'Privilege that comes with heavy responsibilities': North Korean defector votes in a US election for the first time

• Joseph Kim, a North Korean defector and refugee to the US, voted in the US election for the first time on Super Tuesday in Dallas, Texas.
• "I don't have the right words to describe ... my feelings," Joseph Kim said in a video, wearing a sticker signifying he had voted. "But I know that there are people who are fighting to create these rights for people to vote and to freely elect their leaders."
• "I know that it is a privilege that comes with heavy responsibilities," Kim added. "I'm happy to experience this moment."
• The totalitarian regime of North Korea, led by leader Kim Jong Un, stages mandatory elections where people submit a pre-filled ballot with a single candidate.
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A North Korean defector who sought refugee in the US voted in a US election for the first time on Super Tuesday in Dallas, Texas.

"I voted for the first time and I don't have the right words to describe ... my feelings," Joseph Kim said in a video, wearing a sticker signifying he had voted. "But I know that there are people who are fighting to create these rights for people to vote, and to freely elect their leaders."

"I know that it is a privilege that comes with heavy responsibilities," Kim added. "I'm happy to experience this moment."

Samantha Power, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, congratulated Kim for voting.

"Thank you for becoming American after fleeing North Korea, and thank you today for reminding us of the right and privilege of voting. We must fight voter suppression at every turn," Power said in a tweet to Kim.

The totalitarian regime of North Korea, led by leader Kim Jong Un, stages mandatory elections where people submit a pre-filled ballot with a single candidate. Abstaining or voting "no" attracts negative attention from authorities.

In 2006, Joseph Kim defected from North Korea to China, where he connected with Liberty in North Korea, a non-governmental organization dedicated to resettling North Korean refugees to South Korea and the US. Kim's father died from starvation when he was 12-years-old, according to the George W. Bush Presidential Center, where Kim now works as an assistant for the Human Freedom Initiative.

Kim was classified as a refugee and made his way to the US a year later, where he eventually graduated with a degree in political science from Bard College. Kim wrote a memoir about his experience and delivered a TED Talk in 2013.

"You might be asking, why should we help people who live far away when we have our own poverty and socio-economic disparity at home?" Kim wrote in an opinion column in 2019.

"Unfortunately, there is no other way around this, but all lives are not only precious, their well-being affects our own well-being. As President Bush says, 'how others live matters,'" Kim added.