Provide a brief introduction about yourself and the work you do in Toronto.

I'm Ash Hyejung Yoon, born in Seoul, immigrated to Canada with the family at 8 years old. I was raised in Mississauga, a suburb of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and moved to Toronto when I was 18. Since 2001, I have been involved in various anti-racist, feminist grassroots initiatives. Among other things, I worked at a community radio station, CKLN 88.1FM as a news show host; co-directed a documentary about Toronto police accountability and community resistance to abuse of power called, Whose Cops; worked at a Centre for Women and Trans People; and was a member of a young women’s speaker’s bureau that conducted anti-oppression workshops across the GTA.

How did you get involved in this work?

My grade 12 English teacher, Mr. Webster, introduced me to Chomsky, and I began to develop an analysis around colonialism, imperialism, neoliberal globalization and its effects on communities and the environment. The student and labor mobilizations around the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference in Seattle in 1999, and the Free Trade Agreement at the 3rd summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001, further politicized me. At this time, a lot of discourse emerged within communities of colour, which challenged the predominately white and middle-class led North American movement to examine itself around race, representation and inclusivity in the anti-neoliberal globalization struggle. It was through these discussions that I became involved in an indigenous and women colour collective, and began focusing my efforts in feminist, anti-violence initiatives.

What parts of this work do you like the best, and what parts do you like the least?

Best: Building community. It’s the hardest and most rewarding aspect of this work – it takes time to unlearn, acquire organizing skills, build relationships in order to work and play and love together. Bonding over similar/collective experiences of barriers, systemic of otherwise, and how that can foster a space of validation, healing and action. Meeting all kinds of people with their talents, creativity, idiosyncrasies and opinions about what and how the work needs to be done. Being inspired by the brilliance and resilience of everyday people. Winning: organizing a successful project/campaign/action.

Least: the left is reactionary, fragmented, and underfunded/resourced. People burn out. Lack of adequate intergenerational ties and leadership building.

Did anything surprise you about this work that you didn’t realize before you got started in it?

Like all other segments of society, you have people who manipulate their position to acquire and maintain power in order to dominate others. This makes organizing incredibly difficult and dissipates energy and momentum.

What got you interested in DEEP?

When I became involved in community organizing, I longed for connection back to my own roots. I remember coming across Nodutdol’s website years ago and reading excitedly about KEEP/DEEP, though I was not ready to go at the time. I didn’t know much about North Korean history and thus, lacked context to understand the issues prior to applying for DEEP and engaging in the rigorous study sessions. My parents didn’t speak much about North Korea while I was growing up, other than that I was very privileged to have the opportunities that I had in the South. Occasionally, they would guilt-trip me during meals by telling me that North Korean children did not have the luxury of wasting food.

Emotionally, I was more ambivalent. While growing up in Seoul, I remember we had to practice war drills in school where everyone crouched under our desks, etc. Similarly, I recall some nights when
everyone had to turn off all the lights in the city. I remember standing in the darkness on our balcony with my parents and being simultaneously afraid of being bombed and also mesmerized by the stars.

In this way, I went on DEEP because I wanted to understand that part of my life. I also became increasingly tired with the stale war rhetoric from the Bush administration and now, Obama. I wanted to go and experience it for myself.



What was the most memorable part of the trip for you?

There were a lot of moments and revelations for me. One of many highlights was standing on top of Juche tower in Pyongyang and reveling in the aerial view of the city. During the Korean War, U.S.
carpeted the city with bombs (our guide estimated approx 400,000) destroying all buildings, with the exception of one wall that remained standing to this day. We saw all the reconstruction that had taken place, many of which were built by hand. In addition, we were on top of Juche tower during the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century!

On a related note, what was the most difficult part of the trip and why? What was the easiest part of the trip?

The easiest part of the trip were eating delicious food and catching up on sleep, of course.

My main difficulty there was communicating with Koreans across vast cultural differences. In addition, once I was taken out of my element, my reference/ analytical framework (“postmodern western capitalist liberal democratic”) failed me. For example, it was difficult to understand the status of women in North Korean society. This was also difficult because while I was experiencing things, I was simultaneously attempting to distinguish the parameters of the “veil”, or the official line.

Another difficulty was adjusting back to my life in Toronto after the trip. It was overwhelming to be inundated with choices and the vulgarity of our greedy, individualistic culture. I began to recognize more people around me who are negotiating mental health issues – chronic stress, compulsion, neurosis, etc which are in part coping mechanisms due to living under constant pressure and competition.

Do you plan on incorporating what you've learned on this trip into either your current work in Toronto, or if not, did this trip change the direction of your work?

I came back with resolve to work with Korean-Canadian youth. I wished I had learned a comprehensive history of Korea when I was younger and so I’d like to help bring that knowledge to youth here in Toronto. I also realized while on the trip that I need to prioritize maintaining and further developing my Korean. A more fluent grasp of the language enables me to engage and work with more people, especially the older generation here. On a different note, I feel that there are certain aspects of the trip that defy explanation and language, and so I’m creating artwork to help me process my experiences there and to find another way to communicate those ideas to others.

Would you recommend this trip to others, and why?

Yes, because you will learn a lot about North Korean people, the society, and gain new insights about North American ways of life and also, yourself.

What do you see as the primary impact and purpose of DEEP? Please explain.

I see DEEP as preliminary exposure to arguably one of the least understood countries in the world. I saw a lot of parallels between our ways of life: the corrupting nature of centralized power, the propaganda, and the ways in which cultures and people adopt under these conditions. I understood that North Korean people were just like us – the majority of whom uphold the status quo. Having said that, we here have way more privileges and responsibilities due to the fact that Canada and U.S. are wealthy nations with normalized relations with most countries. Access to information in here is incomparable to North Korea, though our structural issues such as race, class, education level, geography, etc impact one's ability to obtain resources.

For me the trip fostered a sense of friendship and solidarity with the North Korean people. It instilled a new set of questions for me, including: 'what would be some effective ways that I can organize so
that North Koreans can have the means to improve their quality of life, and to bring about changes in their society as they see fit?'

What has the response been like from people back home?

You do have people who are initially shocked; there are some who make jokes about coming home alive, etc, though I have found that many people are fascinated and interested to know more.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I want to refer back to one of our study sessions. There was a quote from Christopher Hill that read, “History has to be rewritten in every generation, because although the past does not change, the present does; each generation asks new questions of the past and finds new areas of sympathy as it re-lives different aspects of the experiences of its predecessors.” I love this because it empowers young people to really undertake a rigorous study into our own roots and to use this knowledge to find equitable and creative solutions that benefit our community and the society-at-large.

If you have any questions about this interview or want to contact Ash Hyejung Yoon, email her at .

About Nodutdol eNews

Nodutdol eNews is the monthly e-mail newsletter of Nodutdol.Through grassroots organization and community development, Nodutdol seeks to bridge divisions created by war, nation, gender, sexual orientation, language, classes and generation among Koreans and to empower our community to address the injustice we and other people of color face here and abroad. Nodutdol works in collaboration with other progressive organizations locally, nationally and internationally as part of a larger movement for peace and social change.

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