Monthly Archives: July 2005
NK Refugees Being Overlooked
Refugees Overshadowed by 6-Party Talks
The Six-Party talks in Beijing to discuss the elimination of nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula are dangerously close to overshadowing the struggles of five North Korean refugees, whose stories are being dwarfed and in danger of being forgotten. On July 27th, LFNKR received information regarding five North Koreans now seeking to be declared refugees.
China Tries to Stifle Award-Winning Documentary
Director Reveals Secret Censorship Moves by Chinese Government
If China had its way, the documentary film ‘Seoul Train,’ would never be seen at a single international film festival.
Director-producer Jim Butterworth revealed recently that several festival producers had contacted him quietly with news that Chinese embassies were applying pressure to discourage showing of the Seoul Train documentary. The film reveals China’s role in sending North Korean refugees back to face punishment and even execution, and this exposure apparently displeases Chinese authorities.
Joint Assembly of International Lawmakers, NGOs
More Crackdowns in China
The Chinese government continues to intensify its crackdown on North Korean refugees, with an eye to eliminating them before the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Meanwhile, the South Korean government, the first you would expect to protect North Korean refugees, appears increasingly reluctant to accept them.
New Book: A Long Way to Freedom
A Long Way to Freedom is the story of one refugee family’s harrowing journey to safety, from a daring escape out of their own country, North Korea, to years of surviving their way over half a continent.
This is a tale of bravery, great fortune, and also terrible failures and defeat. It is an epic adventure of love, violence, danger, true friendship, and betrayal. But it ultimately ends in success, and a hard earned victory over unbelievable odds.
A Long Way to Freedom – (297 pages, Paperback or PDF)
By Douglas Comish