As the number of defectors from North Korea arriving in the South has surged in the past decade, reconfiguring integration programs for them has become crucial.

Strangers at Home: North Koreans in the South, the latest report from the International Crisis Group, draws attention to the difficulties South Korea is facing in absorbing North Korean defectors. The two sides of the Demilitarised Zone have diverged so much in economics, politics, language and social organisation that people are now strangers to each other. The possibility that it one day might have to handle a vast outflow of refugees from a collapsing North looms over the South.

“Some South Koreans believe a rapid unification could come soon, but the economic and social realities suggest such an event would be very costly”, says Crisis Group’s North East Asia Deputy Project Director, Daniel Pinkston. “The difficulties of handling just over 20,000 refugees over a few decades should be a warning to those who wish to encourage the collapse of the North rather than a more gentle integration”.

Download the full report (PDF) here or from the International Crisis Group.

FIRST STEPS

First Steps is a Vancouver-based organization whose mission is to provide essential nutrients to young children through their Soymilk Program to combat the severe malnutrition problems in North Korea.

According to the United Nations and World Food Programme:

…between two and three million North Korean children (infants to age five) consistently fail to receive sufficient nutrients vital to their physical and mental development. This has resulted in almost an entire generation of youngsters whose growth has been stunted.

It goes without saying that malnutrition during these important stages of development will lead to long term health consequences including increased susceptibility to infections and other diseases.

Soymilk Program

First Steps’ food-aid programs are currently providing protein-rich, growth-promoting soymilk to North Korean children (infants to primary school) who have not been receiving the nutrients so vital to their mental and physical development.

We have been focusing on our VitaCow/VitaGoat program because of its great efficiency and effectiveness. One electrically-powered VitaCow machine, purchased and delivered to North Korea for about $7,000, processes soybeans into soymilk, enough to provide a cup each to more than 2,000 children per day. The non-electrical VitaGoat uses any burnable fuel, costs about $4,000 and produces enough soymilk for about 1,000 or more children per day.

First Steps buys some of its soybeans and has them shipped in to supply these machines when our North Korean partners are unable to provide their own. Our partners take responsibility for distribution of the beans to the VitaCow/VitaGoat sites, as well as for soymilk production and delivery.

See pictures of the program in action.

How do we know the program is working?  The picture below says it all…

(more “smiley” pictures here)

With your help, First Steps can deliver more soymilk to more children to meet their nutritional requirements. Working together with other in-country organizations, as well as nutritionists and scientists at the Institute of Child Nutrition, we will continue to monitor and report on the measurable outcomes of the assistance you help to provide.

This is what they have to say about North Korea:

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) is a dictatorship under the absolute rule of Kim Jong-il, general secretary of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) and chairman of the National Defense Commission (NDC), the “highest office of state.” The country has an estimated population of 23.5 million. Kim’s father, the late Kim Il-sung, remains “eternal president.” National elections held in March 2009 were not free or fair. Security forces did not report to civilian authorities.

Citizens did not have the right to change their government. The government subjected citizens to rigid controls over many aspects of their lives. There continued to be reports of extrajudicial killings, disappearances, arbitrary detention, arrests of political prisoners, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, and torture. There continued to be reports that pregnant female prisoners underwent forced abortions in some cases, and in other cases babies were killed upon birth in prisons. The judiciary was not independent and did not provide fair trials. Citizens were denied freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association, and the government attempted to control all information. The government restricted freedom of religion, citizens’ movement, and worker rights. There continued to be reports of severe punishment of some repatriated refugees and their family members. There were widespread reports of trafficking in women and girls among refugees and workers crossing the border into China.

The full report is available here (download PDF).

“Homecoming Kinsmen or Indigenous Foreigners?” examines the life and struggles of North Korean escapees trying to resettle in South Korea and other countries.

“Primarily educated and raised in a totalitarian country known for its huge digital divide with the rest of the world, North Koreans leave their country unprepared for the challenges of living in a capitalist, democratic, and multicultural societies, thus lacking the necessary skills to cope with the modern world,” said NKHR International Campaign and Cooperation Team head Joanna Hosaniak.

Among the young settlers, she continued, “They call themselves crows (because they are darker). They call South Koreans pigeons (because they look whiter). Those who have successfully integrated into South Korean society were called ‘magpies.’”

The second report, “The Battered Wheel of the Revolution. Report on Violence against Women in North Korea,” looks at the inequalities against women in North Korea.

