Thirteen-year-old Jonathan Lee plans to visit North Korea this week to share his idea for peace in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. Lee, a Korean American who was born in South Korea and now lives in Mississippi, will fly with his family to Pyongyang from Beijing.
The family stated that they applied this summer visit North Korea as a “special delegation,” and furthered that North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York gave permission for their visit, according to The Huffington Post. Lee expects to meet with North Korean officials, and will pitch his idea of peace- a children’s peace forest for fruit and chestnut trees and for children to play. Lee also hopes to give a letter to leader Kim Jong Il, which details a “sunshine policy” of peace for the two divided regions.
The family’s visit comes during high political tensions. The demilitarized zone is heavily guarded, with combat-ready troops that stand readily on guard on both sides. In addition, the sinking of a South Korean warship in March has caused greater tensions between the Northern and Southern regions.
The buzz out of North Korea is that Kim Jong Il was so embarrassed by the losses at the World Cup that the soccer team was subjected to public humiliation.
Radio Free Asia and South Korean media outlets have reported the entire squad was forced onto a stage at the People’s Palace of Culture and subjected to criticism from Pak Myong-chol, the sports minister, as 400 government officials, students and journalists watched the six-hour ordeal.
Also, coach Kim Jong-hun reportedly has been relegated to a construction job and expelled from the Workers’ Party of Korea. (They make him a blue collar guy, but won’t let him be in the Workers’ Party? Go figure.)
Does North Korea mean anything to you? What about the little North Korean refugees who are displaced from North Korea? Do you want to help with the stroke of a pen? No money required. You just need the ability to hit submit or send a letter.
North Korean Refugee Adoption Act 2010 (S.3156/H.R.4986)
Greetings,
We are asking for your support for the Korean Refugee Adoption Act of 2010. This act, if passed, would push the Secretary of State to create a plan to more effectively allow Americans to adopt North Korean refugee orphans in China and other neighboring countries.
Sang Man (Sam) Han-Schneider (Han-Schneider Foundation) was separated from his family in 1950 at six years old during the outbreak of the Korean War. In 1961, Dr. Arthur Schneider adopted Han-Schneider by means of the private bill S.1100, which allowed, for the first time, a bachelor to adopt and bring a foreign child to the United States. This opportunity inspired Han-Schneider to work with his children’s foundation and Suzanne Scholte to write an act that would eventually bring North Korean orphans to the United States.
Most North Korean children are not given the chance to be healthy and grow up in a stable home. They are often sent to prison camps and lack the nutrition needed to grow and develop at their age. Statistics show that on average, North Korean girls and boys are three inches and five inches shorter than South Korean children, respectively.
Many flee to China and neighboring countries, where they are still not safe, as most are sold into sex slavery and forced onto the streets as beggars. Right now, it is extremely difficult to bring these children to the United States. For example, earlier this year, three orphaned North Korean children (siblings) wanted to come to the United States, and a Caucasian family on the East coast decided to bring them to their home. However, they are still in the process of legally transporting the children to the United States, which can take up to several years. The Adoption Act would create a plan to effectively allow Americans to adopt North Korean orphans and raise them in a nurturing environment.
This is not just an adoption issue or a Korean and Korean American issue. This is an issue about human rights. These children do not receive the love, care, safety, and protection they need, and adoption by American families would provide that to them.
Please support this act and the freedom and new life it would bring to North Korean refugee children.
According to the New York Times, the South Korean government is considering using the voices of Kpop girl bands to broadcast propaganda at the North Koreans. This is for real.
In response to the sinking of one of its ships, South Korea recently erected speakers along its demilitarized zone with North Korea — to be used for propaganda broadcasts. A South Korean newspaper reports that the government is also considering using “songs and music videos by manufactured girl bands such as Girls’ Generation, Wonder Girls, After School, Kara and 4minute in so-called psychological warfare against North Korea.” Wonder if they’ve considered Barry Manilow?
The Brazilians are considered the team to beat along with Spain in this year’s World Cup, and today they begin the quest for their 6th World Cup against North Korea in the group of death. North Korea is the lowest ranked seed in the tournament but they have an interesting history, having defeated the Italians in 1966 for one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history. Could history repeat itself against the almighty Brazilians? Odds are no but commentators have suggested that there is a sliver of hope for North Korea to pull it off with their recent performances the last couple of years. We’re not suggesting you root for North Korea. Though some friends have said they would because the North Koreans have the same ethnicity as the South Koreans…. true. However, politically and historically, we are diametrically opposed and therefore it complicates our feelings towards North Korea. The New York Times gave us a quick history lesson about North Korea and the men that conquered Italy in 1966. The BBC actually profiled them and it revealed personalities that we would not expect from men under a suppressive regime.
That 1-0 victory for North Korea stands alongside the United States’ 1-0 win over England in 1950 as one of the two biggest upsets in World Cup history. And there is something else about that famous result from 1966, something that runs counter to many commonly held perceptions of North Koreans as a people. The men who won that match were funny, dignified and, above all, just like the sportsmen of any other nation — as we learn from a remarkable 2002 BBC documentary called “The Game of Their Lives.”
