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1. Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-02
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One of the verses is “and all will see how great, how great is our God.”  I started wondering do people here in the United States see how great is our God?  Do people in North Korea see how great is our God?

Then we sang our closing song, “Awesome God.”

I soon found myself unable to sing.  I know theologically what these songs mean, at least I think I do.

But do we even comprehend really what a great God is, what an awesome God is?

Did Robert Park understand what an awesome God is when he crossed the border of North Korea proclaiming that God loves Kim Jong Il, a man responsible for some of the most heinous crimes on earth?  Do North Koreans understand that as they are tortured for wanting food?  Do North Korean Christians understand it while they are dying, wondering if anyone cares, if their brothers and sisters in Christ around the world ever prayed for them?

Someone once said the hardest place to be a Christian is in the U.S.A. because it’s too easy.  He might be right.  Though we sing how great and awesome God is our God is so small, a God for job security, healthy children and comfortable living.

An awesome and mighty God sets the captives free, lifts up the down-trodden, and proclaims his greatness for all nations to see.  That is an awesome and mighty God and that is what we should sing, worship and pray for.

©2010 Love North Korea. All Rights Reserved.

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This comes from Adrian Hong’s Facebook post published on January 10, 2010.

Tonight, I had a phone call with a young North Korean refugee whom I have known since his days straight out of North Korea and in China. As usual, I ended the conversation reminding him to take his studies seriously, to study hard now so he can be better equipped later. I added, "In America, you can do anything and be anything, as long as you work hard. You can’t be President here, but you can be President of the new North Korea!"

He laughed, then told me that when he was in 2nd grade (of grade school in Pyongyang), his class assignment was to write what he wanted to be when he grew up. He wrote that he wanted to become President. Immediately his parents were called in and sternly rebuked, and his teacher told him, very seriously, "There can only be one President."

He was told to change his answer, so he decided on becoming a "Tank Man." (not translated, he literally said "Tank Man.").

Somehow amusing and tragic at the same time.

©2010 Love North Korea. All Rights Reserved.

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1. North Korea According to the Secret Asian Man

Human Rights in North Korea

Awareness Week

November 10, 2009 – November 20, 2009

"Fear is not the natural state of civilized people."
– Aung San Suu Kyi

Starvation. Concentration Camps. Human Trafficking.

Come learn more about the current human rights situation in North Korea during HRiNK’s awareness Week from Nov. 10 – Nov. 20! Join us in conversation on Tuesday with Suzanne Scholte, a leading activist for human rights in North Korea. Remember to pick up a daily ration in the form of a rice krispies treat on Monday in front of the Science Center. The following Tuesday, Yoo Sung Kim will be sharing stories about his life in North Korea and his experience crossing the border. On Friday, Nov. 20 join us in Adams LCR for a screening of The Long Journey. You will not want to miss this opportunity to learn more about the dire situation in North Korea and how you can make a difference – great or small.

Tuesday, November 10 5:30 – 7:00 PM Ticknor Lounge

North Korean Human Rights with Suzanne Scholte

President, The Defense Forum Foundation
Founder and Chairman, The North Korea Freedom Coalition
Vice Chairman, Founding Board Member, U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea

Monday, November 16 10:30 AM – 2:00 PM Science Center

1,000 Daily Rations

Receive the equivalence of food allotted per meal in North Korea

Tuesday, November 17 7:00 – 8:30 PM Ticknor Lounge

Personal Accounts from Yoo Sung Kim

A former 3-star general who defected from North Korea

Friday, November 20 4:00 – 5:30 PM Adams Lower Common Room

The Long Journey : Documentary Screening
______________________________

HRiNK@lists.hcs.harvard.edu
http://lists.hcs.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/hrink

©2010 Love North Korea. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. My North Korea Talk at GrX

Update 10-27-2009: The talk went well.  Though the audience was small, only four people including two other speakers, I still felt privileged having the chance to share.  I enjoyed speaking and I even became emotional when I shared about my son Isaac   Thanks for your encouragement and prayers.

On December 5, 2008, while I was celebrating my birthday in Sunnyvale, Cho Jinhye, a North Korean refugee, gave her testimony at my old church in Boston.  (I blogged about my initial reaction a few days after.)  I want to share some parts of this testimony with you.

My father went on a journey with my mother to China to get some food.  On their way back the North Korean police arrested them.  They tried to force my father to put his fingerprint on a false statement…

Meanwhile, next door my mother was told to put her hands on the ground…  The policeman stepped on her hands with his boots and crushed them.  My father gave in when he heard her screaming in excruciating pain.  He begged them to at least let his wife go since she was 3 months pregnant and there were little children at home with his mother who was 76 years old.

