Joseph Yun Li-sun

The North Korean government sends its engineers to China to study reforms and free market. A sign of the fragility of the economic system of the regime, which fears total collapse. The trip was paid for by Seoul, which does not want to find 22 million poor people on its back.

A ministry official says: "We can not operate well, we have not even heard from Pyongyang. Only religious groups and NGOs succeed." Dissident confirms and explains: "They discriminate against us, Christians do not."

South Korea has withstood the world’s financial crisis. Its economy has begun to expand again thanks to a low won and its industrial sector’s great capacity. However, abortion and reunification with the north are a threat to the future.

The sudden decision to change currency has destroyed the savings of the entire population, which for the first time publically demonstrates against a decree taken by the regime of Kim Jong-il.

Sources explain the North Korean leadership: Kim Jong-un is the chosen successor of the Dear Leader. But will be a dictator worse than the father, autocratic and cruel. Denied rumours that had the master of Pyongyang on the brink of death.

The Stalinist regime of Kim Jong-il has changed the criminal code. Because of hunger increased food theft; to stop it, death for thieves.

A meeting sponsored by the Episcopal Network for Reconciliation of the Korean people brings out the drama of saetomin, North Korean exiles living in discrimination in the south of the peninsula. Auxiliary Bishop of Seoul: "They are the agents of unity, we should welcome them as brothers."

A former university professor, who fled to China, warns: "The government of Hu Jintao has done everything to provoke a nuclear strike by Kim Jong-il. Our people are afraid of dying slaves to the empire”.

The Committee for Bioethics issues a statement in support of doctors who oppose abortion, warning it could be the “last chance to stop the slaughter”. More than 350,000 abortions are performed every year in South Korea.

For South Korea’s press, the US and South Korean presidents are preparing a deal to stop North Korea’s nuclear programme.

The city of Seoul signs a US$ 49 million tree-planting agreement to reforest the Kubuqi, the seventh biggest desert in the world. The goal is to block sand blown by spring storms towards the Korean Peninsula.

A symposium at the Jesuit Apostolic Center in Seoul looks at unemployment and the emerging problem of irregular work. It calls on the government to intervene to protect people. For the bishop of Incheon, “human dignity must be preserved at all costs.”