Miss Kathi: Saving Lives in North Korea chronicles the remarkable story of Kathi Zellweger, a native of Switzerland whose history of engagement with a secretive, isolated North Korea over nearly three decades is unprecedented in its scope, access, and humanitarian impact. Playing a central role in the early years of international relief efforts in North Korea — especially during the worst days of the famine — was a lonely job, as Kathi addressed the humanitarian needs of a suffering people largely ignored by the world because of their citizenship. She befriended local doctors, nurses, and caregivers; negotiated with suspicious government officials; overcame international doubts about the diversion of relief supplies to the military; and spearheaded an effort that provided food, medicine, and development aid. Co-written with former CNN correspondent Mike Chinoy, this book details Kathi’s efforts to save the lives of thousands of people in North Korea.
Featured Speakers
Kathi Zellweger, Senior Aid Manager
Kathi Zellweger is a senior aid manager with over thirty years of experience in Hong Kong, China, and North Korea. She has made 75 trips to North Korea and was based in Pyongyang during 2006–2011 as the North Korea country director for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Before that, Zellweger worked in a senior post for the Catholic Agency Caritas in Hong Kong, where she played a key role in pioneering Caritas’s involvement in China and North Korea. She later established her own NGO, the Hong Kong–based KorAid Limited, to serve children in institutions and people with disabilities in North Korea. Zellweger is affiliated with the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University and is a Non-resident Fellow at the European Center for North Korean Studies at the University of Vienna. She holds a Master’s degree in International Administration from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont.
Mike Chinoy, Nonresident Scholar, 21st Century China Center, UCSD
Mike Chinoy is a nonresident scholar at the 21st Century China Center at the University of California, San Diego. Previously, he was a nonresident senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s US-China Institute. Before joining USC, he spent twenty-four years as a foreign correspondent for CNN. He was the network’s first bureau chief in Beijing, bureau chief in Hong Kong, and senior Asia correspondent. He also worked for CBS News and NBC News in Hong Kong. Chinoy won Emmy, DuPont, Peabody, and ACE awards for his coverage of China, and also made seventeen trips to North Korea. After leaving CNN, he was a senior fellow at the Los Angeles–based Pacific Council on International Policy, focusing on security issues in North Korea, China, and Northeast Asia before joining the USC US-China Institute. He is the author of five other books, two on North Korea. He has an MS degree from Columbia and a BA from Yale, and is based in Taipei.
Jenny Town, Senior Fellow and Director, 38 North Program, Stimson Center (Moderator)