The last thing my mother saw was my father tied to a little stick of a tree covered with blood from the severe beatings.  What should have taken a day on foot took my mother several days to come home for she was barely crawling having been so severely tortured.

In North Korea, 200,000 people are in labor camps that would rival Stalin’s gulags and Hitler’s concentration camps.  Torture like what I’ve read is commonplace in testimonies of North Korean refugees.  400,000 people have reportedly died already in these camps.

One day a grandmother Inminbanjang (civilian police) came with a proposition; she would give us 5 Kg of corns if we ran an errand to get some paper for her.  My older sister asked me to take care of my mom and the baby and that she would be back home latest midnight.  She didn’t come back for another week.

Although my mother had just gone through a delivery, she set out to look for my older sister…  (While her mother was gone the baby died.) Three days later my mother came back…  My mother didn’t find my 19-yr-old sister for Chinese men had sold her off.

80% – 90% of North Korean refugee women are trafficked into sexual slavery, forced marriages, etc. This is the highest percentage of any single population in the world.

At 9 PM I set out to escape, piggy backing my 5-year-old brother, holding the hand of my 6-year-old sister .  I had no shoes and wrapped my feet with a plastic bag.  I couldn’t go on because the plastic bag ripped and my feet were hurting too much.  I decided to leave my younger brother with a neighbor.  When I was l leaving, he asked “Why are you leaving me here and taking older sis?”  I told him I would be back in 5 days with some candies…

It was said that my brother had been left outside of the house of the neighbor when their living got tougher.  My brother died from starvation sitting on a rock in the field as he was singing “older sis, when are you coming back…”  I still live with the guilt that I was too weak to take care of him.

In the 1990’s a famine killed approximately two million people or 10% of the population of North Korea.  Starvation and malnutrition still affect many parts of the country.

God places different things on different peoples’ hearts.  And for some reason God has placed North Korea on my heart.  When I hear these testimonies I don’t just hear words, I see faces.  And in this testimony I cried because I saw Victoria when I read about the baby dying and I saw Isaac sitting on the rock calling for Dylan.

What is happening in North Korea right now is probably one of the greatest human rights issues in the world.  I wanted to talk to you about this to raise awareness but also to communicate my hope for what God is doing and will do.

There is a book called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years .  It talks about how if we see ourselves as part of a story, a story that has purpose, conflict and character, then our lives can have meaning and direction.

August 4 was one of the more exciting days of my life because on that day Euna Lee and Laura Ling were freed.  What made it exciting was that I, in a very small way, was part of the movement to free them.  I even wrote a letter on my blog to Kim Jong Il asking him to free Euna and Laura.  Though I am sure he did not read it I was part of the story to free them.

One day the walls around North Korea will fall.  Stories will come out and most will be horrific but some will be beautiful.  And I want to be part of that story of freedom for North Korea.  And I’m realizing that I cannot be part of that story alone, that I must be intertwined with other peoples’ stories.

If you interested in having this become part of your story please come talk with me.

(Please note that the black and white photos are from the LiNK 9 Lives Booklet which you can download here.)

©2010 Love North Korea. All Rights Reserved.

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1. Why Churches and Other Institutions That Care About Social Justice Should Care About North Korea
2. Human Rights in North Korea Awareness Week at Harvard
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Pastor Chun Ki Won is one of the most famous activists in the underground railroad that smuggles North Korean refugees from China to freedom in South Korea.  He is the founder of the Durihana mission which has helped over 700 North Koreans escape.

On Wednesday, October 21 at 4:30 PM Pastor Chun will be speaking at Wellesley College at the Pendleton Atrium.  On Thursday, October 22 at 5:15 PM Pastor Chun will be speaking at Boston College Law School.  I encourage all of you in the area to attend this event.

And if you cannot make it I suggest watching the Seoul Train documentary where Pastor Chun is one of the heroes or the PBS Wide Lens video interview which I show above.

Update 2009-10-26: Here is an article about Pastor Chun Ki Won’s talk.

Looking For Refuge: Pastor Chun Ki Won and the North Korean Human Rights Crisis

Thursday, October 22, 2009
5:15-7 P.M.
Boston College Law School, Newton, MA
East Wing 115A&B

One of the primary figures in North Korean refugee work over the last ten years, Pastor Chun Ki Won has endured North Korean prisons, helped hundreds of North Korean refugees escape, and built a network of orphanages and shelters in China, Cambodia, Thailand, and Mongolia.

