In a landmark judgment against the nation of North Korea, the family of an American missionary who was kidnapped and killed by North Korean agents has been awarded $330 million.
Rev. Kim Dong-Shik, who had been taken by North Korean agents while he was in China, was taken in January 2000 and tortured to death in a prison camp in North Korea. Kim was born in South Korea but a permanent resident of the United States. He had been working as a missionary providing humanitarian aid and religious council to Christians who had fled North Korea at the time of his kidnapping.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia awarded $15 million to Kim’s son and brother along with $300 million in punitive damages.
“This is an important human rights decision that will be utilized in all political abduction cases going forward,” Israel Law Center head Nitsana Darshan-Leitner told The Christian Post.
The court ruled that when a foreign regime abducts an individual, it is the responsibility of the abductors to prove that the person has not been murdered.
“We are grateful that the court has found that once we proved the kidnapping of Rev. Kim by North Korean intelligence and brought human rights experts to testify about the horrific conditions in the political detention camps, the burden must be on Pyongyang to show was still alive after so many years,” Darshan-Leitner said.
Christian watchdog groups say around 100,000 Christians are being tortured and forced into hard labor at North Korean prison camps.
The U.S. ambassador to South Korea is recovering today from an attack by a knife-wielding assailant.
Ambassador Mark Kippert had started delivering a speech when 55-year-old Kim Ki-jong jumped at him and slashed with the knife. Lippert underwent surgery for a cut on his face that required 80 stitches to close.
Doctors told the media that damage to the Ambassador’s left hand could be severe enough to permanently hamper use.
The assailant shouted “no to war training” and later that the two Koreas need to be reunited.
North Korea hailed the attack saying that it was a “righteous punishment” against the United States and showed the residents of South Korea want to be ruled by the North. They blamed the U.S. keeping 28,500 troops in South Korea as a reason for the problems in the region.
President Obama condemned the attack and sent his best wishes to the ambassador.
Rev. Hyeon Soo Lim, the head of the 3,000 member Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Toronto, was scheduled to return home from a visit to North Korea one month ago. No one has heard from the pastor since that time.
“[Lim] left Toronto on Jan. 27 for Seoul, then flew to China and crossed over the northern border of North Korea into the Rajin region,” explained Lisa Pak, official spokesperson for both the family of Rev. Lim and Light Korean Presbyterian, told The Christian Post. “[He] traveled to the Rajin region to continue support for the on-going ministry of orphanages, nursery and nursing homes.”
Pak said that Rev. Lim had traveled to North Korea many times previously and knew how to deal with the political situation in the region.
The Associated Press noted that the country had just lifted travel restrictions due to Ebola.
“Pak said they are not sure why they haven’t heard from him, but noted North Korea just lifted severe restrictions on foreign travel imposed last year to keep the Ebola virus from crossing its borders,” reported the AP.
“The already isolated country virtually closed its borders to foreigners last October, halting all non-essential visas and requiring those few foreigners allowed in to undergo three weeks of quarantine.”
Seeking the Lord for a word for the new year is always a very serious pursuit and this year is even more crucial as we see the “red lights of prophecy” flashing all around us and God’s plan unfolding at breakneck speed. The Lord began to speak to me while we were in Israel, and the word that I give to you I sincerely pray will resonate with your spirit and cause you to be more prepared for these times we see looming on the horizon. Remember that in the midst of all the turmoil there is a promise of His Return and that is cause for great rejoicing! Continue reading →
The FBI announced Friday that North Korea was definitively behind the cyberattack against Sony that released movies, damaging e-mails and other personal information about employees and celebrities.
“The FBI now has enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible for these actions,” the FBI said in a statement on Friday. “[There is] significant overlap between the infrastructure used in this attack and other malicious cyber activity the U.S. government has previously linked directly to North Korea.”
The investigators say that North Korea’s intentions were to clearly harm not only Sony but the rights of Americans.
“We are deeply concerned about the destructive nature of this attack on a private sector entity and the ordinary citizens who worked there,” the FBI said in its statement. “Further, North Korea’s attack on SPE reaffirms that cyber threats pose one of the gravest national security dangers to the United States. Though the FBI has seen a wide variety and increasing number of cyber intrusions, the destructive nature of this attack, coupled with its coercive nature, sets it apart.”
Former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton told Fox News that unless the United States responds strongly to this attack, it will be open season on the U.S. from hackers in other countries.
