Top Headlines from North Korea - March 2024 — Crossing Borders - Helping North Korean Refugees and Orphans

NORTH KOREA SUED FOR “PARADISE ON EARTH” ATROCITIES

Approximately 93,340 ethnic Korean residents in Japan moved to North Korea between 1959 and 1984 after they were promised to find abundant healthcare, education and job opportunities under what is known as the “Paradise on Earth” campaign.
South Korean human rights organization filed the first civil lawsuit against Pyongyang for enticing ethnic Koreans to move to North Korea through false promises through the campaign.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of five ethnic Koreans who relocated from Japan to North Korea to seek “overdue compensation for atrocities suffered as part of the North Korean government's deceitful repatriation scheme” worth 100 million won (around $76,000 USD) per person.
The reality was that the immigrants were given low socioeconomic status, lived in rural areas, performed labor work in factories, mines or farms, were denied the right to return to Japan and became targets of heightened state surveillance.
Some 500 of these repatriated Koreans eventually escaped to South Korea and Japan, but many remained reluctant to disclose their experiences living in North Korea due to concerns about the safety of those they had to leave behind.

Kim Jong-un was seen operating a newly developed battle tank as South Korea and the U.S. ended their joint annual military drills.
The North Korean leader expressed “great satisfaction” with “the world’s most powerful” tank, which successfully demonstrated its striking power for the first time during the training match.
According to state media, the 105th Tank Division, the unit that occupied Seoul during the Korean War, was declared winner at the mock battle.
The military demonstration involved units near the border that are in firing range of “the enemy’s capital,” referring to Seoul, which has nearly 10 million residents (about half the population of New York).

According to a report titled "A Sense of Terror Stronger than a Bullet: The Closing of North Korea 2018-2023" published by Human Rights Watch, North Korea’s increasingly restrictive measures in sealing up its northern border with China has worsened the country’s already grave humanitarian and human rights situation.
Satellite images showed authorities constructing 482km (about 299 miles) of new fencing, while enhancing another 260km (about 162 miles) of fencing which was already in place.
New guard posts and buffer zones could also be seen covering about a quarter of the northern border. In particular, Human Rights Watch noted a 20-fold increase in the number of border security facilities, with guard posts rising from 38 to more than 6,500.
Due to more intensified crackdowns at the border areas, defectors face greater challenges escaping the country and sending money back home to support their families, as “Not even an any can make it across the border now.”

North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles for the first time in two months as U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, began his visit to South Korea for a conference on advancing democracy.
According to South Korea’s military, the missiles flew about 300km (about 186 miles) from Pyongyang and landed off the east coast.
South Korea and Japan condemned the launches as a “clear provocation” and actions that “threaten the peace and security of our region and the international community.”
Analysts suggested that the launches were a calculated move in response to Blinken’s diplomatic trip.