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August 28, 2017

State Department issues new reports on N. Korean gulags, religious repression

Last week, State issued two new reports on North Korea. The first of these reports, mandated by section 303 of the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016, terms itself a report on North Korea’s prisons. In fact, it only describes the worst tier of them — the dreaded kwan-li-so, or political prison camps, several of which are places where the condemned never leave. CAMP 16 HWASONG 41.314103,129.342054 There is little information available on the total control zone Camp...

Categories Human Rights/Religion/The Camps
August 10, 2017

God and Eric Hoffer in North Korea (Pt. 2)

For the reasons I described here, if a resistance movement ever arises in North Korea, it will almost necessarily draw its essential inspiration and cohesion from Christianity. It requires extraordinary inspiration for anyone to sacrifice her individual interests for collective interests, and it is almost inevitably messianic faith — in Christianity, Islam, or Marxism in its various idealistic or pseudo-nationalist variations — that has supplied that inspiration to adherents of revolutionary movements. Pyongyang obviously knows this, which is why its...

Categories Religion
January 26, 2017

God and Eric Hoffer in North Korea

Since yesterday’s post, I’ve had a chance to watch the interview with Thae Yong-ho. Thae said many interesting things, but none was so striking as the point when, about 9 minutes into the interview, he talked about the good fortune of getting his family to South Korea and said, “God help[ed] me.” Thae did not strike me as an emotional or spiritual man. He has spent his whole life shielded from religion. We know that his political conversion was a gradual...

Categories Religion
November 3, 2014

Now, that wasn’t very smart, was it, Mr. Fowle?

My working assumption about Jeffrey Fowle had been that no believing Christian would have intentionally left a Bible next to a toilet, but evidently, I was mistaken about that. I wonder whether the Bible in question was even translated into Korean, but either way, Fowle’s tactical decision to waste thousands of dollars from his modest municipal salary to nonchalantly place one Bible next to a toilet … in Chongjin puts him firmly in the same category as the South Korean missionaries...

Categories Foreigners in N. Korea/Religion
July 7, 2010

Son Jong Nam, R.I.P.

It is a terrible thing to say, but I will say it: it is better that Son Jong Nam is dead than that he still endures torture in North Korean captivity. Truthfully, I had long assumed that Son had died, even by the time I wrote this post in late 2007. Now, Son’s brother has told an AP reporter that his brother is dead. Like most North Koreans, Son Jong Nam knew next to nothing about Christianity when he fled...

Categories Deprogramming/Religion/Resistance/Subversion
January 3, 2010

Christian Groups Claim to Smuggle Food Into North Korea

Does anyone know anything about these people, and are they legit? I know some of you think I’ve been tough on Robert Park, but when I compare what he did to what these people are doing, there’s simply no comparing the relative capacity of the two techniques to change lives and minds. Even to plenty of us non-believers, things like this are so admirable that they’ve persuaded me that Christianity will be Kim Jong Il’s undoing and North Korea’s rebirth....

Categories Famine & Food Aid/Religion/Robert Park
July 25, 2009

Ex-N. Korean Special Forces Soldier Alleges Biowar Experiments on Handicapped Kids; North Korea’s Jihad Against Christians

The accuser, Im Chun-Yong, escaped from North Korea with several comrades in his unit a decade ago.  That alone should tell you something about the state of morale in North Korea’s most elite forces even then.  Im claims that he kept this story to himself until now: “If you are born mentally or physically deficient, says Im, the government says your best contribution to society”¦ is as a guinea pig for biological and chemical weapons testing.”  [….] The former military...

Categories Human Rights/Religion/The Camps
July 8, 2009

High-Level Defector Describes Regime’s Illicit Income

I’d previously mentioned that I recently had the opportunity to meet Kim Kwang Jin, a high-level North Korean defector with detailed knowledge of North Korea’s illicit financing and money laundering.  Now, Kim adds much to our understanding of how North Korea pays for all those Mercedes-Benzes and missiles.  Having guessed that most of the cash came from flipping houses and the inventing some of the novel kitchen applicances I’d seen Billy Mays selling on my TV, this was a cruel...

