Tag: North Korea

Otto Warmbier’s father joins Pence at Olympics to highlight North Korean abuses

February 9, 2018 Kim Jong-Un, Mike Pence, North Korea, Otto Warmbier, Pyongyang, South Korea

As the Winter Olympics kick off in Pyeongchang, US Vice-President Mike Pence has arrived in South Korea with a guest – the father of Otto Warmbier, the American student who died shortly after being sent home from a North Korea prison in June last year. But, as the BBC reports, Mr. . . . Read More

New report finds ‘flicker of hope’ in North Korea

February 7, 2018 North Korea Human rights, North Korea

A new report on North Korea finds that over the last decade there has been a shift in people’s attitudes away from being “passive recipients” serving the regime to being motivated “change-makers” shaping their own destiny. Movies, markets and mass surveillance: human rights in North Korea after a decade of . . . Read More

North Korea: A country with no Christian children

January 31, 2018 North Korea Children, North Korea

Children in North Korea often do not know if their parents are Christian. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

There are no Christian children in North Korea, a country where people are taught to worship only the ruling Kim dynasty and where believing or suggesting anything else is to sign a death warrant for one’s self and one’s children. Lee Joo-Chan only learned the ‘family secret’ – namely that . . . Read More

‘Unprecedented’ persecution of Egypt’s Christians heads 2018 World Watch List

January 10, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, Anti-conversion law, Boko Haram, Cairo, Central Asia, Churches, Converts, Copts, Egypt, Eritrea, Fulani herdsmen, Hindu nationalism, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Jharkhand, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Marawi, Middle Belt, Middle East, Mindanao, Minorities, Nepal, Nigeria, North Korea, Philippines, Somalia, Southeast Asia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Upper Egypt

More Christians abused in India than in all other countries combined; Nepal enters list Islamic extremists driven out of Iraq and Syria are behind a new intensity of Christian persecution in surrounding countries, says global charity Open Doors in its latest annual survey of countries where it is most difficult . . . Read More

US State Department adds Pakistan to religious-freedom watch list

January 5, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Central African Republic, China, Eritrea, Iran, Minorities, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Religious freedom, Russia, Sanctions, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam

Burial of victims of a suicide attack on the Methodist Bethel Church in Quetta, Pakistan, on Sunday 17 December 2017 in which at least 9 people were killed. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The US State Department has placed Pakistan on a “Special Watch List” for severe violators of religious freedom, it announced yesterday (4 January) with the publication of its annual list of ‘Countries of Particular Concern’. The announcement comes as the US government cuts security aid to Pakistan, saying the country . . . Read More

Christmas in North Korea: an inner celebration

December 26, 2017 North Korea Christmas, Kim Jong-Un, North Korea, South Korea

How will Christians under pressure for their faith celebrate Christmas? The third instalment in our series focuses on North Korea. North Korea is the most difficult country in which to live as a Christian, according to the advocacy charity Open Doors, which has ranked it no. 1 in its World . . . Read More

‘Crimes against humanity’ in North Korea’s prison camps

December 15, 2017 North Korea China, Human rights, International Criminal Court, Kim Jong-Un, North Korea, UN

An icy Tumen river forms the border between China and North Korea, 2009. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

North Korea’s president, Kim Jong-un, and top officials should be held accountable for committing “crimes against humanity” in prison camps in the country, three international jurists said earlier this week. They called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to establish a special tribunal to prosecute the country’s leaders. The jurists’ . . . Read More

Freedom of thought ‘regressing on a global scale’

December 6, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Apostasy, Asia Bibi, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Comoros, Education, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Human rights, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Qatar, Religious freedom, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, The Gambia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen

There are many Pakistani Christian women like Aasiya Noreen who live in fear of the Blasphemy law in their country and the (potential of) abuse. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The 2017 Freedom of Thought Report, presented yesterday (5 December), should be alarming “to all who care about freedom of thought and expression”, as it shows “a pattern of regression on a global scale”, says its editor, Bob Churchill. The report, published by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) . . . Read More

China expels hundreds of South Koreans from North Korean border region

November 7, 2017 China China, Churches, Communism, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, North Korea, Sinicisation, South Korea

Hundreds of South Korean Christians, including church leaders, have been sent home in the last year by three provincial governments in north-eastern China in a move that is seen to be part of the implementation of a new set of rules to control religious activities. There are thought to be . . . Read More

US to lift Sudan sanctions despite human rights concerns

October 9, 2017 Sudan Darfur, Human rights, North Korea, Religious freedom, Sanctions, Sudan, UN, USA

Teenage girls carry water in a refugee camp for people from the Nuba Mountains in Sudan. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The US has announced it will lift economic sanctions on Sudan “in recognition of [its] positive actions” in fighting terrorism, expanding humanitarian access and reinforcing a cease-fire in conflict areas, but rights groups say the decision is premature as there has been little progress on human rights. The decision, which . . . Read More

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