File photo: North Korea Freedom Week, 2006

Stances harden on North Korea's nuclear hopes

A Summit is underway this week with several countries working on North Korea's nuclear riddle, reports MNN.

Advocacy Coordinator for Open Doors USA Lindsay Vessey says it would be nice to think the talks would have impact on the rights issues. However, "The six-party talks are focusing on the nuclear issue and have basically ignored the bigger issue of the human rights abuses. If they would tackle the human rights abuses first, I think they would make more progress on the nuclear issue."

Six-nation nuclear talks are deadlocked right now over whether a full declaration of North Korean nuclear programs were disclosed.

The North Korea Freedom Week is slated to begin April 26 and end May 3 in Washington, D.C. Open Doors is one of the coalition members involved because of the severe persecution of Christians in the rogue state.

The ministry issues an annual "World Watch List" which lists the top 50 of the world's worst persecutors of Christians. North Korea is again on the top of the list for the sixth year in a row.

ODM's local source estimates the number of underground Christians to be at least 200,000, and it's likely that there are as many as 400,000 to half-a-million believers. At least a quarter of the Christians are imprisoned for their faith in political prison camps, from which people rarely get out of alive. Raids are made regularly, both in North Korea and China, to arrest refugees and those helping them.

Because of China's influence over North Korea, "We're hoping that by having the protests in front of the Chinese embassies and consulates, we will be able to draw attention to the human rights abuses, the religious rights abuses, and we hope that will apply pressure to the Chinese government."

This could be an effective pressure point. As Beijing prepares its public face, it has taken great pains to polish its public relations image.

So far though, the government has stepped up its repatriation of North Korean refugees in an effort to eradicate them before the end of the year. Their action is a violation of international law and the treaties to which it is a signatory.

China has been known to jail humanitarian workers, many of whom are Christians, who try to help refugees. They also have refused the U.N. High Commission for Refugees access to the North Korean asylum seekers and blocked the refugees from seeking resettlement in countries willing to resettle them.

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[03/28/2008]

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