“All North Koreans, from birth, learn traditional patriarchy, male dominance over women, and stereotyped gender roles,” said Hosaniak. “As a result, various types of cultural practices make women vulnerable to violence.

Read the full news articles in the Korea Times and in the Korea Herald.

And Thanks to everyone who came out to support HanVoice.

Please continue to follow HanVoice and look for new events and updates.

Join HanVoice this Saturday for “A Toronto Night…”

A Toronto Night (FUNdraiser)

Saturday March 19, 2011, 9pm
The Stealth Lounge
22 Cumberland Street (near Yonge & Bloor)

Celebrate the beginning of spring with drinks, music, and a bachelor auction at our first fundraising event of the year. Regular admission is $15 before 10pm, $20 after 10pm.

Sign up via HanVoice Facebook

Also this Saturday…

Training Session – HV202: Recent Developments in NK-SK Relations and its Implications

HanVoice’s first HV 200-level seminar was a great success. It provided for a very informative and thought-provoking session.

The focus for HV202 will be on the recent developments in North Korea -South Korea relations and the implications on human rights in NK and on NK refugees. Recently, the rising tensions between North Korea and South Korea were front page news due to the sinking of the Cheonan as well as the attack on Yeongpyeong Island. In this session, we will explore these issues (among others) and consider the implications that have already and may in the future arise from them.

HV202 promises to be a very exciting and informative session. All HanVoice members are encouraged to attend!!

(Click here for a map of U of T campus.  “GB” = Galbraith Building)

Visions for the Future of the North Korean Human Rights Movement

March 12, 2011, 2pm
Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto
170 St. George Street (@Bloor)

Featuring the keynote speakers Barry Devolin, Consul General Ji-In Hong, and Reverend Yoon (Chairman of the Citizens’ Alliance).

Click here for more information.

Or Check out this Poster

• Opening with a welcoming speech from Consul General Ji-In Hong, the event will lead with a keynote speech delivered by Reverend Yoon, Chairman of the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights and Refugees, one of Korea’s leading NGOs on the issue.

• Member of Parliament Barry Devolin will deliver a speech presenting his upcoming motion in Parliament, M-369, the first Canadian motion of its kind recognizing the plight of North Korean refugees.

• A lineup of panelists will follow discussing their respective visions of the future of the movement, and the unique role Canada and Canadians can take as leaders on the issue. Panelists include Randall Baran-Chong, Executive Director – HanVoice; Mr. Suk Woo Kim, President – National Development Institute; and Pam Shime, Founding Director – Global Advocacy and Leadership Institute.

• A brief reception where attendees can meet fellow participants, HanVoice members, and other active Canadians.

Please join us for this important and informative discussion. The event is free and is open to the public.

Time and Date: Saturday, March 12th, 2011, 2-4 PM

Location: Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto, 170 St. George Street (@Bloor), Toronto, ON

For more information please contact:  events.hanvoice@gmail.com

March 12/11 Event Poster

North Korean Images at Utopia’s Edge spans three decades and features 24 wood block prints from the Nicholas Bonner Collection. These prints offer a fascinating picture of North Korean conceptions of daily life and work, family and “Fatherland.” Four subject areas delineate the contours of North Korea’s vision of an earthly paradise: harmonious families, plenteous landscapes, male laborers and women at work.

http://utac.utoronto.ca/current-exhibitions/215-north-korean-images-at-utopias-edge

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=7ec02347e3fbec0fce93e6714&id=b61d049ade

Keep your eye out for new HanVoice communications on this blog and on Twitter over the next few weeks. We will be rolling out regular updates and information about HanVoice events and other news to keep you informed about North Korea and the NK refugee crisis.

In the meantime, mark your calendar to join us at the upcoming HanVoice Presents: A Toronto Night – Fundraising Social on Saturday, March 19, 2011 at the Stealth Lounge (above The Pilot), Toronto, ON

Follow HanVoice on our Twitter, Facebook, Website, or Blog.

A source in the city of Hyesan in the Yanggang province said on Thursday to Radio Free Asia that “the news that the series of popular protests in Africa and Middle East overthrew governments are spreading quickly in this area through personnal connections to citizens who have access to phones.”

He explained “most of the North Koreans who have been sent to Libya as nurses and construction labourers are personally connected to the officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and members of armies under the cabinet. The news of Middle East are sent by those persons [in Libya] and are quickly spreading to these regions.”

The source also spoke of an increase in the number of college security guards from 1 to 4 after Kim Jong Il’s birthday (February 18) and newly installed securities in order to watch over students’ daily behaviours.

