10th year challenge
Everybody is well aware of the current situation all around the world. Because of today’s circumstances, we at LFNKR are, like so many other organizations, being seriously impacted. Our rescue activities have been drastically curtailed. Since the border between China and North Korea has been completely closed for over a year, rescue operations for North Korean defectors waiting in China have been indefinitely suspended. Meanwhile, however, we are delighted to report on the great success achieved by one of our North Korean defector couples. We were involved in their rescue and their resettlement in Japan. In the following article the wife tells about the couple’s experiences.
10th year challenge (by K. M.)
It feels like it was just yesterday that we escaped from North Korea and came to Japan, but it’s been 10 years now. Anyone over 40 will know this feeling – that the years have flown by.
New Year Greetings for 2021
As we begin this momentous new year, I would like to extend our wishes for your good health and prosperity.
A possible solution to the ongoing confrontation with the U.S. over North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons, missiles, and intercontinental ballistic missiles was discussed at the Singapore summit, but the talks broke down at the U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi. This setback discourages expectations for an early peace.
World opinion has turned to the economic sanctions on North Korea. In addition to the sanctions, their failure to gain foreign currency has brought deep financial difficulties.
Furthermore, the invasion of the COVID-19 virus has directly hit North Korea as a result of their poor quarantine system. This has led to a total blockade of their border with China. This grave economic failure is further aggravating the human rights violations and starvation in that country.
Although we are all busy fighting the pandemic, I believe that we should not forget the human rights issue in North Korea, which is still unresolved.
In spite of the difficult situation, we at LFNKR remain dedicated to helping the vulnerable and to continuing our human rights and humanitarian aid activities. We deeply appreciate your caring and your continued support.
Kato Hiroshi,
Executive Director of Life Funds for North Korean Refugees (LFNKR)
North Korea rejects to accept NK defectors from China
The coronavirus is still frustrating the restart of our rescue operations.
The full blockade at the China-North Korean border is still going on, and according to Yonhap News, the North Korean government recently buried landmines in a part of the border area.
Save North Korean Refugees Day 2020
LETTER OF PETITION
September 24, 2019 is the annual Save North Korean Refugees Day, organized by the North Korean Freedom Coalition. As a member of the Coalition, LFNKR has sent out Letters of Petition to the Chinese embassy and all the consulates in Japan, urging China’s president Xi Jinping to provide North Korean refugees with fair treatment according to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a document which China signed and ratified on September 24, 1982.
Sung Kook`s Challenges – A Far Journey
On December 14, 1959, a so-called “Repatriation Ship” set sail from North Niigata in Japan and headed for North Korea. A massive propaganda campaign had, for months, been touting a “Socialist Paradise on Earth,” and this ship was carrying the first of the 93,000 ethnic Korean residents of Japan and Japanese spouses in search of their dreams, their hopes, and even their misgivings about the unknown country where they planned to make their new home. Included among that number were 6,730 Japanese spouses and children.
Statement on Enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law
On June 30, the Hong Kong government enacted and put into force the “Hong Kong National Security Law” that strengthens the central government’s control of Hong Kong. It is now possible to crack down on a wide range of actions that are deemed counter to the Chinese government’s policies. The maximum penalty is life imprisonment. For “serious situations,” the central government has established a new security maintenance agency in Hong Kong that will be directly involved in compulsory investigation, enabling trials and enforcement of sentences in mainland China.
Interview with a North Korean defector
In May of this year, a 17-year-old boy in Switzerland contacted LFNKR. He is, he said, working on his thesis about North Korea. He asked us if we could arrange for him to interview a North Korean defector. So, we forwarded his list of questions to Kim Su-hyong.
Mr. Kim, who escaped from North Korea in 2017, now lives in Japan. The following questions and answers are good, basic information about North Korea and the current situation there.
Another success story
We at LFNKR are extremely proud of Kim S. who graduated from a night school in March this year. He made it to Japan in 2017 after escaping from North Korea and surviving a journey filled with hazards and hardships.
We told you about him back in Sept. 2017. If you’d like to read the back-story, refer to: https://www.northkoreanrefugees.com/2017/09/
When Kim S. arrived in Japan, he did not speak, read or write Japanese at all, but now …