July 13, 2011

People who send aid to North Korea

Due to the sensitive nature of work in North Korea, there are many things being done which cannot be talked about. However, there is some more public humanitarian aid work being done which deserves mention. Surely, if nothing else can be done, bringing “a cup of cold water” as the bare minimum is something worthy of being involved in. One such group is the Lighthouse Foundation. See this article, “The people behind the aid trickle to the North.” (H/T to the UK Council of World Mission, who you can follow on Twitter.)

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July 2, 2011

North Korean girls defecting, looking for Chinese husbands

ipsnews.net writes about the plight of North Korean women who defect to China. Women outnumber men in North Korea, and of the Koreans defecting into China, about 70% are women. North Korean men don’t make it long-term in China because they don’t have local connections in China and are more easily found and deported back. North Korean women have a connection: younger ones are “sold as brides to Chinese farmers in northern border villages” and olders take “menial jobs” in restaurants and karaoke rooms. One estimate: 80% of N. Korean women who defect are sold as brides. The challenges are [...]

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September 28, 2010

North Korean leader to announce successor

And in this post I am trying out a new technology for curating tweets about a story.

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March 24, 2010

North Korea: more bad news

North Koreans fear another famine amid economic crisis (LA Times). Analysts in the region feel the nation is on a “countdown to collapse,” lurching from crisis to crisis, and supposedly Kim Jong-il has a life expectancy of less than three years.

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March 22, 2010

How not to deal with failure

N. Korea Is Said to Execute Finance Chief. Makes it difficult to learn from mistakes, or to encourage any attempt at innovation. Although certainly the currency reform was botched.

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