North Korea

Franklin Graham arrived in North Korea on Tuesday to meet with high-level government officials and visit his ministries' humanitarian assistance projects.

"I believe it is important to make visits like this to help improve better relations and to have better understanding with each other," said Graham prior to departing. "I'm going as a minister of Jesus Christ with a message of peace and that God loves each one of us regardless of our borders or politics."

Graham’s latest trip marks the third time the evangelical leader has visited the reclusive nation and the first time an American aid agency has visited since all U.S. humanitarian groups were kicked out more than six months ago. more >>

Since American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee returned from five months of imprisonment in North Korea, pastors and activists have criticized the two for endangering the lives of those who have fled the "hermit kingdom."

Missionaries say Chinese authorities have shut down safe houses where North Korean defectors stayed and fear a crackdown on their underground networks.

Tim Peters, a missionary in Seoul who oversees aid work in northeast China, told The Los Angeles Times that Ling and Lee's actions were irresponsible and their arrest earlier this year has made operations to help defectors even more difficult. more >>

As the nation rejoices over the release of two U.S. journalists, a ministry working with persecuted Christians reminds the world that tens of thousands – if not hundreds of thousands – of innocent people remain trapped in North Korean prisons without hope of a special pardon.

“North Korea is suspected of detaining more political and religious prisoners than any other country in the world,” wrote Jerry Dykstra, media relations director for Open Doors USA, in a column Wednesday.

His organization estimates at least 200,000 people are detained in North Korea, including 40,000 to 60,000 Christians. more >>

North Korea has publicly executed a Christian woman accused of distributing Bibles and "spying" for foreign countries, South Korean activists said Friday.

A mother of three, Ri Hyon-ok, 33, was accused of spying for South Korea and the United States and organizing dissidents, The Associated Press reported. She was executed in the northwestern city of Ryongchon bordering China on June 16, according to a report from the Investigative Commission on Crimes against Humanity published Friday.

Her husband, children and parents were sent to a political prison the day after her execution, the report states. more >>

As international sanctions worsen the food crisis in North Korea, many of its Christian neighbors in the south are calling for unconditional humanitarian assistance especially to the weak and vulnerable in the isolated Communist regime.

The National Council of Churches in Korea, which groups together Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches among others, has launched an initiative to gather urgent support for people in North Korea and to mobilize its members churches.

The NCCK is calling on churches in Korea to join in the campaign and the government to reexamine its policy toward the north and resume its support to the regime without any precondition. more >>

Human rights group Christian Solidarity Worldwide says it is "gravely" concerned for the future of two American journalists who have been condemned to 12 years of hard labor in North Korea.

CSW, which works with persecuted churches, has expressed concern over the safety of Laura Ling and Euna Lee in what it described as North Korea’s "macabre imprisonment system."

In its recent report, "North Korea: A Case to Answer – A Call to Act," the human rights group reported that some 200,000 political prisoners were being held in the country's labor camps. Inmates, the group warned, were often subject to "the most dire living and labor conditions." more >>