A North Korean's Quest for Gold, in D.C.

Lucas Timberlake, Pulitzer Center

Most of us in Washington are well accustomed to seeing protestors outside the Chinese embassy.  For years activists stationed themselves in the small park across from the embassy made their calls heard for a free Tibet or the end to the persecution of the Falun Gong practitioners.

Jin-Hae Jo, right, with North Korean Freedom Coalition Chairwoman Suzanne Scholte

With the beginning of the Olympics in Beijing such demonstrations have become even more frequent.  While the large United States media outlets are fixated by Michael Phelps and his quest for eight gold medals and a Chinese girl lip-synching the country’s national anthem, they generally tend to overlook and momentarily forget China’s egregious human rights violations.

Back in our nation’s capital, one woman risks her life in an attempt to make us remember these injustices, with hope that China will become a “country of gold medals in human rights.”  But, in the midst of all the banners and protestors who file in and out of the park everyday, a lone blue Bass Pro Shops tent went unnoticed. 

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