Anju Links for 20 June 2008

THE KOREAN GOVERNMENT HAS PUBLISHED a guidebook for foreigners.  The guidebook contains a warning about the dangers of … fan death.   Have you heard of this “fan death?”  (ht). 

BUT WE MUSTN’T POLITICIZE THE OLYMPICS:  China’s  anti-North Korean refugee pogrom  continues, though almost no one sees fit to mention it, and the people of South Korea still don’t really care about it.  I wonder if they’d care more if they felt completely safe criticizing China.

AT TIMES, IT  ALMOST SEEMS as if the State Department and the Pentagon answer to different  presidents

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF JUNE 15TH from Prof. Sung-Yoon Lee.  In retrospect, I think the very fact that we’re still talking it about may overstate its significance, though the  unifiction is a persistent myth.

MILITARY SECOND:  The Daily NK has more on a significant development in North Korean Kremlinology — the subordination of the once-supreme military to the secret police.  This is a dangerous game for the regime.

THE KOREAN CHURCH COALITION will hold a series of prayer vigils thoughout the United States starting this month, on behalf of North Korean refugees in China.  I’ve posted the full press release and a link below the fold.

Sam Kim, Executive Director for the Korean Church Coalition, announced today that KCC will hold Forty Nine Prayer Vigils, which will be held throughout the Unites States and Canada on June 25, July 13 and July 20, 2008. “Through these vigils, KCC will speak on and pray on behalf of the voiceless, the North Korean Refugees residing in China, who have no voice of their own”.

The forty nine Prayer Vigils will to be held throughout the United States and Canada. All of the vigils are open to the general public. Prayer vigils at twelve additional locations are expected to be shortly announced. KCC’s one thousand plus member South Korean churches will hold similar events throughout South Korea.

“The plight of our suffering North Korean blood relatives, in both NorthKorea and China, finally united all the Korean American churches throughout America”. “On behalf of the one hundred nineteen Korean American Churches located within the State of Washington, it is a privilege to be the host of the July 13th KCC prayer vigil”, said Pastor In Bok Byun (The Great Love Church of Seattle, Seattle-Washington).

“Being a first generation Korean pastor, all I knew how to do before was pray for my suffering North Korean brothers and sisters. Now, working together with the KCC’s second generation, I can also let my voice be heard in Washington, together with the voices of the one thousand four hundred other California Korean American pastors and their congregational members”. KCC will host seven prayer vigils within the State of California. The November 27, 2006 Los Angeles KCC Prayer Vigil (held at the LAX Convention Center) was attended by over fifteen thousand participants.

The United States and Canada Events will be held on the following dates at the following locations:

Please open attachment.

Esther Lee
Press Secretary
Korean Church Coalition
info@kccnk.org
800-222-7082

3 Responses

  1. It’s not the Korean people who dosen’ care about North Korea.
    It’s the new government!!!!!!!! please Do Not criticized peoples it’s the consrvative gov.

  2. That’s funny. I don’t seem to remember any outpourings of sympathy or denunciations of atrocities from leftists like Kim Dae Jung, Roh Moo Hyun, or Chung Dong Young. Their policy was to keep shoveling aid to Kim Jong Il without any conditions, to avoid any criticism of Kim Jong Il on human rights, and to abstain from even those meaningless UN resolutions on human rights up North. As for refugees fleeing the North, the long-standing policy of leftist governments in South Korea could be summed up three words: die in place.

  3. Joshua,

    I think “무좀” actually meant that the current conservative government doesn’t care much about Kim Jong-il and his totalitarian cronies, not North Korea or its people in general.

    In other words, don’t blame “무좀” and his Leftist buddies if the current administration isn’t sending $500 million-plus bribes and glorified strumpets like 이영애 northward!