North Korean refugees in Thailand not returning to NK

Thai police have charged nearly 200 North Korean asylum seekers who were smuggled into the country with illegal entry, but will not forcibly deport them to their home country, officials said.

If the court rules that they entered illegally, they will be deported, chief of immigration police, Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul said. However, they will not be forced to return to North Korea and authorities will consult with humanitarian organizations to determine where they should be sent, he said.

They had entered Thailand in separate groups through the northern Thai province of Chiang Rai, and had been staying in the two-story house for the past two months.

Thousands of North Koreans, facing hunger and repression in their homeland, have made their way abroad in recent years, many taking a long and risky land journey through China to arrive in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries.

[The Korean Herald]

More on North Korean Refugees Arrested in Thailand

Thailand has become a haven for North Koreans who flee their country on an "underground railroad" via China to Southeast Asia -- often undergoing harrowing experiences along the way.

Says Tim Peters, a U.S. Christian activist who heads up the charity Helping Hands Korea,
"Thailand, because of its history and experience dealing with refugees from Cambodia, Burma and elsewhere, deals responsibly with refugees, and there is a regional office of the UNHCR in Bangkok."

Mr. Peters was featured on the cover of Time magazine's Asian edition in May for his work helping North Korean refugees.

Asked how many have fled North Korea, Mr. Peters said it is difficult to say. "It is almost anyone's guess, but I would multiply State Department figures of [30,000] to 50,000 by 10," he said.

He cited food shortages and the aftermath of disastrous flooding last month as "push factors" driving North Koreans out of their land, adding that China has recently deployed 2,000 extra troops to seal its border with North Korea.

[Excerpt of article by Andrew Salmon, The Washington Times]

Thai police arrest 175 North Koreans

Thailand's police rounded up 175 North Korean defectors -- mainly women and children -- in a raid on a Bangkok suburb Tuesday, an incident that has cast light on the Southeast Asian nation's increasingly popular status as a refuge for defectors from Kim Jong-il's regime.

The refugees had escaped North Korea via China and are thought to have been awaiting processing by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the South Korean and possibly U.S. embassies, before transit to a third country.

A Seoul official familiar with North Korea-related issues said: "We do not believe this marks a change in Thai policy. They have said that they will release them to third countries -- South Korea or the United States -- after interrogation. I don't think they are going to send them back to North Korea."

Activists urged more action. "Governments have to deal with this and look this crisis in the face," said Tim Peters, a U.S. Christian activist who heads up the charity Helping Hands Korea. "Hopefully, the main players are going to start looking at ways they can absorb more of these refugees."

[Excerpt of article by Andrew Salmon, The Washington Times]

Korean Missionary Phillip Jun Buck, rescuer of North Korean refugees

The following is an excerpt from Tim Peters’ 2005 testimony before the House Committee on International Relations:

As was the case when I was invited to appear before the International Relations Committee, first in May of 2002, then again in April of 2004, I would like to give prominent place to the fellow activists who have sacrificed so much in rescuing North Korean refugees. … I would like to emphasize one case in particular today. This year the arrow of misfortune has struck closer to home. Fellow American, Pastor Phillip Jun Buck, aged 68, was detained in May of this year in his courageous work of sheltering and protecting North Korean refugees.

I am mentioning Pastor Buck in part because I have the privilege of knowing him personally and cherish the honor of being among the supporters of his refugee shelters in recent years. Phillip Buck would appear quietly and unannounced at our weekly Catacomb meetings in Seoul. He would then share uplifting testimonies from his refugee shelters in China. Particularly worrisome to his family and loved ones, Pastor Buck suffers from severe sleep disorders that stem from an auto accident in Russia years ago, and which pose particular hardships under prison conditions in China.

I would ask, Gentlemen, that just as you exerted such swift and critical influence with the Chinese government that resulted in the release of Chun Ki Won in August of 2002, that you would give equal attention and commitment to the unjust and harsh imprisonment of fellow American Pastor Phillip Jun Buck. His case is particularly urgent as the bitterly cold winter of northeastern China is very nigh.

Full transcript

Korean-American missionary home after 15 months in Chinese prison

A missionary who was imprisoned for 15 months after trying to aid North Korean refugees in China has returned home to a greeting of balloons and flowers from delighted relatives and friends.

Wearing a baseball hat and dark sunglasses Monday night on his arrival at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the Rev. Phillip Jun Buck, 68, said returning home was like being in a "dream state."

A son, Jamin Yoon, 35, holding flowers as his father was swarmed by reporters, said his father's attire was chosen to shield his appearance in case the longtime evangelist decided to try to go back to China for more missionary work.

Buck, who provided shelter and work for North Koreans in northeastern China, was convicted in December of trying to sneak North Korean refugees through China into South Korea. He could have faced up to 20 years in prison but was sentenced recently to deportation and a ban on re-entry to China.

Although activists concerned with religious freedom agitated openly for Buck's release, his four adult children shunned publicity while pressing for action from Congress and government agencies. His case was raised at a congressional subcommittee hearing in April.

