January 18, 2026.
In Nuuk, a woman gave an interview.
Her name is Tillie Martinussen,
a young Greenlandic politician.
The moment she began to speak, I felt something I had not felt in a long time:
the sensation of listening to a real politician.
Not rehearsed sentences.
Not calibrated messaging.
But words spoken by someone who knows where she comes from, and why she stands where she does.
The remarks below are drawn from an interview circulated via the international video news channel Hook Global.
They are presented here as I remember them—because they deserved to be remembered.
“Donald Trump seems not to understand Greenlanders at all.
We don’t care much about cash, Kardashian lips, or fake breasts.
In Greenland, you cannot own land.
You can be allocated land to build a house, and you may own the house—but not the land itself.
Greenlanders believe that land does not belong to one person; it belongs to everyone.
The sea is the same.
The sea holds our wealth.
So the idea that Greenlanders would be tempted by money is a serious misunderstanding.“
Listening to her, I found myself reflecting on how little I truly knew about Greenland.
To me, it had been just a remote Arctic place—cold, distant, and vaguely remembered through the old story that it was named “Greenland” to make an icy land sound more appealing.
Those who came knew they had been deceived, yet they stayed. They endured. They built lives.
Today, their descendants live there.
They appear content.
And more than that—they carry quiet pride.
“Even if we were offered 100,000 dollars per person, we would not give up free healthcare.
We would not give up free education.
We would not give up being part of Europe.
And ultimately, we would not give up our sovereignty.
We are a people within the Kingdom of Denmark, but we are highly independent.
We have self-rule.“
She continued, calmly but firmly.
“We do not want to be rich like Americans.
Look at how greedy they are.
Greed leads them to shoot friends, or to invade them.“
“We know there may be minerals and oil beneath our land.
That would be valuable.
But even if there were none, we would not be bought.“
“Everyone here knows what happened to the Inuit in Alaska, and to Indigenous peoples and Native Americans.
Their lands were taken from them, and they have not been treated well.
We also know that Trump is surrounded by white supremacists.
As you can see, we are not white.
We are people of color.
And we know how easily our rights can be taken away.“
How refreshing these words were.
I wanted to say such things myself.
But I realized that I lacked what she had:
the clarity to speak about one’s neighbors, one’s homeland, and one’s history with such conviction.
I could only envy it.
“We know that we are doing well with Denmark as we are now.
As I said, we have free healthcare and free education.
You can study whatever you want, and the government supports you financially while you study.
We would not trade our welfare state for anything the United States offers.“
“Many Greenlandic families have Danish mothers, fathers, grandparents.
We are connected in this way.
We share more than 400 years of history.“
She also spoke of the unrest in the United States—
of ICE agents chasing people,
of how, from the outside, it appears that people of color are being targeted.
“We are also considered people of color.“
I had initially planned to quote only brief excerpts from her interview.
But the more I listened, the more I felt that her words captured something many people around the world are feeling right now.
So I chose to let her voice continue.
“We will still be here hundreds of years after Donald Trump is gone.
If he were to invade us, we would wait him out like bad weather.“
“Everyone here knows that weather decides everything.
A storm can stop life for a day or two.
We can wait one year, two years—ten, even twenty.
And when Trump and people like him are gone, we will still be here.“
I envy Greenland for having a politician like this.
And I envy it even more because her message feels larger than herself—it feels like something shared by the people she represents.
If there is such a thing as an ideal state on this planet,
Greenland comes surprisingly close.
Her words were fresh.
Pure.
Cold—and clear.
Yet Greenland has suddenly become important.
It is no longer a quiet Arctic land.
It is now a strategic crossroads, a reservoir of resources, and a key node in the emerging Arctic shipping routes shaped by climate change.
When this happens, the Greenland she has known may no longer exist in the same way.
As in The Three-Body Problem, once a location is revealed, peace rarely survives.
That is why I wanted to preserve this interview—
this pure, grounded, and beautiful voice—
as a small fragment of history.
I hope Greenland can remain itself for as long as possible.
The video containing these remarks can be viewed via Hook Global:
https://youtu.be/DMPe_e-WRMk
Author’s Note
This essay reflects the author’s recollection and interpretation of remarks made in a video interview distributed by Hook Global/Viory in Nuuk on January 18, 2026.
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By Sunjae Park
Editor, Korea Insight Weekly
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