Helping Hands Korea

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

‘Don’t forget NK people amid succession’–Korea Times interview with Christian activist, Tim Peters

HHK — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 09:33:49 +0000

“As this drama is being played out in North Korea’s corridors of power, people are foraging in the forest to find bark to make soup,” the American missionary said. “It’s important to balance what’s going on in Pyongyang with the fact that its economy is moribund and people are doing anything they can to survive.” READ MORE: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2012/01/113_102398.html

“UN flags at half-mast to mark Kim’s funeral”—AFP

HHK — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:06:44 +0000

What’s wrong with this picture?????

“Today should be a time for the UN to show solidarity with the victims — the millions of North Koreans brutalized by Kim’s merciless policies of starvation and oppression — and not with the perpetrators.”—UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer

UN Bows Again to Kim Jong Il by Claudia Rosett

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