Just 67 North Korean defectors arrived last year. Inter-Korean dialogue and exchange have ground to a halt. Seoul's Unification Ministry has a new, hawkish head who wants to change the agency's role.
Founded in 1996 by a US Protestant pastor and his South Korean wife, the NGO sends food, medicine and necessities to poor North Koreans. Via an “underground route”, it gets escapees out to safety in neighbouring countries. Its Christian ethic attracts volunteers, including non-believers.
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” I don t doubt the wisdom, but I would like to point out that King didn t (and couldn t) go everywhere to fight injustice. That s not a knock against the great King. There are so many injustices in the world that even an army of Martin Luther King Jr.-like-minded generals and soldiers could not have fought against them all.
Elizabeth Salmon, the U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea, said she has been closely monitoring China for any signs of a resumption in the forced repatriations .
North Korean women escaping to China face even less freedom and are vulnerable to trafficking and violence. Third-country-born children of defectors in South Korea struggle with education and military service, while reforms to support them have been neglected. Human rights should be prioritized over diplomatic concerns.