Visiting North Korea? French publisher offers guidebook

Yahoo – AFP, March 19, 2019

An estimated 400 French tourists head each year to North Korea, which has been
isolated from the international community for decades (AFP Photo/Ed JONES)

Paris (AFP) - A French travel publisher presented Tuesday its first guide book for North Korea, offering 190 pages of tips for getting the most out of a trip to experience the "survival of a totalitarian communist state".

"The guide wasn't conceived to defend the current regime or to cast judgment, but to show the genuine touristic interest of the country," Jean-Paul Labourdette, a co-founder of the "Petit Fute" guides, said in Paris.

He said 4,000 copies had been printed -- more than enough for the estimated 400 French tourists which head each year to the pariah state, which has been isolated from the international community for decades.

North Korea has endured harsh UN sanctions to pursue its nuclear weapons programme under the Kim dynasty, which implemented a dictatorship that has been accused of provoking widespread hunger and human rights abuses.

The French foreign ministry strongly discourages tourists from visiting, while the US State Department only rarely grants exceptional permits for Americans hoping to travel to North Korea.

But Labourdette said "there are no security issues" for travellers, though he admitted "very restrictive" conditions, not least tight surveillance that limits foreigners to just a handful of hotels and restaurants.

And while tourist visas are readily granted, the guide warns that missteps are costly: "The punishments can be severe... as was the case for the American student Otto Warmbier."

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (L) has been holding talks with US President 

Donald Trump on ending the pariah state's nuclear weapons efforts (AFP Photo/

KCNA VIA KNS)

Warmbier, an Ohio native who studied at the University of Virginia, was pulled away from his tour group at the Pyongyang airport in 2016 and charged with crimes against the state for allegedly taking down a propaganda poster in his hotel.

He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labour.

After lengthy negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang, Warmbier was released in a vegetative state in 2017 but died a few days later on American soil.

'Don't take pictures'

Mainstream travel guides have steered clear of the repressive nation, with English-language stalwarts like "Lonely Planet" limiting their coverage to a few chapters in their Korea books.

"Don't take any pictures of airports, road, bridges or train stations," the "Petit Fute" warns, and make sure you don't throw away or even fold any newspaper with a picture of former or current leaders.

"Roll it up instead," the guide advises.

The book comes as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump are holding halting talks on ending the country's nuclear weapons efforts.

"We launched this project four years ago, we didn't wait for Donald and Kim to start their little friendship," Labourdette said. "But it took quite a while to find qualified French writers."

"Petit Fute" aims to publish guides on all the world's countries, or 204 instead of the 175 it covers now.

"We still don't have Iraq, Saudi Arabia or Liberia," Labourdette said.

Cars, houses, heroes: North Koreans win hearts at Asian Games

Yahoo – AFP, Daniel HICKS, Aug 28, 2018

The North Koreans were joined by the South Korean weightlifting team to celebrate
 the end of the competition with an unprecedented joint team photo.  (AFP Photo/
CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN)

North Korea's athletes are not only scooping record numbers of medals at the Asian Games, they are winning hearts with an unprecedented charm offensive and will go home as heroes -- rewarded with new cars and houses.

At the weightlifting competition which concluded Monday with an eighth gold -- smashing North Korea's previous best of four in 2014 -- the team's attitude has been the polar opposite from Incheon four years ago.

There, every medallist trotted out a well-worn script of thanking leader Kim Jong Un for his inspiration to reporters before being whisked away.

But over eight days at the Jakarta International Expo their athletes have gone off-piste to talk frankly about their nerves, fears, emotions and life back home while mingling freely with spectators and reporters.

They even were joined by the South Korean weightlifting team to celebrate the end of the competition with an unprecedented joint team photo.

"I think we have shown the world that the people of Korea are the greatest as one," +75kg winner Kim Kuk Hyang told AFP after posing with her South Korean counterparts, an astonishing statement from a North Korean given that the two countries have technically remained at war for the past 65 years.

Then she was off to grab tiny 4ft 7in (140cm) Ri Song Gum, the 48kg class gold medallist, and carry her aloft around the stage with the pair laughing, joking and punching the air.

