Joseph Yun Li-sun

South Korean Protestant Pastor: "In North Korea there are still about 40 thousand Christians: some tortured and committed to labour camps, but who set an example for everyone." The Catholic Church does not confirm these figures but praises the attitude of those who managed to escape, "missionary of hope for us all."

The Korean National Council of Churches sent a load of flour from the value of 100 thousand dollars to North Korea through unofficial channels. Seoul condemns the act and threatens an investigation, while a source tells AsiaNews: "The gesture is understandable but unwise. It is likely to worsen the situation for North Koreans. "

Like his father but without him, the younger Kim arrived by train, and is expected to meet China’s Vice President and future leader Xi Jinping. “In addition to the succession, China appears to have accepted a return to show trials and purges by the heir apparent to secure his hold on the country,” a source tells AsiaNews.

Bishop Peter Kang U-il, president of the Korean Bishops' Conference, visited with Mgr. Peter Lee Ki-heon, of the diocese of Sendai destroyed by earthquake and tsunami. The two distribute the collection of the Korean faithful for their fellow Japanese and point out: "The fury of nature is not the wrath of God, who instead prepares a great grace for mankind."

The ten men belong to the Jogye Order, the oldest and most respected tradition of Korean Buddhism. With the agreement of South Korean authorities, they delivered medical drugs for people in the North. They also visited a northern temple that does not have any pictures of the Kims. “It seems there are real worshippers,” one source told AsiaNews.

For this year’s Sunday for Life (advanced to coincide with John Paul II’s beatification), the president of the Episcopal Commission on bioethics comes out against a “rampant culture of death” that “must be stopped”.

Mgr Lazarus You Heung-sik, bishop of Daejeon and president of the Episcopal Commission for the pastoral care of migrants and refugees, speaks to AsiaNews about North Korean refugees. “Our brothers on the other side of the border are like children: the future of our society. As Christ taught us, we must love them and help them.”

The parents of the Father of North Korea were well known to Korea’s Christian community in the 1940s. To eliminate religion and impose his cult of personality, as ordered by Stalin, the ‘eternal president’ repudiated his parents and turned them into Communist heroes. However, before an operation, he asked a doctor to pray together to God.

The capital's authorities don’t know what to do: the para-typhoid fever affects one person in every two households and there are no antibiotics or money to buy them. The State funds for health, in fact, ended up in the military budget. A source tells AsiaNews: "We could help them, until they attacked South Korea."

Led by the two younger sons of Kim Jong-il, the "grandchildren" of the Revolution, trade in illegal drugs and use state funds to gamble in Macao or see a rock concert in Singapore. The "Dear Leader" can’t stand them but has to put up with them, as his heir is one of them.

Kim Jong-il’s third son is the heir designate to the throne of Pyongyang, but has not yet received the official investiture, which he desperately needs. After sponsoring real estate developments, he is betting his future on following in the footsteps of his grandfather Kim Il-sung, whose birthday today it is, in order to convince the people that he is different from his father and that he can save them from destruction.

Sources in North Korea say that four people were executed before Seungho residents, one for stealing less than a litre of oil from a transformer. Former UN rapporteur for North Korea tells AsiaNews that this way people can be intimidated.