As part of The Asia Scotland Institute’s 2015 Autumn Programme,  Jan Jin Sung will be speaking at the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation on Thursday 8th August.

Jang Jin-Sung is one of North Korea’s highest-profile defectors. As the dictator’s favourite propaganda poet, Jang met and liaised directly with Kim Jong-il from the age of 28.

Jang recalls one of these early encounters in which he received a £7,000 Rolex watch during a time when a devastating famine had resulted in 2.5 million deaths. Jang decided to leave North Korea in 2004 and spent 35 days on the run followed by a further 6 months being interrogated by officials in South Korea. He has had no contact with his family since he left and now operates out of Seoul as one of the most vocal critics of the North Korean Pyongyang regime.

Jang will arrive in Scotland on October 8th with the European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea (EAHRNK), with which this event is being coordinated. The event will aim to raise awareness of the current situation in North Korea and draw attention to the opportunities and challenges for Scottish businesses in investing in the world’s most notorious violator of human rights. Can Scotland improve the lives of the citizens of North Korea through ethical trade? The panel will address this question directly and includes Jang himself, Michael Glendinning (Executive Director EAHRNK), Professor Robert McCorquodale (Director of BIICL), and Sarah Kerrigan (Senior Human Rights Analyst at Verisk Maplecroft).

For more information and book this event, please visit http://goo.gl/PBUpyq