Categories Deprogramming/Money Laundering/NK Military/North Korea/Refugees/Regime Change/Religion/Uncategorized
July 5, 2009

Christian Group Threatened Over Faxes to North Korea

Remember when, several months ago, I published a long list of fax numbers for North Korean entities of various kinds, both inside and outside North Korea? I wondered if any of those faxes would actually get though. I guess we have our answer: North Korea has threatened a Christian ministry to stop sending Gospel messages to the country through fax, saying the consequence will be “very bad,” amid testing of seven missiles on U.S. Independence Day. Voice of the Martyrs...

Categories Activism/Religion/Terrorism (NK)
September 11, 2007

Newsweek Reports on Son Jong Nam, North Korea’s Only (Possibly) Living Dissident

A new Newsweek piece about North Korea’s underground movement reports on the plight of Son Jong Nam.  If Son still lives, he sits on death row in Pyongyang for spreading his faith.  You will recall that I previously wrote about him here, and told you how you can join in a campaign to save his life.  Newsweek estimates that there are between 20,000 and 100,000 underground Christians in North Korea. You can’t bring Christianity to such a place on a...

Categories Inside NK/Religion/Resistance
July 26, 2007

South Korea: No Worse Friend, No Better Enemy

By now you’ve heard that the Taliban have murdered their first Korean hostage, and so Korea has now wheeled as one  in spontaneous rage at the Taliban, as though they’d  issued postage stamps with images of  Tokdo, right?  Well, not exactly.  There are many things I could say about the reactions of Roh Moo Hyun, his government, and his country’s media, but Robert Kohler has pretty much already said those things, and a few others.  Two lessons bears repeating:  first,...

Categories Anti-Americanism/Korean Society/Religion/Terrorism/Iraq
July 20, 2007

Taliban Kidnap 18 South Koreans in Afghanistan

They were members of a church group, and readers may recall other church groups  from South Korea have also ventured into some very dangerous places. Taliban gunmen abducted at least 18 members of a South Korean church group in southern Afghanistan, and a purported spokesman for the Islamic militia said Friday it will question them about their activities in Afghanistan before deciding their fate. The Koreans were seized Thursday in Ghazni province as they were traveling by bus from Kabul...

Categories Korean Society/Religion
July 16, 2007

Reminder: ‘Let My People Go’ Rally, Noon Tomorrow on the West Lawn of the Capitol

The Korean Church Coalition picks up an impressive and somewhat  surprising endorsement in advance of tomorrow’s rally.  As always, you need not be present to win.   If you have an  Internet connection or a phone, you can pester your Senators, your Representatives, and your pals at the Korean and  ChiCom Embassies: chinaembassy_us@fmprc.gov.cn / Tel.: (202) 328-2500 (Why should you do this?) http://www.dynamic-korea.com/embassy/meet.php / (202) 939-5600 (Why should you do this?)

Categories Activism/Human Rights/Religion
July 12, 2007

Korean Church Coalition Joins N. Korean Human Rights Movement, and an Appeal for a Condemned Man

[Update:   Barack Obama endorses  the rally and its cause with a nicely written letter.  Read it here.  Of course, it would be great to think that Obama will be as persistent and passionate on this issue  as Sam Brownback, who introduced this resolution  in the Senate.  That’s two presidential candidates, one from each party.  In a particularly  bipartisan gesture, one prominent  Republican staffer even  sent me a copy of Obama’s letter(!).  If the KCC turns out a good crowd...

Categories Human Rights/Religion/Resistance
October 21, 2006

Another MUST-READ: NYT on the Erosion of the Information Blockade

Many thanks to a reader for forwarding. The Times is on an absolute roll with its recent Korea reporting. Here, we learn more of the underground network that can sow dissent, and that could eventually form the foundation of a resistance movement. The increasing ease with which people are able to buy their way out of North Korea suggests that, beneath the images of goose-stepping soldiers in Pyongyang, the capital, the government’s still considerable ability to control its citizens is...

Categories Refugees/Religion/Resistance