June 29 - As Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy, I meet extraordinary people. I want to share one recent encounter that inspired me to work harder to achieve my own goals in life. Recently Hiroshi Kato, Executive Director of Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, came to the United States Embassy in Tokyo to receive a Freedom Defenders Award.

Mr. Kato told me about the thousands North Korean refugees who flee into China and Russia each year. Once in China, many of these people face great hardship and may be forced back to North Korea, where they face imprisonment or possible execution. Mr. Kato co-founded Life Funds for North Korea Refugees (LFNKR) in 1997 to help these desperate refugees. His organization provides North Korean refugees with food, clothing, medicine and shelter. It also helps some of them resettle in a safe country. The North Korean government has issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Kato, so he carries out these humanitarian activities at great personal risk.

When I asked Mr. Kato why he became involved in protecting the human rights of North Korean refugees, he told me that one of his high school friends was an ethnic Korean who returned to North Korea to live in 1960. Decades later, when Mr. Kato met some impoverished North Korean refugees in Russia, he felt tremendous empathy toward those people, who reminded him of his old friend.

In our meeting, Mr. Kato was extremely calm and soft spoken. Yet he became animated when he described his life's mission. He said it was an honor to receive this award from the American Embassy, but I thought it was actually my honor to present an award to such a socially conscious humanitarian activist.

Until next time,

Jim