Category Archives: North Korea
LFNKR Initiating Starvation Relief Campaign
Critical Shortage of Foods and Medicines in North Korea
The disastrous floods of July and August have caused enormous damage in Pakistan, China and North Korea. Serious damage was caused to North Korean granary areas, including Huang Hai Namdo, Pukto, Hamgyong Pukto and Namdo in the Northern area.
China Attempts Blackmail of Japan over NK Refugees
– North Korean refugees trapped 2 years in Japanese diplomatic missions in China
– China demands Japan stop accepting and protecting North Korean refugees.
On July 8, the Asahi Shimbun, a major Japanese newspaper, ran a feature by journalist Takuya Suzuki. According to this article, the Chinese government is demanding a written pledge from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) that no Japanese diplomatic mission in China will ever again accept or protect North Korean refugees.
2 Foster Children – 2 Success Stories
LFNKR Education Sponsorship Program
The first inspiring story involves a 9-year-old foster child being supported under the LFNKR education sponsorship program who has reached South Korea and been restored to his mother. This means that the child has graduated from our sponsorship program.
They Won’t Reap What They Sow
Hopeless Crops
One of LFNKR’s local staff members in China took this picture across the border on June 1, 2010. It shows people planting rice seedlings in Namiyan, North Hamgyong, North Korea. Their clothing indicates that they are not farmers but soldiers and urban women who have been assigned to the rice planting job.
NK Woman with Moxa Marks
Thyroid Illness Common in NK Woman’s Village
One day recently, a 30-year-old woman from North Hamgyong, North Korea unexpectedly appeared at one of LFNKR’s shelters in China requesting medical assistance. She was suffering from hyperthyroidism, with swollen throat, and in her home city had received a Chinese remedy for her illness. That medicine, however, had worsened her symptoms.
Food Prices Out of Control in NK
Excerpt from LFNKR Internal Report
The following is taken from an April 10, 2010 report from a local LFNKR staff member working in North Korea. The report examines rising prices in the North Korean provinces of Chonjin, Musan, and Haesan during the 11 days from March 30th through April 10th.
To celebrate the 98th birthday of the late dictator Kim Il-sung (born April 15, 1912), the North Korean government distributed 7 kilograms of food to each person. According to our worker, the local government in North Hamgyong Province had to pull stockpiled rice out of its second military warehouse. This is unprecedented. Food shortages are obviously critical now. North Koreans are now whispering that the starvation of the late 90’s may be returning.
Insane price increases for food illustrate how desperately unstable the North Korean economy has become. The day the LFNKR staff member checked food prices in Musan, for example, prices were wildly higher than they had been just four months earlier.
Specifically, wheat flour was now almost 25 times higher. Rice was nearly 8 times more expensive. And corn prices had multiplied almost 5 times during the four-month period. The prices are rising not just day-to-day, but even by the hour. Those who don’t buy in the morning often have to pay more in the afternoon. The extremely volatile food prices are a clear indicator of the chaos rampant in North Korea. The failure of the recent currency reform adds to the people’s distrust of their own money.
Our local staff member reported that, amidst the currency reform failure, one bank president in Yanggang-do was recently executed for his failure to implement the reform.
The report also mentions that 5% of the soldiers of the sixth army corps located in North Hamgyong suffer from severe malnutrition and beriberi. Soldiers with beriberi symptoms are sent home, since the army has no medical facilities to treat the disease. Some have reportedly taken advantage of their temporary leave to escape into China.
Protesting NK Resident’s Organization in Japan
Nuclear Tests, Abductions, Human Rights Violations an Outrage
North Korea continues to ignore the UN resolutions and has repeatedly committed outrageous misconducts, such as the nuclear bomb tests and the ballistic missile launches.? My resentment has risen beyond the critical level.? I now feel that we definitely must do something to stop them.
Prosecute Kim Jong-il through ICC for Crimes Against Humanity
According to recent media reports, Kim Jong-il, now suffering health difficulties, has selected his third son, Kim Jong-un, to succeed him. The North Korean regime is reportedly accelerating plans to become an important military power by 2012. This may explain why the regime has conducted repeated missile launches and nuclear tests in defiance of UN resolutions on sanctions, despite escalating tensions in the world community.