[Associated Press]

Imprisoned Korean-American missionary to return from China

A Korean-American missionary, imprisoned in China on charges of trying to smuggle North Korean refugees into South Korea, has been sentenced to deportation, his congregation has been told.The Rev. Phillip Jun Buck, 68, whose case was widely cited by activists concerned with religious freedom in North Korea, should be back home shortly.

"He's OK," said Senior Pastor Chang Cheh, adding that he had spoken by telephone with his fellow seminarian and colleague of nearly 40 years.

Buck was trying to help refugees who fled to northeast China from hunger and repression in North Korea when he was arrested in May 2005 and incarcerated in Yanji. He was convicted in December of trying to smuggle North Korean refugees though China into South Korea. Facing as much as 20 years in prison, he was instead deported and banned from returning to China.

Buck fled his home and family in North Korea as a child, never forgot his roots and wanted to improve the lot of his homeland, said his youngest daughter, Grace Yoon, 30, who translates Korean sermons into English at the church.

He built several shelters in China, and ran a noodle factory in North Korea for a year, starting in 1997, feeding thousands of hungry people until government officials became suspicious and forced him to leave in 1998, Yoon said.It was after that eviction that he decided to take his efforts to China, she said."He's very passionate about helping North Korean refugees," she said. "He would just give everything for them."

[The Daily News of Longview, Washington]

Gadhafi urged North Korea to give up nuclear weapons

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi told a visiting Japanese official that his country has urged North Korea to give up efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction, the Foreign Ministry said.

Iwao Matsuda, Japan's state minister for science and technology policy, held talks with Gadhafi in Sebha, about 375 miles south of Tripoli, the ministry said in a statement issued Friday.

Gadhafi surprised the world in late 2003 when he swore off terrorism and announced plans to dismantle his country's weapons of mass destruction programs. Libya was eager to end his international isolation and economic hardships from United Nations and U.S. sanctions, and Gadhafi concluded the weapons programs were best used as a bargaining chip.

Gadhafi told Matsuda that Libya has been urging North Korea to follow his country's example and called for cooperation from developed countries including Japan in persuading Pyongyang, the ministry said.

[Associated Press]

Former Generals on Talking to North Korea

Twenty-one former generals and high ranking national security officials have called on United States President George W. Bush to reverse course and embrace a new area of negotiation with Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. In a letter, the group told reporters Bush's 'hard line' policies have undermined national security and made America less safe.

In a telephone news conference, the former security officials took particular aim at the Bush Administration's policy of refusing to negotiate with terrorists or with states that support them. "That seems strange since Ronald Reagan was willing to negotiate with the Soviets even though they were the 'Evil Empire," said retired Lt. General Robert Guard, who served as special assistant to Defense Secretary Robert McNamara during the Vietnam War.

"When you announce an axis of evil of three countries and invade one and then say that [others] should take that as a lesson, it does seem that it may give them an incentive to do precisely what they don't want them to do," Guard said.

Former director of Policy Planning for the State Department, Morton Halperin, said … the more belligerent the Bush Administration behaves, the faster North Korea will work to develop nuclear weapons. "

The North Koreans want to talk to us directly," said Halperin, who now works for the Washington, DC-based Center for American Progress. "Their concern is about getting security assurances from us and about getting diplomatic recognition. We should not be afraid to talk to our opponents."

North Korea: The Orwellian Paradise

Following are excerpts of the travelogue of a young American, “The Savvy Traveler”, who traveled to North Korea:

The North Korean capital Pyongyang is a city of monuments; statues to Kim Il-Sung (the country’s founder) and various revolutionary ideals abound. There is not much vehicular traffic, as few North Koreans can afford bicycles, let alone cars. There really isn’t much need for cars anyway, since travel between cities is forbidden without a permit.

Juche is the Korean philosophy of self-reliance. It is an important part of the ideology of control developed by Kim Il-Sung. To give you an idea of the personality cult in the DPRK, just before the guides took us there we went to a flower exhibition. The Koreans renamed two common flowers to the Kim Il-Sungia and the Kim Jong-Ilia. How's that for Big Brother?

We glimpsed a military parade in the center of town, with thousands of flag-waiving North Koreans lining the streets to greet their soldiers, who will defend them from the American invasion that the regime constantly talks warns of. Defining the United States as a powerful and common enemy is one of the many levers of control the regime uses to unite the people and maintain its ironclad grip on power.

The North Koreans seem to have a flair for dramatic monuments, and so built themselves their own Arc de Triomphe. Theirs is actually a little taller than the one in Paris. Nearby the Arc was an amusement park, which was the only place the group was able to mix fairly freely with regular North Korean citizens. North Korean children played the same types of games American kids do, only they shoot at U.S. Marines instead of rabbits and clowns.

North Korea preparing for test of nuclear bomb?

There is new evidence that North Korea may be preparing for an underground test of a nuclear bomb, U.S. officials told ABC News.