Little and large: Kim Kuk Hyang carries Ri Song Gum around as North Korea 

celebrated their record weightlifting haul (AFP Photo/CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN)

Selfies and smiles

Hardly a single request for a selfie by a fan or Games volunteer has been turned down -- most have been accommodated with huge smiles. At the 2014 Asian Games none was entertained.

The shackles are off, athletes are revelling and happy to reveal their personal stories for the first time.

Om Yun Chol even thanked South Koreans for helping him to win 56kg men's gold.

"The passionate support from the South Korean cheerleading squad is my source of great strength," he said while posing for pictures.

Was this really the same man who four years earlier had thanked leader Kim for teaching him how to "crack a rock with an egg"?

O Kang Chol cried buckets for his dead mother after his maiden gold medal in the men's 69kg.

It was a touching moment as he mourned his mum who passed away earlier this year and whose ambition had been to see him win a first title.

Gold medallist O Kang Chol of North Korea celebrates during the victory ceremony 

of the men's 69kg weightlifting event  during the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta 

on August 22, 2018. (AFP Photo/MONEY SHARMA)

"I will visit mother's grave and give her this gold medal," he told reporters, still weeping and unabashed at baring his grief -- a huge contrast to the robotic strongmen and women paraded at previous championships.

It is an eye-opening change, which appears to have gone hand-in-hand with the thawing of global diplomatic relations culminating in the historic summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Singapore in June.

South Korean observers have been taken aback. "We have never see the North Koreans like this," Yonhap news agency reporter Joo Kyung-don told AFP.

The new open attitude appears to have been encouraged right from the top.

North Korean Sports Minister Kim Il Guk, one of Kim Jong Un's right-hand men, was in attendance Sunday and giving his blessing to team officials spilling the beans on previously taboo topics.

'They are not scary'

"The weightlifting champions who raise the country's honour will be rewarded with a new house and a new car," head coach Kim Kwang Dok told AFP, for the first time confirming something that had long been suspected in the secretive nation -- that sporting glory is a way out of grinding poverty.

"Our athletes will get national hero status once they return and will get big attention from our people. Everyone will be proud."

It is not just at the weightlifting arena that heads have been turning and relationships opening up.

The two Koreas marched together at the opening ceremony, fielded a joint team in women's basketball and so far have won a historic gold and two bronzes in dragon boating.

North Korean team members mingle with the public in the stands at the Jakarta 

International Expo during the Asian Games weightlifting (AFP Photo/CHAIDEER

MAHYUDDIN)

"They are not scary or anything like portrayed on the internet," South Korea basketball player Kim Han-byul said. "It's been the normal girl talk with them."

Weightlifting sisters Rim Un Sim and Rim Jong Sim tenderly cried tears of joy at each other's success as they pulled off a golden double and said they couldn't wait to get home to show off their medals to their family.

Rim Jong Sim was one who did remember, albeit briefly, to thank Kim Jong Un. "This gold medal isn't for me, but it's for my country and our supreme leader," she said.

But such expressions were few and far between and her sister had soon changed the subject.

"I can't describe how happy I am," Rim Un Sim said. "We competed together and won medals at the university championship last year, but this is the Asian Games."

Related Article:

Science & Spiritually Conference 2018, BC – Canada (4), June 16-17, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Predictions - Text version) - New 

"The second thing I told you about was this: There's a 50% chance that the new leader of North Korea, the son, would not follow in the footsteps of his father. I told you there was a 50% chance of this. Then I started itemizing the reasoning why this might make sense, especially to the Korean leader. I then told you it might take a long time if it manifested at all. I told you the problems would be within the old advisors for his father's family. He had to tread slowly and lightly to do something against all odds. This will all come out someday because of the handshake.

Here was the potential or the prediction of what might happen: Those who had the machine guns in the DM zone would drop them, because this North Korean leader would unify the two Koreas. There would be no nuclear weapons in his land and there would be the beginning of abundance for his people. His people and the world would then give him something he had always wanted and was imbued with from birth - the desire for accolades and more accolades. Like his father before him, he was the premier egotist, and this would be the unexpected way to create a world at his feet. That's what I said. Then I said, "Watch for it, but don't be anxious." I talked about that in 2013, and five more times since then. In August 2017, I itemized my advice for him, point by point. The advice that I gave followed the potentials that were there and those were the very points in the handshake this week in June of 2018.

