Nodutdol for Korean Community Development

Nodutdol affirms so-called anti-imperialism, to the extent that it refers to itself as an organization of “diasporic Koreans and comrades based in occupied Indigenous lands known as the United States and Canada.”  ³

Background

Nodutdol is a radical-left Korean advocacy group that opposes elements of U.S. foreign policy it views as imperialistic. The group advocates for a united Korea, as well as promoting socialist ideas and condemning capitalism. Despite being a group that describes itself as being based on the United States and Canada, it states that its advocacy work is intended to build a “a movement to protect our own homeland,” referring to the Korean peninsula. ¹ Nodutdol refers to both U.S. and Canada as “occupied Indigenous lands.”  ³

Nodutdol claimed that the Korean War was the United States’ longest running war and initially “slaughtered between 3-5 million civilians.” The group claimed that the U.S. was still occupying Korea, in the form of U.S. soldiers’ presence at South Korean military bases.  ¹

The group’s “U.S. Out of Korea” campaign has been endorsed by radical-left groups including the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, the American Party of Labor, the Asian Youth Collective, Athens Against Apartheid, the China-US Solidarity Network, CODEPINK, Community Liberation Programs, the Delaware Democratic Socialists of America, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Jews Against White Supremacy, the Korea Policy Institute, Korean Americans for the Progressive Party of Korea, Koreans4Decolonization, the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Party for Socialism and Liberation – NYC, RootsAction.org, Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine, the Black Alliance for Peace, The People’s Forum, United National Antiwar CoalitionWorkers Voice Socialist Movement – Louisiana, Workers World Party, and World BEYOND War.  ¹

Activities

As of 2026, Nodutdol was heavily critical of U.S. military exercises in Korea and condemned South Korea’s policy of allowing the U.S. access to its military bases. It ran a campaign called “U.S. Out of Korea,” which has the tag line “US out of Korea! US out of everywhere!”  ¹

The group was heavily critical of U.S. military operations. As part of its U.S. Out of Korea campaign, the group demanded an end to all alliances between the U.S. and South Korea. Moreover, the group was critical of the U.S. economic sanctions put in place against North Korea and military exercises that the group claimed “pose an existential threat to North Korea.”  ²

The group further demanded that the U.S. “divert spending from war, prisons, and policing.”  ²

In April 2026, Nodutdol published an Instagram post that linked housing issues in America, imperialism, and capitalism. The caption of the post began by denouncing that “US imperialism and zionism wage another destructive war against Lebanon, Iran, and Palestine.” The group attributed these operations to capitalism, stating it “commodifies land and the destruction of human beings at the same time.” The post went on to elaborate that socialist countries, and in particular North Korea, have “much to teach the world about housing.”  ⁴

People

As of 2024, Betsy Yoon was a director of Nodutdol.  ⁵ As of May 2026, Yoon was an assistant professor and public and international affairs librarian at Baruch College. Previously, she was a researcher at Solidarity for Peace and Reunification in Korea, an adjunct liaison librarian at New York University, and an adjunct assistant professor at City University of New York-College of Staten Island. Yoon has volunteered as a member of the Justice Committee.  ⁶