On the eve of the Beijing Olympics I have mixed feelings.  On the one hand, for the athletes I want the Olympics to be a success.  On the other hand, for the sake of human rights in China, I want the Olympics to be a failure, that the athletics be overshadowed by China’s abominable human rights record.

What I fear and expect is that China will pull off a stunning Olympics that will be both beautiful and epic.  Nations will praise China and the glow from these Olympics will for a long time blur out the human rights issues, especially those of the weak and unspoken for such as the North Korean refugees.  During the build up towards the Olympics, China began to crack down even further on dissidents, refugees, Tibetan protesters, etc.  Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper is making the unprecedented move of not attending the opening ceremonies specifically for this reason.  What a powerful statement it would have been if other dignitaries had done this but alas I fear the Canadian Prime Minister will be only one of a few.  Though President Bush did end up going he did use his time there to speak about how China needs to improve human rights.

One thing that has disappointed me is the nationalism of several Chinese who so want these Olympics to be a success that they have turned against any and all human rights protesters.  For example there was the incident of the protester for North Korean rights being attacked.

China promised to improve human rights and environmental record as part of its Olympics bid.  It has not lived up to its promise and instead has tried to sweep everything under the carpet as the international spotlight shines on China.  I hope change does occur but I’m not so sure it will anytime soon.

Categories: North Korea, Sports
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The Korean Church Coalition for North Korea Freedom (KCC) started a national ad campaign.

It was announced at the Prayer Vigil that on May 1, 2008, KCC launched a first in a series of a national ad campaign which is being aired fourteen times per day on major US Korean National Network stations and is intended to reach every single Korean household in the United States. In the months leading to the Beijing Olympics, the ads will intensify into broader audiences.

Here is the first ad which is in Korean but the images are still moving. I believe much of the ad’s video comes from Seoul Train.

Tags: youtube
Categories: North Korea
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As the campaign proceeds I continue moving further towards Barack Obama. And now Barack Obama has thrown his support towards the most important issue to me, North Korean human rights.

His letter to the Korean Church Coalition for North Korea Freedom (KCC) can be found here. Below I have quoted an excerpt.

As we work to ease tensions and improve security on the Korean Peninsula, we must remember one of history’s most important lessons: that true and lasting peace can only be built on a foundation of human rights. North Koreans should not have to flee their country just to enjoy the most basic rights of life, liberty, and conscience. When they do leave, they should not be forced back to persecution; they should have the protection to which refugees are entitled under international law. These issues should be on the table when we talk to countries in the region, including China.

Tags: obama
Categories: North Korea, Politics
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In the light of the protests for Tibet and Darfur it saddens me that the world knows little about the North Korean situation. Maybe it’s because North Korea has done such a great job of controlling information or maybe it’s because North Korea does not have a famous advocate like the Dalai Lama or Mia Farrow.

This article asks the question what is the world doing.

Where has all the courage gone? – International Herald Tribune
By Joseph Hong

Few countries today can claim as staggering a list of human rights violations as North Korea.

For starters, there’s a resurgent famine driven by gross government mismanagement that threatens millions of lives, hundreds of thousands of political prisoners languish in concentration camps, and an estimated half-million refugees remain in hiding from forced repatriation that often results in torture and execution.

As the situation grows ever more desperate for those fleeing the world’s most repressive regime, urgent attention is needed.

The People’s Republic of China regards North Korean refugees as “economic migrants” and actively hunts them down in an effort to prevent a mass migration through the long Chinese-North Korean border, in violation of the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Reports from the field indicate that China is offering increasingly lucrative bounties for cases that lead to arrest and repatriation.

North Koreans seeking asylum in countries that do not repatriate refugees are put in severely overcrowded detention centers, sometimes for well over a year, before being issued exit visas.

In light of this, it is fair to say that international institutions have totally failed in their duty to protect refugees and curtail human rights violations.

Categories: North Korea
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This is good news that my father relayed to me. Having the New York Philharmonic perform in Pyongyang will hopefully thaw relationships between North Korea and the United States at least a little bit and show a beautiful side of American culture.

This concert will be shown on PBS in New York. Hopefully it will be shown out here in California but so far I don’t see it on the TV schedule.

Arts / Music
Concert in North Korea to Be Broadcast Live – New York Times
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Published: February 19, 2008
The North Korean government has agreed to a live national broadcast of the New York Philharmonic’s concert in Pyongyang next week.

Kim Jong-il ‘Could Meet New York Philharmonic’
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il could meet musicians with the New York Philharmonic when they perform in Pyongyang on Feb. 26, sources speculate.

Categories: North Korea
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On July 29, 2005 I bought the Seoul Train DVD from NK Missions to screen at Highrock Church as part of a global prayer event.

This DVD is an incredibly moving documentary about the underground movement that leads North Korean refugees from China to other countries and eventually South Korea. Unfortunately this movement is under heavy duress as Chinese authorities increase their crackdown with the Beijing Olympics on the horizon.

