Tag Archives: repatriated

SK President’s Policies Ignore Refugees

Nothing New from Lee Myung-bak

South Korea’s pro-North stance, including its Sunshine Policy and its Engagement Policy implemented by the regimes of Kim Dae-jung and Roh-Moo-hyun, has caused untold suffering for the North Korean people and North Korean defectors due to rampant human rights violations. 

Kato Addresses Thai University

Main Gate of Chiang Mai University

Thailand’s Chiang Mai University Invites First-Ever Lecture on North Korean Refugee Issue

On Jan. 23, 2009, Mr. Kato Hiroshi, Executive Director of Life Funds for North Korean Refugees (LFNKR) presented a lecture on the North Korean human rights and refugee issue at Chiang Mai University. Chiang Mai University (CMU), with about 17,000 students, is the largest university in Northern Thailand.

Activist Tim Peters Receives Human Rights Award

Activist Tim Peters

From: Norwegian Mission to the East

The prestigious Stephen’s Prize this year will go to a Christian activist who assists North Korean refugees in China. Mr. Peters will receive the prize from the Norwegian NGO “Norwegian Mission to the East” for his pioneering and courageous work for these refugees, helping them find safe refuge and freedom. Mr. Peters will come to Oslo in early November of this year to receive the prize.

Human Trafficking Victim – Choi Chong-mi

Name:            Choi Chong-mi
(Female, Name changed for safety)
Birth date:    1969
Hometown:   Hamgyong Bukto

It is an unending nightmare. I don’t know how to begin telling everything that has happened to me. It will probably sound like fiction to you. When I was two years old, following the death of my father, I was taken in by four aunts and an uncle. My cousins were like my parents, sisters and brother.

No Mercy, No Justice for NK Mothers and Children

Mother of 5-year-old Repatriated to North Korea

In February, 2006, the mother of 5-year-old Kim Yong-soon was arrested and repatriated to North Korea. Six years ago, the mother, a young North Korean woman who had fled the country of her birth, was sold into a forced marriage to a Chinese man. She quickly became pregnant and gave birth to daughter Kim Yong-soon. This daughter, Yong-soon is being supported under LFNKR’s foster parent program. 

Border Report – January 2006

Winter street in Yanji, China

Women Sold, Babies often Abandoned

The following report is by an LFNKR staff member who visited the border area of North Korea and China in January 2006. The Tumen River running along the border was completely frozen. Standing on the riverside on the China side we could see Namyang, North Hamgyong on the other side, in North Korea. There were lookout posts about every 100 meters. Clearly, the crackdown on North Koreans attempting to escape into China has been stepped up even further.

In-Depth Overview of NK Refugee Issues

Tim Peters of Helping Hands Korea addresses a Joint Session of NGOs and Lawmakers from 4 Nations

Tim Peters, Founder, Helping Hands Korea

I am very honored to address this joint conference that brings together a wide range of NGO’s and the Inter-Parliamentarian Coalition for North Korean Refugees and Human Rights that includes distinguished representatives of Japan’s House of Councilors and House of Representatives, U.S. Congressmen, the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, representatives of the State Great Hural (Parliament) of Mongolia and the Parliament of New Zealand. 

NK Refugee Park Yong-chol Repatriated

NK Defectors Still Being Denied Right to Live

We were shocked to learn a few months ago that Choi Yong (male), a Japan-born North Korean, was executed after being repatriated. He was one of the two Japan-born North Koreans whom Takayuki Noguchi (of our organization) tried to help escape from China in December last year.