What the heck is happening on the Korean peninsula?! This appears the most tense time in the history of the Korean conflict since the 50′s. Kim Jong-Il must be getting crazier as his health deteriorates and gets closer to death. Maybe he’s trying to take the world down with him for some apocalyptic end. And what the heck are the Chinese doing by indirectly providing political support for North Korea. If you haven’t been following, the low down is this: on March 26th, a South Korean naval ship was destroyed and since that tragic day, investigations have shown that the sinking was from a torpedo by a North Korean submarine. This is a direct provocation for war. However, North Korea warned that it would wage an “all-out war” if they’re punished for the sinking of the South Korean warship. This is really ugly and Kim Jong-Il is truly the craziest man alive. Would someone please shoot him because not only has he starved and eroded the lives of millions of North Koreans, but he’s also held Asia hostage and endangered the world with its arm’s development. Thankfully the U.S. is on our side and is providing full support of South Korea’s efforts.
U.S. Secretary of the State Hillary Clinton spoke of the “immediate crisis” of the sinking that “requires a strong but measured response” and of a “longer-term challenge of changing the direction of North Korea, making a convincing case to everyone in the region to work together to achieve that outcome, denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, and offering the opportunities for a better life for the people of the North.”
Pepsi is giving away millions of dollars in grants each month to fund great ideas and there is a Korean related idea. Currently there are over 700 ideas in the running for Pepsi’s money and we’re hoping you’ll vote for LiNK. Voting ends on February 28th!
LiNK’s work focuses on awareness through mobilizing the grassroots and telling stories of hope. We advocate for the North Koreans, while working with refugees through shelters in China and Southeast Asia-protecting, educating and assisting them to eventually find freedom and live new lives.
Goals of LiNK are…
Provide job training, and career counseling for refugees.
Provide medical and psychological services for North Korean refugees.
Provide food for North Korean refugees once resettled in the U.S.
Facilitate language acquisition and cultural orientation for refugees.
Provide housing for North Korean refugees once resettled in the U.S.
Not sure if this is a bummer because people have very mixed feelings about the Korea’s marching together at the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympic Games. On one hand, it’s very symbolic and hopeful that the Korea’s could someday be united. However, do you want to deal with one of the worst dictators in the world and play nice? Quite the dilemma.
Previous to this year, Korean athletes had marched together at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, extending a tradition that started at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney and continued at the 2004 Athens Olympics. However, the two teams did not march together in Beijing in 2008.
South Korea has 46 athletes entered for the Vancouver Games. North Korea has two: one each in figure skating and speed skating.
Korean-American missionary, Robert Park, has returned to the U.S. after having been held in captivity in North Korea for 43 days. He crossed a frozen river between the Chinese and North Korean border to deliver a message of regime change.
Robert Park, of Tucson, Ariz., crossed the frozen Tumen River from China into North Korea on Dec. 25, carrying letters calling on leaderKim Jong Il to close the country’s notoriously brutal prison camps and step down from power. Those acts could have risked execution in the hardline communist country.
It was either brave or stupid for Robert Park to attempt what he did but we can all agree that North Korea does need a regime change. It is an “Axis of Evil” that starves its people and holds the world hostage with its nuclear intentions. It is one of the harshest regimes on the planet and sadly, it appears that the young Robert Park was under great distress while in North Korea as his views apparently changed over the course of 43 days in captivity.
The family didn’t have time during their brief airport reunion to ask whether he had been mistreated by North Korean officials, Paul Park said. They also didn’t get a chance to ask him about a statement that North Korea attributed to him on Friday, he said.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency quoted Park as saying he was ashamed of the “biased” view he once held of the country.
Robert Park said he was now convinced “there’s complete religious freedom for all people everywhere” in North Korea, citing the return of the Bible he carried as he entered the country and a service he attended at Pongsu Church in Pyongyang, KCNA said.
“I would not have committed such crime if I had known that the (North) respects the rights of all the people and guarantees their freedom and they enjoy a happy and stable life,” it quoted him as saying.
Cable network ESPN has been showcasing the American military through a video series entitled “American Heroes” to honor the veterans and our military. Shelley Smith and the ESPN crew visited the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the most heavily guarded border in the world that separates North and South Korea. If you didn’t know, the Korean War is technically not over.
Though at any moment, Kim Jong-Il could flip and start a nuclear war, the American military fight through the mundane life that exists within the DMZ through sports. They play golf at the DMZ with their sparsely constructed golf course that’s built with sand traps and AstroTurf. What’s rather scary is that a wayward struck golf ball could land on the wrong side of the road where land mines (3 million of them) litter the ground.
One of the most interesting things that reporter Shelley Smith reveals is that North Korea hand picks taller and bigger soldiers to stand guard on their side of the border to intimidate the American and South Korean soldiers. That Kim Jong-Il! What will he think of next?!
Watch the short video below for the full story by Shelley Smith.
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