Seoul Train recently announced they will stop selling DVD’s to individuals after February 17 so if you want a copy you’d better order one now.

Seoul Train PBS Trailer

Categories: North Korea
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On the front page of today’s online edition of the New York Times, it is being reported that a top dissident has been arrested by the Chinese authorities. I am somewhat angry about this because the Chinese government seems to have decided that instead of trying to deal with the issues that will come under international scrutiny during the Olympics, such as the North Korean refugee crisis, that it is better to sweep things under the rugs.

International / Asia Pacific
Dissident’s Arrest Hints at Olympic Crackdown
By JIM YARDLEY
Published: January 30, 2008
The arrest of an activist who spread information about politically touchy topics is cited as an example of a “cleansing campaign.”

Categories: North Korea
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With the Olympics fast approaching China is trying to deal with what could be a major international embarrassment, how it handles the North Korean refugee crisis.

By some estimates hundreds of thousands of North Korean refugees live in China. They live a substandard human existence which shows just how bad life is in North Korea that they would prefer life in China. Most refugees are in hiding, some become sex slaves or forced wives, some abandon their children to orphanages so the children can get an education, many are working for a fraction of what their Chinese counterparts would be making.

China’s policy in the past has been to repatriate all North Korean refugees because they refuse to recognize North Korean refugees as political refugees but rather as “economic refugees.” China refuses to let the UN set up refugee camps and arrests people who help these refugees. China knows vividly what happens to refugees that are repatriated to North Korea, they are tortured and sometimes executed. They’ve seen the North Korean soldiers evilly thread steel wire through the hands and nose of the refugees and drag them away. It is a violation of all international law and completely inhumane.

Fortunately for China most of the world does not care. There is rarely any news about this and in the last year there seems to have been even less news. Every once in awhile something happens that will draw international attention such as the heart wrenching photos of a young daughter being captured along with her mother and aunt at the threshold of the Japanese embassy by Chinese soldiers. Those refugees were released to South Korea.

Now it seems like China has adopted a new policy. Basically if you’re a refugee in Beijing and you make it to an embassy then China will expedite your exit to another country. However if you’re caught outside of an embassy China will send you back to North Korea. China’s goal is obvious, get rid of all North Korean refugees in China one way or the other to avoid embarrassment. China is also doing everything it can to stop North Korean refugees from entering China by erecting a wall at the border and substantially increasing the military border patrol.

Greater China
China’s ‘Olympic approach’ to Refugees
By Sunny Lee
Published: January 26, 2008

BEIJING – During Christmas last year, foreign news outlets in Beijing were busy checking on a possibly important scoop: whether China had reversed its long-standing policy of repatriating North Korean refugees. If true, it would have been a dramatic milestone in one of the hottest spots in the global human-rights advocacy movement.

The excited fuss was sparked when China allowed 43 North Korean refugees, sheltered in the South Korean Consulate and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees compound in Beijing, to leave the country for South Korea and the United States – all of them.

Categories: North Korea
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Senator Sam Brownback has been one of the strongest advocates for international human rights in the U.S. Congress.

From Wikipedia’s article on Senator Brownback:

In 2000, Brownback and Congressman Chris Smith led the effort to enact the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). President Clinton signed the legislation in October 2000. According to Christianity Today, the stronger enforcement increased the number of U.S. federal trafficking cases eightfold in the five years after enactment.

Brownback visited refugee camps in Sudan in 2004 and returned to write a resolution labeling the Darfur conflict as genocide, and has been active on attempting to increase U.S. efforts to resolve the situation short of military intervention. He is an endorser of the Genocide Intervention Network, which called him a “champion of Darfur” in its Darfur scorecard, primarily for his early advocacy of the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act.

Senator Brownback’s own website describes what truly endears him to me, his advocacy for human rights in North Korea.

I sponsored the North Korea Human Rights Act of 2004, which calls on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to demand access to North Korean refugees in China, and urges heightened diplomatic pressure on China to reverse its policy of capturing and repatriating North Korean refugees. China must stop turning a blind eye to the suffering, persecution and execution of the citizens of its neighbor.

One of my friends said that even though he is a liberal and disagrees with Senator Brownback on almost every issue he said that when he met Senator Brownback he told him he would vote for him for President because of his outstanding human rights record.

Senator Brownback did consider running for President but ended up endorsing John McCain.

We need more Senators like him.

Categories: North Korea, Politics
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Casting Crowns, a Christian worship band, was the only U.S. band invited to play in North Korea’s 25th Annual Friendship Art Festival. The thought of a U.S. band, let alone a Christian worship band, blows my mind away.

On top of this some of my friends who were in North Korea at the time watched them play and said they played Christian songs.

North Korea is one of the darkest and most oppressive nations in the world. We pray for revival in North Korea. May this performance be a precursor to that revival.

Here is a YouTube video of If We Are The Body.

Tags: youtube
Categories: North Korea, Worship
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