Helping Hands Korea

L.A.Times:American Missionary has his eyes trained on North Korea

HHK — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 01:20:01 +0000

Reporting from Seoul: It’s well after dark and Tim Peters leans forward to tell a story about poverty and North Korea. He’s surrounded by a dozen people at a gathering with the cozy atmosphere of a community college night class, the students engrossed by a mentor’s tales. READ MORE about the Catacombs movement to help North Koreans.

L.A.Times:’Chinese policy on North Korean defectors decried’

HHK — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 04:30:18 +0000

South Korean pastor Suh Kyung-suk shouts toward the Chinese Embassy during a rally in support of North Korean refugees arrested by Chinese authorities in Seoul.

Seoul—Angry demonstrators staged a rally Tuesday near the Chinese Embassy here to protest China’s state security police for arresting dozens of North Korean defectors who face torture, imprisonment and even death if returned to their homeland.

Read more:

South Koreans protest China’s repatriation of North Korean refugees:Washington Times

HHK — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 02:57:22 +0000

North Korean defectors wearing masks to cover their faces participate Feb. 21, 2012, in a rally against the Chinese government’s arrest of North Korean refugees, near the Chinese Embassy in Seoul. The protesters called for China not to send North Korean refugees back to their country, saying those refugees might be executed. (Associated Press)

SEOUL — A new kind of high-profile demonstrator gathered in Seoul on Tuesday to protest China’s forced repatriation of North Korean defectors: South Korean film, TV and music stars who enjoy massive popularity in China.

………”There is fear in South Korea that those returned to North Korea will face severe punishment………

“We cannot say with absolute certainty what their fate will be, but definitely, since the death of Kim Jong-il, the message is that punishment for defectors is extremely harsh,” said Tim Peters, a U.S.human rights activist who operates along the China-North Korea border.

“I don’t want to say all will be shot, but the consequences are graver now than they were 3 or 4 years ago.” Read More

‘The new Kim of (north) Korea’ by Reshma Patil of HINDUSTAN TIMES

HHK — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 06:51:37 +0000

“……Tim Peters narrated how a network of activists plucked the defector and his family to safety. “There’s no way Kim Jong-un can be anything but a figurehead,” said Peters, American missionary and founder of Helping Hands Korea that last year helped 81 defectors escape. “All indications we’re getting are that he will be more brutal than his father. The political and military elite will consolidate behind him to protect their privileges.” READ MORE

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
TIM PETERS: What’s wrong with this picture? 50 miles north of here is possibly the worst human rights situation, including Christian persecution, in the entire world, and here we are in South Korea living a lifestyle that’s probably on par with the United States and Europe, and even the South Korean churches were sending armies of missionaries all over the world and yet, there seemed to be nobody in China to kind of catch, to play catcher to all these refugees that were coming across.

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