“It is the view of the intelligence community that a test is a real possibility,” said a senior State Department official.

A senior military official told ABC News that a U.S. intelligence agency has recently observed “suspicious vehicle movement” at a suspected North Korean test site.

The activity includes the unloading of large reels of cable outside P’unggye-yok, an underground facility in northeast North Korea. Cables can be used in nuclear testing to connect an underground test site to outside observation equipment.

[ABC News]

North Korean Death Toll approaching 60,000?

North Korea has accepted aid from South Korea to help recover from floods that an aid group claims left tens of thousands dead and more than 2 million homeless, a South Korean official said.
It is an apparent turnabout for the impoverished communist country, which spurned aid from South Korea's Red Cross after the floods hit in mid-July, saying it would handle the disaster on its own.

Meanwhile, the Seoul-based private aid agency Good Friends raised its death toll estimate Thursday to 57,700, up 3,000 from its earlier figures.

Good Friends said it has 'many sources' inside North Korea but did not say where it obtained the figures, which could not be independently confirmed because the North tightly controls all media and information. Good Friends refused to elaborate on the report, saying their sources could face government reprisals.

The agency's previous reports of activities inside the isolated country have been confirmed by South Korean government sources, although some of the aid group's figures have been disputed.
Good Friends said the floods destroyed more than 230 bridges and inundated hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland, further straining the North's ability to feed its population.

Good Friends said it would take up to three years for the North to recover from the disaster without international aid, and starvation similar to that during the 1990s might strike the North again within that time.

'Food prices are skyrocketing as food distribution has become nearly impossible' due to the floods, the group said.

[Associated Press]

S. Korea Red Cross plans massive rice aid for North Korea

South Korea's Red Cross can give as much as 100,000 tonnes of rice to flood-ravaged North Korea in a one-time aid package, its president said on Monday.

Han Wan-sang said in an interview with KBS radio he hoped South and North Korean Red Cross officials would hold talks soon about the aid plan so that shipments can begin next week. When asked whether that would include as much as 100,000 tonnes of rice, Han said: "Yes, that would be a basis."

Three major storms hit North Kora last month, causing floods that killed [hundreds]. The flooding damaged farms and experts said the loss of crops could push the state, which already battles food shortages, to famine. The extent of the damage is not known because the secretive North Korea has limited inspections by aid groups.

[Yahoo Asia News]

US$60 million in relief aid to North Korea

The South Korean government plans to provide tens of billions of won worth of food and supplies to communist North Korea to help repair damage from recent flooding there, government officials said.

The government has already decided to provide some 10 billion won (US$10.3 million) to the country's civic organizations in order to send emergency relief supplies to the flood-hit North, and it is expected to spend another 50 billion won to ensure rice and other supplies are sent as part of a separate project.

"The government decided to join the efforts (by civic organizations) to help repair flood damage in the North after considering the seriousness of the flood damage and requests from various sectors of the society," Vice Unification Minister Shin Un-sang told a press briefing.

[Yonhap News]

North Korea's Kim Jong Il finally appears

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has made his first public appearance since his country test-launched a barrage of missiles more than a month ago, official media reported Sunday.

Kim visited a farm run by an army unit and was accompanied by top generals, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency. As usual with such reports, the exact time or location of the trip were not given.

Kim's absence from public view had fueled speculation of a possible crisis in the country in the wake of the missile tests and international reaction.

However, Kim has dropped from sight before for longer periods of time: In 2003, he was not reported to have ventured out for seven weeks after the country quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the United States moved toward invading Iraq.

Some North Korea watchers have speculated that Kim might have been in a bunker, since the country is believed to have imposed a quasi-war footing after the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution condemning the missile tests and calling for nations to stop any missile-related trade with it.

Cheong Seong-chang, a North Korea analyst at the independent Sejong Institute, attributed Kim's latest absence to massive floods in North Korea, saying he has shied away from the public in times of crisis in the past.

[Associated Press]

China Fencing Border With North Korea

China has been building wire fences along its border with North Korea, around the source of the Duman River near Mt. Baekdu. Speculation is that they are meant to prevent defection of North Koreans to China.

The wire fences are 1.5 to 1.7 meters high and two to three meters wide T-shaped concrete pillars, similar to those along the Military Demarcation Line on the Korean peninsular.

Beijing reportedly claimed that the fence is there to stop North Korean defection. This view is widely held as many North Koreans pass the areas near Mt. Baekdu and the Duman River to flee their country.

The border fencing [may also have] something to do with the recent Sino-DPRK relations estranged by Pyongyang’s missile tests.

[donga.com]

Stark differences between China and North Korea

Chinese tourists who come to Dandong, the border city with North Korea often hop on boats for excursions to a virtual human zoo: They cross the Yalu River and motor along the other side to gawk at poor North Koreans.

On the Chinese side, high-rise hotels and modern condos tower overhead. Huge outdoor plasma-screen monitors brighten the fronts of karaoke bars, massage parlors and bathhouses. Late-model cars ply the manicured streets along the riverfront, where boats with dragon motifs fill with tourists for cruises.

