted the attention of the DPRK’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), which called her “showy and a trickster” in March last year.
North Korean media often targets defectors, attacking the reputations of those who gain public attention.
In February 2014, she was invited to President Park Geun Hye’s inauguration ceremony as a North Korean Human Rights Activist.
A New York committee was formed yesterday to nominate a dissident North Korean writer known as Mr. Bandi (Bandi Teacher) to the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The formation of this committee took place in Flushing, New York, under North Korean defector Ma Young-ae, the chairperson for the new organization.
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About the Author
Ina Yoon
Ina Yoon is an NK News contributor based in Seoul. She is a political science major with a minor in Spanish. She enjoys learning about immigration and North and South Korean relations.
