Helping Hands Korea » In the Media

Cry Freedom! HHK urges UK Parliament to enact policy changes related to North Korea’s religious persecution and protection of refugees in China

HHK — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:43:54 +0000

PBS on Helping Hands Korea and North Korean Refugees

HHK — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:09:34 +0000

Watch PBS feature on North Korean refugees :http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/january-6-2012/north-korea-refugees/10055/

Helping Hands Korea’s work of assisting North Koreans who’ve fled totalitarian DPRK enters its 16th year and is covered by PBS Religion and Ethics Newsweekly in its January 8th, 2012 program. Despite daunting challenges at the China-North Korean border, helping the refugees goes on. This PBS segment is featured alongside Paul Simon’s surprising new album,which in the making, Simon smiles, “God unexpectedly showed up.”

Tim Peters on the Coerced Mourning for the Death of Kim Jong-il

HHK — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:14:05 +0000

“It is a painful thing to watch this outpouring of emotion for someone who has been one of the most terrible despots of the 20th and 21st centuries,” said Tim Peters, a Seoul-based American missionary who assists North Korean defectors in China and South Korea. “It is completely incongruous with reality.” READ MORE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/8982025/Kim-Jong-il-memorial-service-Kim-Jong-un-hailed-as-new-supreme-leader.html

Foreign Policy(Jan-Feb)-”Preaching the Gospel in the Hermit Kingdom–Can Christian evangelicals save North Korea?”

HHK — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:49:50 +0000

The mission strategy of HHK/Catacombs to reach North Korean refugees is outlined by Tim in this issue written by Isaac Stone Fish, which gives an overview of various mission approaches to the extraordinarily difficult field of the great Christian persecutor, the DPRK. Quotes from the article: “But the majority of the missionaries involved with North Koreans work with them only when they’re safely outside the country. “For the ones who come out, Christianity can do a lot more for them because they need so much healing,” says a Christian activist in South Korea. Tim Peters runs Helping Hands Korea, an organization that helps North Korean women and children who have already crossed into China flee to other countries. He told a story of a man in North Korea who, in late December after the death of Kim Jong Il, became interested in Christianity. But after speaking about it in his community, he raised the suspicion of security forces. He and his family fled North Korea the next day, and Peters’s team near the Chinese border is now helping them. “Because they were discovered listening to Christian radio, if they were to be repatriated the punishment would be extraordinarily harsh,” says Peters.” READ MORE: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/06/preaching_the_gospel_ in_the_hermit_kingdom

Canadian Broadcasting Co.(CBC) interviews Tim:the plight of NK refugees with Kim Jong Un now at the helm of state

HHK — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 08:21:29 +0000

NORTH KOREA DEFECTORS. That’s coming up on CBC’s As It Happens. http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/audioplayer.html?clipid=2181337785

The images are as bizarre as they are rare. Today, North Koreans buried their Dear Leader, and the funeral was broadcast to the world via that country’s state television. However choreographed, it was a highly unusual view into the secretive nation.

The country has a new ruler — Kim Jong-Il’s twenty-something-year-old son, Kim Jong-Un. But the change at the top doesn’t seem to be leading to any changes farther down: observers say life for North Koreans isn’t getting any easier, especially for those looking to flee the country.

Reverend Tim Peters is the director of Helping Hands Korea, an organization that helps refugees fleeing from the North. We reached him in Seoul, South Korea.

Hungarian Daily quotes HHK director on the Likelihood of a Revolt in North Korea

HHK — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:19:34 +0000

(Although a full translation of the Hungarian is not available, the following is the full answer Director Tim Peters gave the Metro journalist in English responding to “Will the North Korean people revolt following the death of Kim Jong-il?” Peters:” I believe it’s highly unlikely that the North Korean people will revolt, at least in the short term. The Kim family dynasty has been superimposed over a highly regimented social structure, a system of mutual surveillance and self-censorship that has been honed for over 60 years. That will most likely remain intact for some time despite the obvious youth, inexperience and lack of diplomatic and military training of Kim Jong Il’s designated heir, Kim Jong Un, age 28. If Kim Jong Un proves completely inept, and cracks do appear in the ruling elite, then factions could appear in the military and Workers Party. Things at that point could get very dicey indeed.”