At nighttime, the Chinese side is ablaze in neon lighting.

Barely a light flickers on the North Korean side, a sign of dire energy shortages in the most closed society in the world. Some 350,000 residents dwell in the border city of Sinuiju, but smokestacks over dilapidated factories issue nary a wisp. Along the river, rusted fishing boats list, and residents squat, staring aimlessly.

"When you compare the two sides, you see how prosperous China is," said Wu Zhanjun, 36, who's from Liaoning province, in China's surrounding industrial heartland.

"I saw their children catching fish," added Han Quanyi, a truck owner who was taking a vacation here. "They don't look like Chinese children. They are very thin. Their clothes are old and dirty. And the women have mud all over their bodies."

[SanLuisObispoTribune]

North Korea Gulag Musical to Hit Washington

A Korean musical about human rights abuses in North Korea’s notorious Yoduk concentration camp will be staged at the National Theater in Washington D.C.

Producers of “Yoduk Story” said the musical will debut there on September 21. The 165-year old National Theater is right on Pennsylvania Avenue, about 100 m from the White House, and is one of the national symbols. There will be 10 shows until October 1 at the theater.

Suzanne Scholte, the head of the activist group Defense Forum Foundation who played a key part in arranging the show's U.S. tour, said U.S. President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush were invited to the premiere, although it is unclear whether the first family will attend. But she said several senators, representatives and leading figures wanted to see it.

On the eve of the first performance, a reception for the show will be held on Capitol Hill hosted by Sen. Sam Brownback, one of the sponsors of the U.S.’ North Korean Human Rights Act. Brownback also recently campaigned for six North Korean refugees to be given asylum in the U.S. The musical’s run is tipped to boost the case of hardliners in the U.S. who want to put more pressure on Pyongyang.

After the run in Washington, “Yoduk Story” will tour New York, Los Angeles and Seattle till November. The show’s director Chung Seong-san will announce the schedule next week.

[Chosun Ilbo]

North Korea officially requests South Korean flood aid

North Korea has requested help from South Korea to cope with devastating floods, a South Korean citizens’ group said, a move that could improve inter-Korean relations chilled by the North’s recent missile launches.

It was the first time the communist nation has officially requested South Korean aid since flooding in mid-July spawned by heavy rains

The North asked South Korea to provide food, blankets, medical supplies and construction materials and equipment including cement and trucks to help it recover from the disaster, said Park Ji-yong, an official at a South Korean committee working for reconciliation between the Koreas.

A private South Korean relief group sent flood relief to the North last week.

North Korea had initially said it would handle the disaster on its own and rejected aid from South Korea’s Red Cross, but a North Korean official said the country was in urgent need of food and would accept aid from South Korea.

Seoul refused last month to discuss regular humanitarian aid during high-level talks with North Korea, after the North Koreans refused to address the country’s missile or nuclear programs.

The North has told international aid groups operating in the country that it does not want them to launch an emergency appeal on its behalf. Such aid would likely come with requirements of strict monitoring to ensure those affected are benefiting, unlike with past South Korean aid that is virtually unmonitored.

[Boston Herald]

UNICEF has difficulty raising funds for North Korea

The U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) is having difficulties raising funds for North Korea as international donors have been "shying away" due to the nuclear development program and missile tests by the communist state, an official at the international relief agency for children has said.

In a program of the Washington-based Radio Free Asia monitored here, Richard Bridle, deputy director of UNICEF's Regional Office for East Asia and the Pacific, said UNICEF has raised less than 10 percent of its annual target for North Korea so far this year.

"Our fundraising this year has not been good," Bridle said. "Other donors have been shying away because of political developments. It's a pity, I think, because humanitarian principals call for us not to mix politics with humanitarian needs."

Bridle, who was a representative of the UNICEF office in Pyongyang from 2001 to 2003, visited the North three weeks ago, according to the report. Bridle was concerned notably about its operation of supplying clean water for 150,000 people affected by the situation after the North's water was contaminated by the flood.

UNICEF has allocated its budget for improving prenatal health, nutrition, environment and education in the North. The North's children, who suffer from malnutrition, are smaller by about 10-15 centimeters than their counterparts in the South, according to the Unification Ministry in Seoul.

[Yonhap News]

North Korean defector says senator's help with asylum in the U.S.

A North Korean defector seeking asylum in the United States said that a U.S. senator promised to help her case and possibly arrange a meeting with President George W. Bush.

Ma Young-ae told Yonhap she met with Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) at his office last Thursday.

The former North Korean fled from Pyongyang through China in 2000 and initially settled in South Korea where she acquired citizenship.

[Yonhap News]

China allows North Korean refugees to flee to U.S.

In a sign of newfound strains with North Korea, China has quietly allowed three North Korean refugees who had been holed up at a U.S. consulate in its northeast region to travel to the United States.

