This undated photo, provided by GoEun Elaine Kang, director of Washington at the non-profit New Korean Peninsula Baseball Association, shows the Challengers, a team of young North Korean defectors, posing for a photo at Yeomyung School in Seoul. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
WASHINGTON, Jul. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — The world’s first baseball team of young North Korean defectors will arrive in the United States this week, a non-profit organization said Tuesday, in a program that would enable them to experience first-hand the land of freedom and opportunities.
“The Challengers” will visit New York and Washington between Thursday and July 28 to meet Korean American lawmakers and U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean human rights Julie Turner, engage in friendly matches with Korean American friends and visit various U.S. sites, according to GoEun Elaine Kang, director of Washington at the non-profit New Korean Peninsula Baseball Association (NKPBA).
The association has been supporting the Challengers that consists of seven high school students and five young adults. The team was launched in 2018 to help young defectors learn baseball — a sport unheard of in North Korea — and better adapt to their new life in South Korea.
“Though it is a short trip here, I hope that the team members will experience a lot of things here and continue their aspirations for national reunification,” Kang told reporters.
“I understand that they have gone through difficulties in the process of defecting from the North and adapting to a new life thereafter. I hope this trip would help them overcome those difficulties,” she added.
The team is set to arrive in New York on Thursday. There, they plan to visit U.N. headquarters, the Human Rights Foundation, the Korean Methodist Church and Columbia University. They will also watch a New York Yankees game and visit the Statue of Liberty.
On Sunday, the team will travel to Washington.
GoEun Elaine Kang, director of Washington at the non-profit New Korean Peninsula Baseball Association, speaks during a press meeting in Annandale, Virginia, on July 16, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
In the U.S. capital, they plan to meet Reps. Young Kim (R-CA) and Michelle Park Steel (R-CA), South Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Cho Hyun-dong, Amb. Turner and Greg Scarlatoiu, the executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, according to Kang.
The young defectors will also get a baseball lesson from Chad Cordero, a former U.S. baseball pitcher, and hold friendly matches with a group of young Korean-Americans, named the “Challengers plUS,” as well as those of the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy.
Turner has been invited to throw the ceremonial opening pitch before a friendly Challengers game against an American youth baseball team, Kang said.
On July 24, the team will also attend a Korean Heritage Day event at the Washington Nationals game.
The Challengers will head home from New York on July 28.
The team initially wanted to visit the U.S. last year, but could not make it due to financial and other issues. This year’s trip to the U.S. has been sponsored by a South Korean entrepreneur who requested anonymity.
The team consists of current students and graduates from Yeomyung School, a Seoul-based alternative educational institution for young North Korean defectors.
NKPBA, a key supporter of the team, is a not-for-profit institution registered with South Korea’s unification ministry.
(Yonhap)
