Pino Cazzaniga

At least 300 thousand political prisoners in the North’s labour camps. Testimonies of torture and executions. The laboratories for nuclear experiments built with forced labour. An association writes to the US president who has visited Buchenwald.

The year 2008 was a bad year with huge losses, lay-offs, homelessness, cold weather-related deaths and pessimism. A new moral dispensation is needed.

North Korea is issuing signals of detente, but also threats, hoping that the United States can assist in a transformation of the country, in the grip of economic collapse and the crisis of its ailing leader. Remarks come as Clinton visits Japan, South Korea, and China.

Except for those in the capital, minors are increasingly denied food and an education. NGOs call for a North Korea policy centred on human rights, not nuclear disarmament.

The global economic crisis and the presidency of Barack Obama are prompting Japan to rethink policy and international prospects. The 21st century will be that of Asia, and Japan, with its "soft power," can take the lead even in front of China and India.

Tens of thousands of unemployed; more than 15,000 companies bankrupt. Most of the people are looking to the future with pessimism. For some analysts, the focus should not be on finance and market mechanisms, but on man and the quality of life.

Plants shut down or lay off workers, who are left without money and home. Suicide and crime are signs of their malaise. But some good may come out of it after all, raising hope among some.

For the first time the three East Asian leaders meet to discuss how to cope with the world economic crisis. It might be the dawn of a new regional block.

In a message released on the occasion of the 60 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the bishops say that immoral “market fundamentalism” humiliates human dignity. They call on the country’s laity to join a new path of mission.

The PIME missionary from Italy died at the end of November after 54 years in Japan. During his long stay in that country he successfully grasped the local worldview and culture. In his last years he lived among the sick in a Catholic-inspired hospital in Kurume. True globalisation is achieved through prayers and bearing witness.

The beatification ceremony provides an opportunity to renew the evangelisation effort in Japan, a country marked by youth suicide, the family in crisis, weapons and war. Bishops from the Far east and South-East Asia are present. Here is our correspondent’s report.

Police believe attacks might be vengeance for errors that led to the pension records scandal. Two people have died so far but more might follow.