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Saram: A Berlin-Based NGO Dedicated to Human Rights in North Korea
FEATURE FEATURE
Written by William Urbanski
A roadside repairs kiosk in North Korea.
S
aram (사람, “people” in Korean) is an NGO based in Berlin that promotes human rights in North Korea. It sounds anomalous that a German NGO would be involved in the issue of human rights under the Kim Jongun regime, but the group, largely comprised of volunteers, has very compelling reasons to do so.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
March 2020
I first met Nicolai Sprekels, the founder and spokesperson of Saram, when I was working on my master’s degree in Berlin. Sprekels and his team brought two North Korean defectors to my university to speak at a human rights conference, and the stories they told of the horrible conditions within the country and of their harrowing experiences escaping the country, being captured, and escaping again, literally had the audience in tears. Saram, an independently funded NGO, operates out of a refurbished World War II bunker, where it regularly hosts events that draw attention to the human rights atrocities that are buried in the deluge of mass media and secondor third-hand information that people usually read about North Korea. Saram also carries out international initiatives that go well beyond the platitudes expressed by the so-called pundits so regularly seen on television. In late 2019 and early 2020, Sprekels spent a number of weeks in Seoul meeting with various interest groups and was later joined by Saram Director Franziska Gregor. I met with Sprekels and Gregor in Seoul in February to hear what they had been up to.
Gwangju News (GN): Thank you, Nicolai and Franziska, for meeting with me. To start off, what is Saram and what does it do? Nicolai Sprekels: Saram is a team of mostly German people, mostly in Berlin. We also have a North Korean on our team, and there are a few people around the world cooperating with us. We started about six years ago and believe that people around Germany and Europe should try to improve human rights in North Korea. At first, we only sought out information about North Korea and were learning how to verify it. When Kim Jong-il died, that was the moment we decided to really get active and form an NGO. Two years ago, we changed from an NGO to a foundation. Since then we have been able to engage in a lot more dialogue with German officials and big institutions in human rights. GN: You are based in Berlin. Why do you care what happens in North Korea, and why is it important for people in Europe to understand what is going on there? Sprekels: There are two answers to that. First, most people here [in South Korea] are probably not aware that relations between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the European states, particularly Germany, are quite close and stable in many ways. There is a lot of dialogue, exchange, and humanitarian aid programs. They are very complex relations, but what is important to understand is that the DPRK had partner states in Europe when Germany was still divided. East Germany supported the DPRK and helped it rebuild after the Korean War. So many people in North Korea have a very good impression