We hope you will join us in learning about the prevailing human rights issues that exist today in North Korea and the Chinese borders.  Pastor Chun will address:

• Issues surrounding the capture of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two American journalists who were recently released from North Korea, and its political and humanitarian ramifications;
• The lack of discussion regarding negotiations between the United States and North Korea and why this is so;
• Opportunities for students and young professionals in this field.

There will also be a brief showing of the award-winning 2005 documentary, “Seoul Train,” which follows the dangerous journeys of North Korean defectors fleeing through or to China.  The event will close with a Q&A session.

Light refreshments will be served.

Co-sponsored by:

Boston College Law School’s Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA), Christian Legal Society, Holocaust/Human Rights Project, and Amnesty International; Boston College’s Korean Students’ Association;Boston University Law School’s APALSA; Harvard University Law School’s APALSA.

©2010 Love North Korea. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. Seoul Train Screening in Silicon Valley

Today numerous vigils will be held around the world to protest China’s inhumane repatriation of North Korean refugees back to North Korea where they are tortured (pregnant women’s babies are aborted) and sometimes executed.

If you do go to one of these vigils please leave a comment letting us know how it went.

You can find more information about the vigils in this press release which includes information about where they are happening around the world.

©2010 Love North Korea. All Rights Reserved.

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⁸He has ^(A)told you, O man, what is good;
         And ^(B)what does the LORD require of you
         But to ^(C)do justice, to ^(D)love kindness,
         And to walk ^(E)humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8 (New American Standard Bible)

1. Micah 6:8 : Deut 30:15
2. Micah 6:8 : Deut 10:12
3. Micah 6:8 : Is 56:1; Jer 22:3
4. Micah 6:8 : Hos 6:6
5. Micah 6:8 : Is 57:15; 66:2

Today North Korea stands out as the number one human rights issue in the world.

Concentration Camps

After the holocaust we said never again.  However North Korea operates:

… the world’s worst concentration camps since Nazi Germany, camps that occupy vast areas of the country.

One Free Korea »  Joe Biden Is Blocking North Korea Human Rights Legislation, and You Can Help Un-Block It (Update:  Biden’s Staff Denies, Predicts Bill Will Pass This Term)

More facts:

The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea estimates that North Korea holds approximately 200,000 people in its system of concentration and detention camps, and that 400,000 people have died in these camps from torture, starvation, disease, and execution.

One Free Korea » North Korea’s Largest Concentration Camps on Google Earth

In these camps there is no limit to the amount of cruelty that exists including habitual rape,

Especially beautiful women suffered the most. It has been known that Kim Byeong-Ha … selected pretty women and slept with them in an inspection visit to the camps. Then those women were transferred … and used as an experiment subject and killed. [….]

There is a “Cadre Guest House” at No. 14 Political Prison Camp… When senior officials come from Pyeongyang, pretty maidens aged 21 to 25 are selected among female inmates, bathed and then sent to them. After the officials make a sexual plaything of those females, they charge the women with fleeing and kill them to keep secrets. [KBA 165]

One Free Korea » Camps 14 and 18, North Korea: Satellite Imagery and Witness Accounts

infanticide and forced abortions.

North Korea has been accused of killing the babies of women who are forcibly repatriated from China.

The US-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) said the women were kept in short-term detention camps where they are either given abortions or their babies are killed at birth.

…

One woman told of being forced to assist injection-induced labours and then watching as a baby was suffocated with a wet towel in front of its mother.

Many former prisoners told of babies buried alive or left face down on the ground to die. They were told by guards this was to prevent the survival of half-Chinese babies.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | N Korea ‘kills detainees’ babies’

Slavery

North Korea is a slave state.  An example of this is the “150-day Battle.”

North Korea has extended a campaign urging citizens to work harder for 100 more days…

The so-called 150-day Battle, which compels North Koreans to work harder and put in longer hours, began on April 20 as part of the country’s efforts to resolve food shortages and rebuild its frail infrastructure.

North Korean Economy Watch » Blog Archive » “150 Day Battle” production campaign stories

Every single person is a slave to the state.  Whether it is in factories or prison camps or even in foreign countries.

The report states that the North Korean women permitted to work in places like Nachod, Zebrak and Zelezna are exploited and that the majority of their earnings – which are minimum wage – go to the North Korean government. Furthermore they are constantly under the watchful eye of guards and are evidently only allowed to leave their dormitories in groups.

United States accuses Czechs of hiring North Korean slaves – Radio Prague 

Even the children are slaves of the state.

The Arirang performance is not only a system of propaganda commending military first politics and the dictatorship, but it incorporates harsh training and corporal punishment for children made to participate in it…  Because of this, North Korean human rights groups and international human rights groups are increasingly voicing concerns that the conditions under which North Korean children prepare for the Arirang performance constitute a serious violation of U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Daily NK – North Korea’s Arirang is the Best Performance for the Body?

