By Dan Wooding
One of the few Christian journalists to visit North Korea
PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA (ANS) -- North Korean officials have pledged in their annual New Year's message to make every effort to bring the country to prosperity and to defend its new leader Kim Jong Un.
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Kim Jong Un, the new leader of North Korea |
In April, North Korea will mark a crucial landmark in its history: the centenary of the birth of its founder Kim Il Sung, the new leader's grandfather.
“The New Year's message urges North Koreans to glorify 2012 as a year of victory and prosperity. It also calls on the army and people to defend Kim Jong Un unto death,” said the VOA story.
“After the death of Kim Jong Il, December 17, North Korean official media referred to his youngest son as the great successor.
“Kim Jong Un, who is in his 20s, was given a prominent position during his father's funeral. Leaders of the ruling Workers' Party officially named him supreme commander over the 1.2 million-strong military at a meeting Friday.”
Officials also have sent a message to the world not to expect any changes in the communist country's policies.
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Michael Little (right) shakes hands with a North Korea officer at the DMZ as Dan Wooding looks on |
Watching these scenes on television, brought back memories of the time I was able to visit North Korea in 1994 after the funeral of Kim Il Sung, known as “The Great Leader,” as part of the first delegation allowed into the mysterious country after his death – and what made this so unusual was that our team of four were all Christians.
Besides myself, our team included Dr. Charles Wickman, then a board member of ASSIST, Michael Little from the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), and it was led by North Korean-born Dr. David Cho (no relation of Paul Yonggi-Cho, the South Korean preacher and head of what is believed to be the world's largest church, Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul.)
Our group saw at first-hand the situation in the country at that time, and it seems to have got even worse over the passing years.
North Korea watchers, including myself, are not expecting any changes in the brutal way that the citizens of this secretive country are treated and now I have heard from the Worldwide Coalition to Stop Genocide in North Korea, a nonpartisan coalition consisting of human rights activists and groups from around the world, is calling for an international general strike on this date to protest against genocide and crimes against humanity in North Korea.
In a news release it says, “January 27th marks the 67th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp, the largest Nazi death camp where an estimated 1.1 million innocent men, women and children were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
“In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly designated this date as an annual international day of commemoration to remember the victims of Nazism and the sacred promise of ‘Never Again’. (For more information on the important meaning and significance of this date, read:http://www.un.org/en/holocaustremembrance/).”
Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity in North Korea
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A North Korean guard kicking a prisoner in a concentration camp |
“North Korea is actively targeting for destruction every group protected under the U.N. Genocide Convention, through its decades-long policy of killing the half-Chinese babies of North Korean women forcibly repatriated by China (constituting genocide on national, ethnical and racial grounds), and its systematic annihilation of its indigenous religious population and their families (genocide on religious grounds).
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This picture says it all |
“The regime’s treatment of political prisoners and its exploitative and discriminatory food policy which is responsible for the deaths of several million North Koreans constitutes crimes against humanity as defined in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”
At the historic UN World Summit in 2005, heads of state and government leaders from around the world committed to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. According to the Responsibility to Protect principle, the world has a duty to intervene to stop mass atrocity crimes first by "appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian, and other peaceful means" and then by force, if necessary.
“North Korea, as a genocidaire of the first order, is in the category of state perpetrator and is manifestly demonstrating this failure to protect. It is high time for the international community to act in North Korea,” added the spokesperson.
Genocide Watch added that it has ample proof that genocide has been committed and mass killing is still underway in North Korea. (See:http://www.genocidewatch.org/northkorea.html
Letter of Demands to the International Community:
To the Leaders of Korea, America, China, Russia, Japan, the United Nations and the Entire International Community,
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Two children pose in the only way they know how: subserviently (Photo: http://thatlinkproject.blogspot.com) |
Our Demands, based upon the foundation of International Law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are as follows:
1) The Immediate and Total Liberation of All North Korean Political Concentration Camps
2) Compensation and Re-imbursement to All North Korean Victims of Slavery, Starvation, Torture, All Concentration Camp Survivors and Their Families for Immeasurable Loss and Suffering
3) The Immediate Stepping Down from Power of the DPRK Leadership
4) Prosecution of Kim Yong-nam, Chang Sung-taek and All Individuals Responsible for Commissioning or Carrying Out Acts of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity
5) Through the Guidance and Oversight of a Coalition of North Korean Refugee Leaders and Human Rights Activists, in Partnership with the Republic of Korea and the International Community, WE DEMAND THE LIBERATION AND REBUILDING OF NORTH KOREA BASED UPON THE FOUNDATION OF ENSURING AND GUARANTEEING WITHOUT FAIL THE HUMAN RIGHTS AND SAFETY OF EVERY NORTH KOREAN INDIVIDUAL ACCORDING TO THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW, WHICH WAS COMPOSED TO PREVENT THE ATROCITIES OF NAZI GERMANY FROM EVER OCCURRING AGAIN. WE, THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY, HAVE ALL FAILED TO KEEP OUR PROMISE AND UPHOLD INTERNATIONAL LAW, AND MOST MISERABLY IN THE CASE OF NORTH KOREA.
Worldwide Coalition to Stop Genocide in North Korea (Nonpartisan)
For more information, please refer to:
“Responsibility to Protect in North Korea”: http://hir.harvard.edu/responsibility-to-protect-in-north-korea
“North Korea and the Genocide Convention”: http://hir.harvard.edu/north-korea-and-the-genocide-movement
Documentary Evidence of Genocide in North Korea: http://www.watch-documentaries.com/children-of-the-secret-state
Documentary Evidence of Concentration Camps, Gas Chambers, Chemical and Biological Weapon Experimentation on Human Beings in North Korea: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7096673757347175289
Documentary - Public Execution in North Korea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAQE7kDwPZY
Contact: http://www.stopnkgenocide.com, r2pnorthkorea@gmail.com
Facebook: Stop Genocide in North Korea http://www.facebook.com/groups/stopnkgenocide/
| Dan Wooding, 71, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 48 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. He now hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on KWVE in Southern California which is also carried throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK and also in Belize and South Africa. Besides this, Wooding is a host for His Channel Live, which is carried via the Internet to some 192 countries and also provides a regular commentary for Worship Life Radio on KWVE. You can follow Dan Wooding on Facebook under his name there or at ASSIST News Service. He is the author of some 44 books, one of which is his autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth”, which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, press this link. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, has also recently released his first novel “Red Dagger” which is available this link. |  |
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