Saturday, July 01, 2006

Rising Tide of North Korean Refugees

Several human rights groups are involved in an “underground railroad” transporting North Koreans out of China via several Asian routes to safety in third countries. Most refugees choose South Korea as a final destination. The United States welcomed its first North Korean asylum seekers in May of this year.

Tim Peters [and Helping Hands Korea] requested prayer for Christian activists who put their own freedom at risk to help the refugees.

As for the regime change predicted by some North Korean observers, he said, “There’s just no way you can predict with meaningful accuracy, because there are so many factors involved.”

Desperation is clearly growing. Peters said 95 percent of those who have escaped North Korea since 1953 have done so in the past five or six years, with a clear increase from 2002 onwards. At the same time, it has been reported that the amount of refugees declined for the first time in 2005 as the difficulty of crossing the border increased.

[Excerpt of article in Compass Direct]

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