China never before has permitted North Korean refugees to depart directly for safety in the United States, returning them instead to imprisonment in their homeland.

The move underscored frictions between North Korea and China, its only major ally, after Pyongyang's launch July 4 of at least seven ballistic missiles that rattled East Asia. Of the four North Koreans protected in the U.S. consulate in Shenyang, three chose to leave for the United States on July 22 and one opted to travel to South Korea.

[Monterey Herald]

Unlikely North Korean Damage Assessment

After North Korea called off two major inter-Korean events citing severe flood damage, a former official who led policy on North Korea urged the government to resume its humanitarian aid program to assist the communist country.

Jeong Se-hyun, head of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, said it is unlikely the North will announce an accurate damage assessment because the damage will be too great to admit to its people. Because North Korea first walked away from inter-Korean Red Cross projects, the regime probably feels embarrassed to ask for help at this point, he said.

[Joong Ang Daily]

North Korea Declines Aid From Red Cross

North Korea, which was hit by torrential rain and flash floods last month, declined offers of aid from the South Korean and the International Red Cross, an official said.

"We asked the North Korean government what it would need in terms of relief aid to help in their efforts to recover after last month's heavy rains,'' said Kim Hyung Sup, a spokesman at South Korea's National Red Cross. "North Korean authorities replied that, while they appreciate the offer, they are able to manage on their own. I seriously doubt that.''

Floods last week also damaged farmland, tens of thousands of shelters and public buildings. Hundreds of roads, bridges and railways were destroyed.

North Korea canceled two festivals this month, citing relief efforts. It postponed its Arirang Festival, which features its mass games, as well as an annual festival with South Korea to mark their independence from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II.

"The biggest problem for North Korea will be food shortages, especially in winter and next year, because most of its farmlands were flooded,'' Kim said. ``Water and medical supplies are likely to be in demand, either because of the wounded as well as concerns of infectious diseases that may spread in the aftermath of the rains.''

[Bloomberg]

North Korea's Mounting Troubles

The last few weeks have been rough for North Korea.

After the country provoked international ire by test-firing seven ballistic missiles, the United Nations Security Council voted to bar U.N. member states from trading missile-related technology and materials with the North.

South Korea is holding back rice and fertilizer aid; Japan is preparing to impose its own economic sanctions including tough restrictions on high-tech exports to the North.

Then Typhoon Ewiniar battered one-third of the country.

China, the North's closest ally, largest trading partner and aid donor, had frozen North Korean assets held in the Macau branch of the Bank of China. Beijing's clampdown, which took place last year, followed a similar freeze on about $24 million of Pyongyang's cash in another Macau bank—Banco Delta Asia—which the U.S. claimed was funneling money the North earns from drug smuggling and counterfeiting.

[TIME Asia]

10,000 North Koreans dead or missing

North Korea's Red Cross has rejected an offer from its South Korean counterpart for aid to flood victims, a South Korean official said Wednesday, as an aid group claimed the disaster left about 10,000 people dead or missing.

North Korea "expressed thanks for Seoul's offer" but said "it will handle the recovery efforts from recent floods by itself," a senior North Korean Red Cross official said, according to the South Korean Red Cross.

North Korea's official media has said the disaster caused hundreds of casualties and cut off roads, bridges, railroads and communications. However, the Seoul-based Good Friends group, an aid organization for North Korean refugees, said in a statement Wednesday about 10,000 people were dead or missing and some 1.5 million people were left homeless from the floods.

Lee Seung-yong, the group's project coordinator, declined to identify sources for the information, but previous reports of activities inside North Korea from the same group have later been confirmed.

The flooding washed away some 245,000 acres of farmland, putting further strains on the North's ability to feed its 23 million people.

[Associated Press]

Humanitarian aid to flood-hit North Korea

The Join Together Society (JTS), a humanitarian aid group in Seoul, said it will send eight TEUs filled with relief goods, including 100 tons of flour, to the North from Aug. 3-9. TEUs refer to 20-foot equivalent units.

It is the first time that a South Korean civic group to provide aid to the communist state since Seoul stopped all efforts in the wake of the North's recent missile tests and its ongoing boycott of protracted six-way nuclear talks.

"The North's flood damage is believed to be far greater than previously known. The situation is also feared to hark back to that in 1995 and in the following years, when millions of people reportedly died of hunger caused by natural disasters," a JTS official said.

North Korea has been relying on international handouts since the mid-1990s to help feed its 23 million people. South Korea regularly provided food and other humanitarian support to the impoverished North, but it has suspended all of its aid for the communist state in early July after Pyongyang test-fired seven ballistic missiles despite warnings from Seoul not to do so.

[Yonhap News]

North Korean Caste System

In the late 1950s the regime began dividing society into three classes: “core,” “wavering,” and “hostile.” Security ratings were assigned to individuals; according to some estimates, nearly half of the population was designated as either “wavering” or “hostile.”

Loyalty ratings determined access to employment, higher education, place of residence, medical facilities, and certain stores. They also affected the severity of punishment in the case of legal infractions.

