Joseph Yun Li-sun

China hides trade data with North Korea to avoid harming improving relations as Pyongyang’s Communist regime comes close to collapse.

The revisions to the draft law, approved by parliament, provide "expense reimbursement" for those who donate human eggs. Scorching commentary from the bishops' commission for bioethics, which speaks of "an enormous step backward". In the meantime, the "pioneer of cloning" announces: four cloned puppies in good health.

That is the message sent by Msgr. Paolo Hwang Cheol-soo, bishop of Pusan and president of the bishops commission for the family, marking the upcoming Week for the Sanctification of the Family. An invitation to combat abortion, divorce and the drop in birth rates.

Mgr Boniface Choi Ki-san, chairman of the bishops’ Committee for Justice and Peace, urges the faithful to make a greater effort to defend society, especially the weakest, from suicide, abortion, capital punishment and the cloning of human embryo, which threaten human dignity.

The warning was published in the Bishops Conference weekly bulletin. A sources in the Seoul Archdiocese tells AsiaNews that the former archbishop “is planning something” and underlines that his words “must not be listened to, the sanction is excommunication”

A booklet prepared by the Propaganda Department of the North Korean Army titled ‘Saving Our Soldiers from the Threat of Religion’ acknowledges that religion is spreading among soldiers, issues orders to eradicate it without delay.

A “Day for Life” was held in Seoul, in which Catholics and non Catholics urged society to commit itself to protecting mankind and the government not to use life, in any form, as an object.

Mgr Lazarus You Heung-sik, bishop of Taejŏn and chairman of Caritas Corea, talks to AsiaNews about the “dangerous precedent” set by the South Korean authorities in dealing directly with Islamic fundamentalists. People in South Korea feel joy that human lives were spared, but also humiliation about Protestant Churches, which have come under intense criticism in South Korean society.

Shock sentence in South Korea: a foetus of 42 weeks, weighing over five kilo’s, “is not a human being”. A priest, professor of medicine at the Korean Catholic University, speaks of a “social defeat” for his nation

Pyongyang’s Stalinist regime admitted disabled’s existence only in 2003 following pressure from the international community, but still views them as a burden to development and allows them to die. Caritas is the only to help.

Delegation from Pyongyang is received in South Korean capital by a demonstration against missile tests. Humanitarian aid, dismantling nuclear reactors and military threats will be discussed in four days of meetings.

The announcement was made yesterday by the Order of St. Benedict from Waegwan Abbey south Korea, which has ecclesial jurisdiction over the abbey Tokwon, in the North. There are 36 Martyrs, who died in the communist death camps during the persecution of Kim Il-sung.