A counter-Pyungyang radio Free North Korea Broadcasting quoted a source in the Hamgyung province that “the securities in borders had a meeting recently to discuss the ways to prevent popular disturbance, that included thoroughly blocking the borderlines and closely watching over the families and friends left by defectors.”

The source also informed that “they [the securities] also considered intercepting telephones and paralyzing all communications owned by those who seem suspicious.”

Another source in the city of Hoerung in the Hamgyung province said “there are many security guards in the marketplace but they do not interfere commercial activities.”

The sources predicted that there is “little possibility that the pro-democracy movements in Middle East will have an immediate impact on North Koreans, despite of their increased discomfort due to the halted service in cellphones and home phones except those of high officials.”

On the other hand, there are estimated 200 North Koreans staying in Libya as nurses, doctors and construction workers.

Translated from original article: http://www.nocutnews.co.kr/email/email2009/news_print.asp?idx=1728515&gubun=TOP

Hope to see many of you at the Freedom Party tonight!!!

NGOs have developed “daycare” centers to care for children while their parents are working jobs. These centers ensure that the children are FREE from starvation and get at least one meal a day of soy milk and fresh bread. Many of these children are actually orphans. Help support these organizations at Peridot on Friday, May 8th!
_______________________________________________

Be prepared to get your drink and dance on long into the night!
DJ LYON will be spinning sick beats all night long to get your body groovin’!

Advanced Ticket Sales are available at the UT main campus, Robart’s Library on Monday April 27th and Wednesday 29th from 1-5 p.m. Advanced tickets are $10, Members/Guestlist are $15, and tickets at the door are $20.
To pick up tickets please call: 647-668-0441 or 647-261-0643

Advanced tickets are limited so get them ASAP!

For guestlist or event info please contact us at info@hanvoice.org

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il KCNA / Reuters

“On April 5, Pyongyang fired a missile disguised as a satellite directly over Japan and into the Pacific, in direct contravention of a 2006 U.N. resolution forbidding the North’s ballistic missile program. Then [...] the U.N. Security Council issued what amounted to a strongly worded letter straight out of Team America: World Police condemning the missile test. The North, in response, called this “an unbearable insult,” and said it would again fire up its reactor at Yongbyon, the source of fissile material for the North’s suspected small arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Finally, yesterday, Pyongyang threw out monitors from the International Atomic Energy Agency and said the so-called six-party talks [...] were over. Not only would the North no longer participate, it would no longer abide by anything that it had previously agreed to during the talks, which includes the dismantling of the Yongbyon reactor. (See pictures of North Koreans at the polls.)

Publicly, the Obama Administration made the standard disapproving noises. “A serious step in the wrong direction,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. But in truth, North Korea’s latest gambit could not have been altogether surprising to anyone in Washington — least of all to the State Department diplomats who have been dealing with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) for the past decade.

They know that even in Pyongyang, North Korean officials have access to the Internet. If they cared to, they could have read yesterday’s New York Times, which reported that the Obama Administration is considering dropping the U.S. demand that Iran cease enriching uranium before any direct Washington-Tehran talks about Iran’s nuclear program. This would explicitly reverse the Bush Administration’s position that talks could start only after the enriching stopped. “If you’re the North Koreans and you read that, you’re naturally going to ask, ‘Why not deal directly with us too?’ ” says an East Asian diplomat seasoned in North Korea diplomacy.

The worst-kept diplomatic secret in the world may be that the State Department pretty much sees eye to eye with North Korea on a central issue: Washington should deal with Pyongyang one-on-one.

It’s likely the White House shares this view, even though in public it has harped on getting the North Koreans back to the six-party format. This is probably no longer possible, after Pyongyang’s announcement yesterday. So the trick for Obama now is twofold. He must figure out how much time to let pass before trying to re-engage the North [...]

Once talks begin, the U.S. ought to be willing to put a range of blandishments on the table — just as it has in the past. Economic aid, security guarantees and, down the road, even diplomatic recognition for North Korea — all that would be available to Pyongyang, so long as it verifiably stands down its nuclear program and curbs its missile exports.

The State Department’s position has long been that this sort of deal is achievable. It believes the North will abide by agreements it makes, so long as the U.S. does the same by providing the benefits it promises up front. There are many people, including some former members of the Bush Administration, who think this is delusional. But count on this: Obama is going to give those diplomats a chance to prove whether they’re right.”