Norbert Vollertsen

In North Korea from 1999 to 2001, Vollertsen practiced medicine with the Cap Anamur Committee, a non-governmental cooperation organization. In August 1999, he and Francois Large, another aid worker, donated their skin to Pak Jong Thae, a tractor factory worker in Haeju, South Hwanghae, who had suffered burns on over three-quarters of his body and underwent three skin grafting operations.{{cite news|title=Germans donate their skin to Korean patient|publisher=Korean Central News Agency|date=5 August 1999|access-date=10 July 2007|url=http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/1999/9908/news08/05.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926234040/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/1999/9908/news08/05.htm|archive-date=26 September 2007|url-status=dead}} In recognition of his contribution, Vollertsen received the official Democratic People's Republic of Korea's Friendship Medal for his humanitarian assistance later that same month, in a ceremony which was attended by Supreme People's Assembly vice-president Yang Hyong Sop.{{cite news|title=DPRK Friendship Medal awarded to Germans|publisher=Korean Central News Agency|url=http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/1999/9908/news08/23.htm|date=23 August 1999|access-date=10 July 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141012050824/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/1999/9908/news08/23.htm|archive-date=12 October 2014}} He was also given a pass that allowed him to travel through the country freely, which was very unusual for a foreigner.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/2967889.stm|title=Westerner's help for N Korean refugees|date=23 April 2003|access-date=10 July 2007|publisher=BBC News|last=Edmonds|first=David}}

As he traveled in his capacity as an emergency physician, visiting the countryside and tending to the illnesses and injuries which common North Koreans were suffering from, he struggled with a nearly non-existent healthcare system, abject poverty and growing proof of a network of political prisons in North Korea that enforced the flow of wealth from the citizenry to the Pyongyang-based military and the Workers' Party of Korea which was then headed by Kim Jong Il. Using smuggled cameras, he obtained photos and films of flagrant, large-scale human rights violations in North Korea. In particular, mass starvation was used as a tool of political control. He began to collect evidence of human rights abuses, which he passed to a visiting United States Congressman, an act for which he was put under surveillance. Despite this, Vollertsen continued to speak out against the North Korean government, which soon lost its patience with him and forced him to leave North Korea in January 2001. Soon after returning home, he gave an interview about his experiences in North Korea, which the North Korean government denounced.{{cite news|url=http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2001/200101/news01/16.htm|date=16 January 2001|access-date=10 July 2007|publisher=Korean Central News Agency|title=Spokesman for DPRK FDRC on letter from German "Cap Anamur" Committee|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071010055333/http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2001/200101/news01/16.htm|archive-date=10 October 2007|url-status=dead}}

The North Korean government has portrayed him as a dishonest media manipulator who is suffering from mental instability. His wife, reacting to his decision to stay in South Korea as an anti-Kim activist, divorced him and she is raising their children with a partner. In 2003, Vollertsen stated, "My wife blamed me for not taking care of my family. She said my vision, my goals, my projects, were worth much more to me. And afterwards, I realised she was right. I do not want to sacrifice my family. But I know my wife and her partner are taking care of my children, and that they are safe and healthy. But the North Korean children are not".

In September 2006, Vollertsen claimed that while he was in Seoul and before he made a speech on North Korea, he had been attacked by a gang and he also claimed that he had been run over by a taxi cab.{{cite web|title=Things Getting Darker for Vollertson|url=http://www.rjkoehler.com/2006/09/25/things-getting-darker-for-vollertson/|date=25 September 2006|access-date=9 July 2007|last=Koehler|first=Robert|publisher=The Marmot's Hole|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927040341/http://www.rjkoehler.com/2006/09/25/things-getting-darker-for-vollertson/|archive-date=27 September 2007}}

He has written the book Inside North Korea: Diary of a Mad Place, published in 2004.{{citation|isbn=1-893554-87-2|oclc=226117315|last=Vollertson|first=Norbert|publisher=Encounter Books|publication-place=San Francisco|year=2004|title=Inside North Korea: Diary of a Mad Place}} It was earlier translated into Japanese by Midori Segi and published in Japan in 2001.{{citation|author=瀬木碧 [Midori Segi]|publisher=草思社 [Sōshisha]|script-title=ja:北朝鮮を知りすぎた医者国境からの報告|trans-title=The doctor who knew too much about North Korea: A report from inside the borders|isbn=4-7942-1090-6|oclc=48952380|id={{JPNO|20208614}}|year=2001}}

• {{cite book|last=Vollertsen|first=Norbert|title=Inside North Korea: Diary of a Mad Place|year=2004|publisher=Encounter Books|location=San Francisco|isbn=978-1-893554-87-0}}

• North Korea
• History of North Korea
• Human rights in North Korea
• Prisons in North Korea

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.icasinc.org/bios/vollerts.html Norbert Vollertsen] on the Institute for Corean-American Studies website.
• [http://freekorea.blogspot.com/2005/10/ofk-interview-dr-norbert-vollertsen.html Interview] with the blog [http://freekorea.blogspot.com/ One Free Korea], 28 October 2005.
• [http://www.icasinc.org/2003/2003f/2003fnsv.html Lecture transcript], 14 October 2003.
• [http://www.goodnewsmag.org/magazine/3MayJune/mj02korea.htm "Eyewitness to the Axis of Evil"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060118120944/http://www.goodnewsmag.org/magazine/3MayJune/mj02korea.htm |date=18 January 2006}}, Good News Magazine, May/June 2002 issue.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20010124043500/http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/2001/0122/korea.doctor.html "Diary of a Mad Place"], Time Asia, 22 January 2001.
• [http://www.iht.com/articles/2001/01/09/kor.2.t_0.php "For the Masses, 'Nothing Has Changed,' Expelled Doctor Asserts"], The International Herald Tribune, 9 January 2001.

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Category:Society of North Korea

Category:Foreign relations of North Korea

Category:Human rights abuses in North Korea

Vollersten, Norbert

Category:Living people

Category:German emergency physicians

Category:Recipients of the Order of Friendship (North Korea)

Category:People from Düsseldorf

Category:Physicians from North Rhine-Westphalia