Now, you tell me what happened. "Kryon, you're going to be famous because you predicted these things!" Dear ones, all I did was look into a field that is being shown to you today [by the scientists at the conference]. And all I did was to show you the potentials that were already there. In other words, he was thinking about these things and talking to others behind the scenes about them. No matter what his advisors told him right up to the brink of sending his missiles, he was always thinking that there might be another way that would gain him ultimate fame. Dear ones, this has been in progress since his father died! Therefore, it was in the field, but not a given, dear ones - a potential.

Next, I want to show you the bias of humanity at this time, something I have spoken of many times. This potential of the handshake is amazing, and it has started to be manifested. What should the reaction be to something that deflects the potential of war, or saves thousands lives? Instead of joy or amazement or celebration, Humans go for the reverse: It can't happen. It's a trick. It's a bad deal.

I want you to start reading the reactions of the press. I want you to read the reactions even from the South Koreans. They said, "Well, we know North Koreans, and that's never going to happen. We know who they are, and we know their nature. Because in the past, they never performed what they said they would. So it's a joke." That is a quote from a South Korean. "It's a joke."

What happened to this comment? "Isn't this a beautiful potential? Look at this amazing thing - against all odds!" Now, your free press, the reporting segment of our culture, has decided not only to report it, but to let you know it's probably not going to happen! They say: "Nay. Maybe yes, maybe no. We'll see. We expect the worse." And this continues and continues, and all it shows you is the monstrous bias of the dark side that wants to pull anything good back to what the past gave to you."

Two Koreas march together as Asian Games burst into life

Yahoo – AFP, Faisal KAMAL, August 18, 2018

The two Koreas also marched together at this year's Pyeongchang Winter
Olympics opening ceremony. (AFP Photo/CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN)

North and South Korea marched together in a stirring display of unity as the Asian Games, one of the world's biggest sports events, opened in a blaze of colour in Jakarta on Saturday.

South Korean women's basketball player Lim Yung-hui and North Korean footballer Ju Kyong-chol jointly held the Korean Unification flag aloft as they led the athletes out to an ovation from the packed crowd.

It is the second such symbolic gesture this year by the two Koreas, who also walked together at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics opening ceremony -- an event that heralded an unprecedented warming of ties.

The North and South, still technically at war, are joining forces in women's basketball, canoeing and rowing during the 40-sport, two-week regional Olympics in the Indonesian capital and Palembang, a port city on Sumatra island.

South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon and North Korean Deputy Prime Minister Ri Ryong-nam, watching from the VIP seats, rose together holding hands and beaming as the Korean athletes marched.

The ceremony opened with a skit purportedly showing President Joko Widodo doing stunts on a motorbike in Jakarta's streets before riding into the Gelora Bung Karno stadium, to roars from the crowd.

About 1,500 dancers in traditional dress then performed a tightly choreographed routine before Afghanistan led the athletes' parade into the stadium.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo declared the Games open. (AFP 

Photo/Jewel SAMAD)

There were huge cheers when the two Koreas, whose athletes together number about 1,000, marched into the stadium together wearing pristine white and blue uniforms.

'You can feel proud'

Widodo was then seen dancing in his seat as Indonesian singer Via Vallen took to the stage, before the stadium fell silent to honour the victims of the recent Lombok earthquake.

"You can feel proud of your home country Indonesia," said Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, president of the Olympic Council of Asia, before Widodo declared the Games open.

Indonesian badminton great Susi Susanti, the women's singles Olympic champion in 1992, lit the Games cauldron and the ceremony closed with a noisy music performance and spectacular fireworks.

It provided a vibrant start to the Games, whose build-up has been dogged by logistical headaches and security fears after Indonesia suffered its deadliest terror attack in a decade in May.

The sprawling archipelago has also been grappling with its latest earthquake disaster after strong tremors in Lombok, an eastern island, left more than 400 people dead.

Indonesia, a country of about 270 million, stepped in to host the Games at short notice after Vietnam pulled out, citing the event's eye-watering costs.