North Korean’s tale of isolation, fear (CNN)

HHK — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:47:14 +0000

CNN’s Stan Grant has rare access to one man who tells his story of terror, starvation, and spies in isolated North Korea. WATCH: North Korean\’s tale of isolation and fear

North Korean mourners, crying to survive?—CNN

HHK — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 01:44:33 +0000

“Many have asked whether the anguish is genuine. How could citizens mourn the passing of a totalitarian, such a gross abuser of human rights? The answer may be found in the human rights abuses themselves. It is a lamentable characteristic of totalitarian regimes that they often demand acts of deceit from those they oppress. Often it is a matter of simple survival. Those who hate the regime are obliged to demonstrate patriotism. To fail is to risk persecution. The only alternative is to flee, a choice made by tens of thousands of North Koreans in the past two decades.” (John Sifton:director of advocacy for Asia at Human Rights Watch. READ MORE: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/22/opinion/sifton-korea-tyranny/index.html?hpt=ias_t4

Defectors Skeptical About N.Koreans’ Grief(Chosun Ilbo) http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/12/22/2011122201543.html

North Korea’s dynasty enters third generation (Sydney Morning Herald, Canberra Times, Brisbane Times)

HHK — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:18:29 +0000

Dec.24,2011 An iron hand still rules North Korea’s hermit kingdom despite its ruler’s death, writes Hamish McDonald.

(In a wide-ranging article that reveals decades of experience as a North Korea watcher, Sydney Morning Herald’s Asia-Pacific Editor, Hamish McDonald explores the many aspects of North Korea’s dynastic succession. Among those interviewed is Helping Hands Korea’s director who is quoted, among other issues, on his interpretation of current tensions along the China-North Korea border and what the current ‘lockdown’ may suggest about conditions deep inside North Korea.)

”In the last year to 18 months the North Korean and the Chinese governments have been co-operating at a higher bureaucratic level to lock down the border, in anticipation of any developments like we have just seen with the sudden death of Kim Jong-il, to try to prevent any uncontrolled surge of people across the border,” says Tim Peters, of a group called Helping Hands Korea in Seoul. ”We’ve seen a build-up of border patrols on both sides, and on the Chinese side the non-human element, the cameras and the heat and motion sensors.”

The push factor of mass starvation in regions of North Korea and continuing harsh repression is worse than ever, said Peters and Chun. “Nothing is relaxed, we don’t see any reform going on, the economy is still moribund, agriculture is not improved, people are looking for the exit,” said Peters. “The lid is screwed tighter but the pressure in the cooker is building up.”

“But that’s very distinctly outside of Pyongyang,” Peters added. “There are two North Koreas. One is Pyongyang with the sobbing mourners, and outside in the villages and towns, there’s occasional pictures of them. These people haven’t received public distribution [of food] for a long time — very little mourning going on there.” Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/north-koreas-dynasty-enters-third-generation-20111223-1p8jr.html#ixzz1hRZOa1o

Hope and uncertainty for N.K. charities after Kim’s death (Korea Herald)

HHK — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:55:10 +0000

Journalist Kirsty Taylor surveys NGO leaders related to North Korean humanitarian aid and human rights advocacy for their views on the impact of Kim Jong-il’s death on conditions for the average North Korean citizen. Quotes from HHK’s founder/director: “Tim Peters, who founded Helping Hands Korea which aids North Korean defectors in China, thought any new direction in leadership would take a long time to impact the lives of ordinary North Koreans.

“It is going to take time for these changes to be felt at a low level across society. We can always hope, but I myself am rather doubtful whether we are going to see an opening up of the country or the economy,” he said.

He expected more people would wish to flee the country following Kim’s death, in spite of recent crackdowns by North Korea and China making it harder to cross the border.

“More and more people will continue to see defecting as the most reasonable measure for them to take.”