Citizens with relatives who fled to the ROK at the time of the Korean War were classified as part of the “hostile class.” Between 20 and 30 percent of the population was considered potentially hostile. Members of this class were subject to discrimination, although defectors reported their treatment had improved in recent years.

Indirect evidence in recent years–for example, favorable portrayals of persons with bad class backgrounds who were hard workers–suggested that the regime wished to moderate its stance. Economic reforms may also have eroded rigid loyalty‑based class divisions to some extent, although growing economic disparities have also resulted from price and wage reforms. In his August report, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea stated that “while this practice may have been abolished in law, it seems to persist and is implied by the testimonies of those who leave the country in search of refuge elsewhere.”

-- Excerpt of latest State Department’s Human Rights report, country section on North Korea

3,000 believed dead, missing in North Korea

Agence France-Presse reports that 3,000 North Koreans were believed dead or missing following floods and landslides in the impoverished country, quoting a respected South Korean human rights group Good Friends.

AFP reports an estimated 60,000 North Koreans are left homeless and 30,000 hectares (74,100 acres) of farmland destroyed in the recent flooding, according to UN relief agency WFP.

"Damage and casualties are far heavier than known so far to the outside world," Good Friends said in a statement.

North Korea stopped accepting UN food aid late last year and asked for development assistance instead, citing better harvests and aid from China and South Korea. However, South Korea earlier this month angrily rejected a North Korean request for rice aid after Pyongang launched a series of missile tests that earned it international condemnation.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) said, "Approximately 75 percent of the estimated 60,000 persons made homeless/displaced due to the floods are located in South Pyongan province." It said flooding of farmland caused the loss of 100,000 tonnes of food supplies, adding to a chronic food crisis in the communist country.

Vollertsen: “Wake up to the North Korean Reality!”

North Korean human rights activist, Norbert Vollertsen, has been on an indefinite hunger strike in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The strike began on July 11th, in protest to urge the Korean government to take action on, and responsibility for the improvement of North Korea human rights.

Vollersten first went to North Korea as a volunteer to do humanitarian aid work and offer medical assistance. The turning point came when he saw a young soldier lying dead on the ground, ruthlessly beaten and abandoned.

Why has he chosen to embark on a hunger strike, a strategy uncommon to foreigners?

The reason is that as a German he cannot understand why the South Korean government does not take action for their people in the North, oppressed and dying of hunger. In regard to why he began the hunger strike, Vollersten says that he is “Fed-up!” with the Korean government.

When asked if he felt tired, he said “Whenever I feel tired, I look at the North Korean children (on the picket). How can I tire when I see their poor faces?” He discloses that the suffering he is enduring now is nothing compared to the suffering of the people and in particular the children of North Korea, and that the hunger strike will be over “when I fall down and I get taken to the hospital.”

[Excerpt of article by By Kim Yong Hun and Kim Yun Yi, Daily NK]

Three North Korean exiles accepted to US

Human rights groups in Seoul welcomed the United States' decision to accept three North Korean refugees as political exiles, while some North Korea experts worried about Washington's “political'' motives.

Three of the four refugees, who had stayed at the U.S. Consulate in China's northeastern city Shenyang since May, left for the United States last weekend, diplomatic sources said.

Washington reportedly declined to accept the fourth's application as he formerly worked for a prison camp in the North. He now hopes to come to South Korea, sources said.

It is the second time the United States has accepted North Koreans as refugees since the enactment of the North Korean Human Rights Act in 2004, and the first to airlift them directly from China.

Washington granted asylum to six North Koreans on May 6, but they received refugee status in a third country in Asia.

[Excerpt of article by Park Song-wu, Korea Times]

A Tale of North Korean Hunger and Survival

One hears of “hunger” and “starvation”, but these are just words until you hear it described from a child’s point of view, a child refugee in China:

My name is Lim Chol and my sister is Lim So-yon. I am 10 years old and she is eight. We were born in a small coal-mining town [in North Korea].

My parents were desperate to find food. They already had sold everything they had to buy corn. My mother roamed around, collecting edible grass in order to make soup with corn flour. She served one bowl of that soup to my father, sister and me, but took only half a bowl for herself.

One day, my father decided to go to Hwanghae Province to get corn from his relatives. He asked us to take good care of mother and we asked him to bring home lots of rice and corn. That was the last time we saw him.

[As my mother got weaker], I walked four kilometers to the old coal mine to get some coal and went to the mountain to get some edible grass and put them in the kitchen. My mother could barely stand up to boil the water to make soup with the grass. She was so weak she couldn’t lift the bar by herself to grind the grass in the mortar. I had to assist her to hold the bar and pound the grass. She wept and murmured, as tears streamed down her face. “Please forgive me for making you suffer like this,” she said.

