South Koreans Silence Defectors    

   June 12 in Singapore began at noon yesterday, EST. Therefore, you may know that the historical summit is off to a promising start.

   Or ... maybe Kim Jong Un already is flying home because he can't afford another night's hotel stay. Or ... our feisty president had an urge to return to Canada and give PM Justin Trudeau what for.

   Okay. They signed an agreement. So far, so good. A Wharton business graduate with 70 New York years of experience, a nominal Christian, dealing with a 34-year-old high school grad (Switzerland?) who models his kingdom after ... Stalin? Mao? His own father and grandfather? 

   South Korean authorities have been giving North Korean defectors, about 32,000 of them, a tough time. The two Koreas recently agreed to "cease all hostile acts," which include messages in bottles and other horrors (!) of war. 

   President Moon hopes to reconcile with the hermit kingdom, without addressing human rights abuses. His police prevent defectors from sending messages, USBs, leaflets and Bibles northward in plastic bottles and hot-air balloons. 

   Defectors are frustrated. "Silence means death for North Koreans," they say. And they should know.

   They mistrust Kim. One said, "He can pretend to have good intentions, but his evil nature has not changed."

   Good point. 

   Seventy eight percent of South Koreans don't get it. They claim to trust Kim, despite his threats, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonments, rape, forced abortions and intentional starvation.

   We would expect free Koreans to welcome defectors, but many face discrimination. Some arrive with PTSD, depression and suicidal thoughts. 

   As for the resistance, they gather under cover of darkness, fill their balloons with helium and launch them northward, to the homeland they desperately want to see liberated. 

   Will the North change their ways? Let's pray.

Source: WORLD magazine

      Jimmy