Category Archives: China
LFNKR’s 19th ANNUAL MEETING HELD ON OCT. 10, 2016
Annual Meeting Held in Tokyo
A summary of LFNKR activities during fiscal 2015 (Sept. 1, 2015 to Aug. 31, 2016) and the plans for the next fiscal year were outlined at the annual meeting.
Price of Freedom Soaring
I Want to See my Daughters as Soon as Possible
By Pak Sung Hee (alias), a Former NK Refugee
I once lived in Chongjin, North Hamgyong. From the 1990’s (the time of the “Arduous March”) through early 2000 we experienced severe starvation. I realized that my whole family would starve to death if something didn’t change, so I crossed the Tumen River into China to bring back food. I bitterly regret, however, that I was never able to make it back to Chongjin where my family was waiting for me.
My father is Japanese, and my mother was an ethnic Korean resident of Japan. Years earlier my parents had believed the propaganda claiming that North Korea was a Paradise on Earth. So, together, they immigrated to North Korea.
Rescue Mission 613 Successfully Completed
Famous landmark in Golden Triangle – The Golden Buddha
LFNKR (Life Funds for North Korean Refugees) recently helped the first two of the six North Korean refugees waiting to escape to freedom. These six are the refugees for whom we recently invited donations.
And it was your generosity that enabled us to help these two. Thank you so much for your ongoing interest and your continued support, and we invite you to help us help the remaining North Korean refugees on our waiting list.
Rescue mission 613 was initiated at the beginning of June, and although it encountered a few unexpected incidents, everything ended well. Unfortunately, just before the rescue mission began, the identity of the special “guide” originally selected for the task was disclosed in the media. This, of course, meant the guide’s risk of arrest had become too great, so we hurriedly sent in a different guide.
Update on Our Five-Year-Old Orphan
Settling in
When the small boy arrived at the orphanage, staff members decided to call him “Kim Chol.” Chol’s nightmare began back in October of last year. The Chinese police had discovered that his parents were North Korean defectors, so they arrested the two and handed them over to North Korean security officers for repatriation, but the five-year-old was left to fend for himself. See our earlier report on Chol
URGENT APPEAL
On the Human Rights Situation in North Korea
February 6, 2016
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January of this year despite the suffering of its people. Although North Korea claims that it was a hydrogen bomb, questions remain due to the nature of the seismic activity associated with the blast.
The North Korean government announced that the hydrogen bomb test “firmly protects the sovereignty of the country and the dignity of the nation…and reliably safeguards the peace on the Korean Peninsula and regional security” and even now is going ahead with missile launches.
Happy New Year
Happy New Year
From Hiroshi Kato, Executive Director,
Life Funds for North Korean Refugees
Wishing all of you health and prosperity in the New Year
It appears that North Korea has succeeded in establishing a three-generation political dynasty. However, the UN has passed resolutions condemning the North’s human rights abuses, calling them grave, widespread, systematic abuses that amount to crimes against humanity. The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution critical of the DPRK with the support of 119 countries.
5-year-old Boy Enters LFNKR Orphanage
Rapidly approaching are the Christmas and New Year holidays – a perfect time for gift-giving. Perhaps you’ve been thinking of donating to a worthy charity. If so, may we suggest a very special group of orphans; abandoned children born to North Korean defectors in China.
The most recent child to come to our orphanage arrived just two months ago. Here is his story.
It was October 4, 2015, a Sunday, when, without announcement or appointment a fiftyish-looking man just showed up at our orphanage in China. With him was a young boy.
Kato Participates in “Ask Me Anything” Session
Last year our Executive Director, Hiroshi Kato, participated in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on Reddit. It was his first-ever AMA and he was really impressed with the quality of the questions he received, which ranged from defectors’ life skills to misconceptions about North Korea. We have included the questions and answers he received, edited slightly for readability.
We hope you enjoy reading it, and feel free to add your own questions and comments on Facebook or Twitter!