In front of my mother, my eyes welled with tears, but I never made any sound. We supported our lives with the grass paste mixed with our tears for three months. Everyday we had only two meals instead of three. My sister sat next to mother and put a cold compress on her feverish face. But she passed away after suffering for three months.

snkr.org

continued

A Tale of North Korean Hunger and Survival (pt 2)

[After our mother died,] we begged and sometimes we worked by doing some errands, cleaning and serving. If we were lucky, we would get a leftover bowl of soup that we shared.

One day, after finding my sister lying in the mud, I decided to steal some food for her. First I begged the lady of the noodle shop, but when she refused I stole a bowl and started to run away while she was busy with other customers. I didn’t make 10 steps before the woman caught me. She and two other adult customers in the store beat me and yelled, “You little bastard and useless thief!” But I only thought about my sister.

To save her life, I poured noodle soup on my belly that I covered with a cloth. The broth dripped down through my pants, but under the cloth some strips of noodle hung over my belt. I walked to my sister, clenching my bleeding nose with one hand while holding up my belly with the other. Then I shook her. She had been lying with her eyes closed for hours and hours. I took off my belt and took the noodles from my belly and put them into her mouth. How eagerly she ate! My stealing saved her life.

At the market, I heard that there was a lot of food in China across the Tumen River. They even said that people in China would give away food to the beggars from North Korea. Those words kept ringing in my ears and never left.

It was 11o’clock in the morning when I reached the bank of the Tumen River with my sister. On the bank, some armed soldiers were on guard duty. We pretended to collect and eat some young grass. I told So-yon that we had to be prepared to overcome some expected whipping in order to go to the better place.

Fortunately, we safely reached the other side. Our bodies shivering, we ran to the town squeezing water out of our clothes.

snkr.org

China now world's third biggest food donor

After 26 years of receiving food aid, China has emerged as the world's third largest food donor, according to a report by the U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP).

China donated 5,77,000 tonnes of food to more than a dozen countries around the world in 2005, with the great majority sent across the border by rail to North Korea, which relies on food aid to feed its poverty stricken rural population.

The report's findings, which track all international food donations, underline China's growing economic and political clout in Asia, and show how far the country has come since the great famines of the late 1950s killed an estimated 30 million peasants.

For the past few years, WFP and other countries have steadily cut donations to North Korea. China is keen to prevent a refugee crisis in North Korea spilling over its borders.

Paul French, a Shanghai-based expert on the so-called “Hermit Kingdom,'' said: “If food didn't come from China, the trickle of refugees could quickly turn into a flood.'' Beijing also sees food aid as a carrot with which to persuade the North Koreans to come to the negotiating table.

[The Guardian]

Helping Hands Korea's aid to North Koreans

Tim Peters came to be one of the founding members of the effort to aid North Koreans long after he first arrived in South Korea. In 1975, [Peters went to] Seoul as a lay missionary, when … South Korea was an authoritarian state under the leadership of Chun Doo Hwan.

As part of his missionary work, Peters became involved in human-rights issues, and was soon thrown out of the country for handing out leaflets that criticized the Seoul government. He returned to live in Seoul in the late '80s, and then for a third time in 1996. South Korea was by then a democratic, prosperous nation, "and for a time I wondered why the Lord had brought me back to this place," says Peters.

But North Korea was in the midst of a horrific famine. "One night it just dawned on me, I wasn't here this time for South Korea, I was here for the North, to try to do the Lord's work and help people there. It couldn't have been any clearer."

Peters formed Helping Hands Korea in 1996, and within just two years, as refugees tried to escape the famine, the beginnings of the Underground Railroad took shape. "We were overwhelmed," he says now. That's when the organization's mission became more focused: helping North Koreans in crisis, people who really needed help getting to freedom."

[Excerpted from TIME magazine “Long Walk to Freedom”]

Food situation in North Korea

North Korea is facing greater international isolation over missile tests this month and the prospect of less food aid from its major donor, South Korea.

Up to 2.5 million North Koreans, or about 10 percent of its population, died in the 1990s due to famines caused by droughts, flooding and mismanagement of the agriculture sector, the WFP has quoted studies as saying.

Even in a good year, North Korea's harvest falls about 1 million tons short of its needs, experts have said.

At the end of 2005, North Korea said it no longer wanted handouts from international agencies, causing the WFP to suspend its operations there providing food for 6.5 million people. But in May, North Korea agreed to again accept aid from the WFP but on a smaller scale, for 1.9 million people.

South Korea has rejected the North's latest request for 500,000 tons for rice for this year, unless Pyongyang returns to stalled talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs.

[Reuters]

UN ready to help North Korean flood victims

The United Nations World Food Program is willing to help the victims of widespread flooding in North Korea but wants to thoroughly assess the damage and monitor the aid it gives, a WFP official said.

Two major storms over the past two weeks have drenched the impoverished North with some of its heaviest rains in years, severely damaging crops and raising the possibility of famine in a country that already battles chronic food shortages.

WFP officials are on the ground in North Korea, but the North so far has granted them access only to one county that experienced damage, Banbury said.