“I think it is correct to treat it as a national security threat because it really could have been in a serious place,” Bolton said. “If we can conclude it was North Korea, we need to put them back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, we need to put all the economic sanctions back in place. If you treat this simply as an inconvenience, other countries will conclude that they can attack and get away with it.”
Critics say that America has lost their first cyberwar after Sony Pictures pulled the movie “The Interview” after repeated cyber attacks by North Korean hackers.
“No one should kid themselves. With the Sony collapse America has lost its first cyberwar. This is a very very dangerous precedent,” former House speaker Newt Gingrich said after Sony’s announcement.
Sony pulled the film…a comedy film about two bumbling reporters that assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il…even though it was due to open in theaters in just over a week.
The hackers had threatened to have “9/11 style attacks” on theaters in the U.S. that showed the movie. The threats caused the five biggest movie chains in the country to say they were not going to show the film because of fears of incidents.
President Obama addressed the matter in a Wednesday interview.
“The cyber attack is very serious. We’re investigating, we’re taking it seriously,” Obama said during the interview. “We’ll be vigilant, if we see something that we think is serious and credible, then we’ll alert the public. But for now, my recommendation would be that people go to the movies.”
The Department of Homeland Security says there is no credible threat against any movie theater in the U.S.
An American missionary who had been held for two years in a North Korean labor camp was suddenly released Saturday.
Bae spoke to reporters and gave praise to God and credit to the millions who have been praying for him during his captivity for being a Christian.
“I just want to say thank you all for supporting me and lifting me up and not forgetting,” Bae said at a news conference at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. “Thank you for all your support and prayer and love. It’s really been encouraging for me and for others.”
Bae had been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for plotting to overthrow the government. The North Korean government considers spreading the gospel an attempt to overthrow the government.
Bae’s family said the first thing he asked for was “pizza or burgers, anything but Korean because he’d been eating that for two years.”
North Korea surprised the world by releasing an American Christian who had been held illegally in the country for the last six months.
Jeffrey Fowle, who had forgotten his Bible in the bathroom of a restaurant, has been held since mid-May on charges that he was using his tourist visa as a way to commit Christian proselytization.
“We can confirm that Jeffrey Fowle has been allowed to depart the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] and is on his way home to re-join his family,” U.S. State Department Spokesperson Marie Harf said in a statement on Tuesday.
Fowle spoke to reporters last month and said that while he was good his situation was getting desperate.
The White House said that while they were very happy for Fowle’s release, they are still demanding the release of two other captured Americans, Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller.
Two American missionaries that have been imprisoned in North Korea for their faith were brought out for a “press conference” designed to have the government generate propaganda.
Kenneth Bae and Jeffrey Fowle were given five minutes with a reporter to send messages to friends and family along with pleading for the U.S. government to take steps to free them.
“Right now, what I can say to my friends and family is continue to pray for me and continue in efforts in getting me released from here,” Bae told reporter Will Ripley. Bae has been facing a sentence of 15 year hard labor for “hostile acts to bring down the government” although those “hostile acts” were never presented to anyone.
“The only hope that I have is to have someone from the U.S. comes,” Bae said. “But so far, the latest I’ve heard is that there has been no response yet. So I believe that officials here are waiting for that.”
Bae’s family says he’s suffering from diabetes along with heart and liver problems.
Fowle told reporters that within a month he could be sharing Bae’s cell at the labor camp. He said his treatment so far has been “good” although he was speaking with North Korean officials sitting beside him.
Relatives of Kenneth Bae, an American missionary who is wrongfully imprisoned in North Korea, say that his health is failing and that North Korean authorities are endangering his life.
Bae has been suffering from liver problems and the North Korean government has not been providing him with adequate health care. The authorities continue to send Bae to hard labor camps instead of hospitals where American officials have been told he will be transferred.
His family and friends say that the North Korean government has still not shown any evidence to back up their claims he was committing “hostile acts to bring down the government.” An associate says the only possible thing that happened in Bae took pictures of something he shouldn’t have seen.
“The most plausible scenario I can think of is that he took some picture of orphans and the North Korean authorities considered that an act of anti-north Korean propaganda,” Do Hee-youn of the Citizens Coalition for Human Rights of North Korean Refugees told Christian News.
The State Department says they continue to be “gravely concerned” about Bae’s health.