Led by Adrian Hong, LiNK's name recognition spread through the efforts of Korean-Americans at universities and colleges who registered 40 chapters in a short period of time. Volunteers worked on staging protests, petition drives, and public awareness campaigns. In January 2007, Adrian Hong wrote that "two LiNK field workers and 6 North Korean refugees were caught and imprisoned by Chinese authorities" en route from Shenyang, and that Hong himself had been detained in Beijing. The Wall Street Journal took interest in the case and one of its reporters, Melanie Kirkpatrick, supported LiNK's activities in China in her book Escaping North Korea: The Untold Story of Asia’s Underground Railroad. The organization continued to grow and LiNK's mission expanded to include more field projects; by March 2007, LiNK had 100 chapters in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, and Korea. In March 2007, its director Adrian Hong stated that "LiNK has briefed and advocated to the highest levels of governments and agencies around the world," then called for a day of fasting.