As a condition for aid, the WFP wants to conduct a full assessment of damage to find out North Korea's needs and then monitor the aid to make sure it gets to the people who need it most, he said. Aid workers say this monitoring is aimed at ensuring the aid goes to the needy and does not end up in the hands of North Korea's powerful military.

[Excerpt of an article by Jon Herskovitz, Reuters]

American Pastor invited to North Korea

Baptist mega-church pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren shocked evangelical circles this week when on Thursday he traveled to North Korea to meet with Christian pastors. The visit was at the invitation of the North Korean government and was in preparation for a longer stay next spring when political leaders have granted permission for worship services to be held commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the Pyongyang Revival, one of the greatest spiritual movements in the history of the Christian church. Warren will be the featured preacher at that event.

North Korea has the most repressive government on earth. It makes no secret of its animosity toward the Christian faith. And the country’s leader, President Kim Il Sung, threatens the United States so frequently that he’s become the poster child for lunatic political leaders.
I recalled how President Bush labeled North Korea part of an international “Axis of Evil” that creates instability and terror throughout the world, a judgment confirmed in the nation’s recent missile test firings.

Warren isn’t just a pastor, author and church leader. In recent years he has expanded his concern into some of the most pressing social issues of the day, including AIDS and world poverty. He has turned into something of an itinerant minister, traveling across the world like a modern day John Wesley, calling the church back to its core purposes of worship, fellowship, evangelism and ministry and service.

With Warren’s visit to North Korea, he’s fully aware that the government there is in all likelihood using his visit for its own purposes, to present to the world community a softer, less oppressive side. They can certainly use some positive publicity right now.

Warren doesn’t care, though. “I know they’re going to use me. So I’m going to use them,” he said in an interview earlier this week.

He added on his personal blog, “Regardless of politics, I will go anywhere to preach the Gospel.”

[Mike Turner, writing in Jacksonville Daily News]

North Korean flooding could affect country’s food supply

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said heavy rains in North Korea these past weeks have caused flash floods that totally or partially destroyed 11,524 houses, leaving more than 9,000 families homeless.

The federation said the heavy weather could also affect North Korea's food supply — critical to the country that suffered famine in the 1990s believed to have killed 2 million people.

"Extensive areas of arable fields have been inundated, wiping out much of the anticipated harvest," the federation said.

North Koreans' efforts to grow food on any possible arable land has led to deforestation in the mountainous areas of the country's South Pyongan, North Hwanghe and Kangwon provinces, leading to landslides, Timmer said.

"Erosion is most likely the main cause of this large disaster," he said.

[AP]

South Korean press speaks out against its government

Referring to Roh Moo-hyun’s South Korean administration and “its reckless protection of the North”, one South Korean daily Dong-a Ilbo concludes, “There has been no government that has ever dealt with the North as unskillfully and foolishly as this one.”

Another editorial in the Joongang Ilbo adds, “Mr. Roh remained silent after North Korea’s missile launches except for a warning against Japan’s muttering about pre-emptive strikes against North Korea. … It is really sad to see the administration closing its eyes to international society as it indulges in the naive thought that North and South are the same nation and rushes to embrace Pyongyang.

And then in article in Chosun Ilbo, entitled “Paying North Korea to Laugh at Us”, another journalist writes:
North Korean Senior Cabinet Counselor Kwon Ho-ung told a stunned South Korean delegation at ministerial talks in Busan that his country’s military-first policy “helps the security of South Korea too, and a vast majority of South Korean citizens have benefited from it.” North Korea’s missile launches and nuclear weapons program are apparently a boon to us?

“The economic cooperation funds that [South Korea] provided to [North Korea] since the 2000 inter-Korean summit amounts to 1.3 times North Korea’s entire budget. There is a high chance that some of the money went into development of the North’s nuclear weapons and missiles, but the government has maintained there is nothing it can do about it.”

A Balancing Act, Fatally Fumbled

Pyongyang’s missile tests not only gave Japan an excuse to re-arm, but also sort of spread a red carpet for the country to walk right into the heart of the international community. Some pundits expect Japan to renew its frustrated effort to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

In the wake of China's first-ever support for a North Korea resolution, Chinese President Hu Jintao reaffirmed his position when the meeting of Group of Eight (G8) industrialized countries in Russia published its own statement condemning the missile tests

North Korea must have felt a sense of betrayal. But the North forced China’s hand when it went ahead with the tests despite pleas from Beijing to desist.

North Korea's play with fire has had all sorts of unexpected results in the region. Japan, which committed itself to pacifism after its World War II excesses, has gained a foothold for transforming itself into a "normal state" by revising the "peace constitution," and China is showing signs of abandoning its special relationship with North Korea.

Our [South Korean] government did not support the Japanese draft, expecting China to prop it up where its own influence fell short. It reckoned entirely without China's change of heart. Where are they now, the [South Korean] government figures who bragged only last year that Korea would play the role of a “balancer” between Japan and China?

[Excerpt from Chosun Journal editorial]