Starvation

As a Communist state North Korea’s government is responsible for supplying its people with food.  And this government chooses to use its food as reward or punishment.  The result has been a famine that killed approximately two million people in the 90’s or almost 10% of its population.  Starvation and malnutrition still affect many parts of the country.

Today, most North Koreans live on less than 1700 calories a day. This puts the population at severe risk of malnutrition and infection and perilously close to starvation in some areas. A North Korean child can expect to be up to 7 inches shorter than his South Korean counterpart and 20 pounds lighter by adulthood.

Starvation Nation – The American, A Magazine of Ideas

Sadly enough because of the starvation the life of North Koreans is even worse than a slave.

The situation is actually slightly worse than indentured servitude. The slave owner historically promises, in effect, at least to keep his slaves fed. In North Korea, this compact has been broken. It is a famine state as well as a slave state.

North Korea, slave state. – By Christopher Hitchens – Slate Magazine

Refugees

Because of the horror that is North Korea refugees have been streaming by the tens, maybe even hundreds of thousands into China where:

• They have no rights.
• The majority are trafficked into slavery.   80% – 90% of North Korean refugee women are trafficked into sexual slavery, forced marriages, etc.  This is the highest percentage of any single population in the world.
• Daily they fear being captured by North Korean bounty hunters or Chinese police.
• If repatriated they face definite torture and possible execution.

Yet North Korean refugees refer to this existence as heaven.

For Red, whose family lived within sight of the border, China appeared a seductive paradise. "I could see so many lights from apartment blocks and a power plant. China looked so rich." She had been raised on a collective farm in the province of North Hamgyong, the poorest part of North Korea and the source of most border crossers. "I grew up seeing people getting sick and dying from eating grass," she said.

Escaping North Korea – National Geographic Magazine

What Can Be Done?

I believe the number one thing we can do is raise awareness and start shouting “NO MORE!”

North Korea and China’s governments still operate within the Confucian culture of honor and shame.

North Korea denies that any of the concentration camps exist.  They never let Laura Ling and Euna Lee spend a day in one of the camps because they don’t want the world to know.

China repeatedly denies that North Korean refugees are inhumanely treated.  When the world’s spotlight fell upon the North Korean refugees apprehended by Chinese soldiers at the gates to the Japanese embassy as shown in the photo above, those refugees were allowed safe passage to South Korea.  However the tens of thousands of other anonymous captured refugees are sent back to North Korea for torture without any remorse.

Every church, synagogue, temple, house of worship, etc. should talk about North Korea, “the world’s greatest ongoing atrocity.”  Every government should demand North Korea and China respect the international standards for human rights.  The United States and South Korea should demand that human rights be a part of every negotiation.

We can make a difference.  We can say “NEVER AGAIN!”  We can love North Korea.

What do you think should be done?

©2010 Love North Korea. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. My North Korea Talk at GrX
2. Human Rights in North Korea Awareness Week at Harvard
3. Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-02

Please join us on the evening of Saturday, September 12th, at The Times Center in New York City as we host the LiNK 2009 Benefit Gala: "Hope Makes Us Live."

Through the years, more and more North Korean defectors have begun to share their stories. Often reported are tragic accounts of suffering, torture, trafficking and separation. But beyond these accounts lie untold stories that inspire and offer hope – hope that makes them live.

We invite you to come and listen to these stories that offer hope and courage for a brighter future, and to meet North Koreans who have begun their new lives. Guests of honor for the evening will be three North Korean refugees now resettled in the U.S. and South Korea – learn more about their stories here. Invited guests also include Congressman Ed Royce, "Seoul Train" Director and Producer Jim Butterworth, this year’s "Freedom Fighter" award recipient Jared Genser, and this year’s "Light of Liberty" award recipient and invited keynote speaker Senator Sam Brownback.

Tickets are on sale now! For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.linkglobal.org/gala.

We hope to see you there!

LiNK | Liberty in North Korea 1751 Torrance BLVD, Suite L Torrance, CA 90501

www.linkglobal.org info@linkglobal.org 310.212.7190

©2010 Love North Korea. All Rights Reserved.

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I sent a letter to Kim Jong Il – Please Free #EunaLee and @lauraling on June 20 but he probably did not read it. http://bit.ly/wVhlw #

Want to take credit cuz of letter wrote to Kim Jong Il -Please Free #EunaLee & @lauraling but probably didn’t read it http://bit.ly/wVhlw #

©2010 Love North Korea. All Rights Reserved.

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2. Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-07-26
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