Norbert Vollertsen

Who is Norbert Vollertsen?

Norbert Vollertsen is a German doctor and human rights activist.

Vollertsen practiced medicine in North Korea from 1999 to 2001 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 over three-quarters of his body and underwent three skin grafting operations. In recognition for 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 attended by Supreme People's Assembly vice-president Yang Hyong Sop. He was also given a pass that allowed him to travel the country freely, which was very unusual for a foreigner.

As he traveled in his capacity as an emergency physician, tending to the illnesses and injuries of common North Koreans in the countryside, he struggled with a nearly non-existent healthcare system, abject poverty and growing proof of a network of prison camps and penitentiaries that enforced the flow of wealth from the citizenry to the Pyongyang-based military and the labor party headed by Kim Jong Il. Using smuggled cameras, he obtained photos and films of flagrant, large-scale human-rights abuses. In particular, mass starvation was used as a tool of political control. He became convinced that the North Korean government was evil and began campaigning against it. He began collecting evidence of 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 patience and forced him to leave North Korea in January 2001. Soon after returning home, he gave an interview about his experiences there soon, which the North Korean government denounced.