Indonesia is hosting one of the world's biggest sporting events. (AFP 

Photo/BAY ISMOYO)

Indonesia has a poor track record in hosting multi-sports events -- the 2011 Southeast Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang suffered serious corruption problems and delays, and two people died in a stadium stampede.

Rights group Amnesty International said at least 31 people were killed in a "shoot first and ask questions later" police crackdown on petty crime.

But officials say all venues are ready for competition and tournament-related problems so far have been relatively minor, from the ticket website crashing to misspelt words on signs.

About 18,000 athletes and officials from 45 Asian countries will be at the Asiad, organisers said, looking to make their mark across a range of sports from swimming to sepak takraw and bridge.

The Asian Games encompass nearly the full Olympic programme and are considered the pinnacle by many participating nations, for whom Olympic success often proves elusive.

Indonesia is about to open the #AsianGames but its traffic-clogged capital Jakarta remains shrouded in a toxic haze of air pollution, despite drastic efforts to cut down on congestion https://t.co/ukFXJoXVIl pic.twitter.com/qVoOaPt9LO

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 17, 2018

Related Article:

Science & Spiritually Conference 2018, BC – Canada (4), June 16-17, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Predictions - Text version) - New 

"The second thing I told you about was this: There's a 50% chance that the new leader of North Korea, the son, would not follow in the footsteps of his father. I told you there was a 50% chance of this. Then I started itemizing the reasoning why this might make sense, especially to the Korean leader. I then told you it might take a long time if it manifested at all. I told you the problems would be within the old advisors for his father's family. He had to tread slowly and lightly to do something against all odds. This will all come out someday because of the handshake.

Here was the potential or the prediction of what might happen: Those who had the machine guns in the DM zone would drop them, because this North Korean leader would unify the two Koreas. There would be no nuclear weapons in his land and there would be the beginning of abundance for his people. His people and the world would then give him something he had always wanted and was imbued with from birth - the desire for accolades and more accolades. Like his father before him, he was the premier egotist, and this would be the unexpected way to create a world at his feet. That's what I said. Then I said, "Watch for it, but don't be anxious." I talked about that in 2013, and five more times since then. In August 2017, I itemized my advice for him, point by point. The advice that I gave followed the potentials that were there and those were the very points in the handshake this week in June of 2018.

Now, you tell me what happened. "Kryon, you're going to be famous because you predicted these things!" Dear ones, all I did was look into a field that is being shown to you today [by the scientists at the conference]. And all I did was to show you the potentials that were already there. In other words, he was thinking about these things and talking to others behind the scenes about them. No matter what his advisors told him right up to the brink of sending his missiles, he was always thinking that there might be another way that would gain him ultimate fame. Dear ones, this has been in progress since his father died! Therefore, it was in the field, but not a given, dear ones - a potential.

Next, I want to show you the bias of humanity at this time, something I have spoken of many times. This potential of the handshake is amazing, and it has started to be manifested. What should the reaction be to something that deflects the potential of war, or saves thousands lives? Instead of joy or amazement or celebration, Humans go for the reverse: It can't happen. It's a trick. It's a bad deal.

I want you to start reading the reactions of the press. I want you to read the reactions even from the South Koreans. They said, "Well, we know North Koreans, and that's never going to happen. We know who they are, and we know their nature. Because in the past, they never performed what they said they would. So it's a joke." That is a quote from a South Korean. "It's a joke."

What happened to this comment? "Isn't this a beautiful potential? Look at this amazing thing - against all odds!" Now, your free press, the reporting segment of our culture, has decided not only to report it, but to let you know it's probably not going to happen! They say: "Nay. Maybe yes, maybe no. We'll see. We expect the worse." And this continues and continues, and all it shows you is the monstrous bias of the dark side that wants to pull anything good back to what the past gave to you."

Two Koreas to form joint table tennis team for Korea Open

Yahoo - AFP,15 July 2018

Table tennis players from the two Koreas also formed a joint team at this year's
championships in Sweden

The two Koreas will form joint table tennis teams for the 2018 Korea Open next week, a report said Sunday, the latest sign of thawing ties between the neighbours.

North and South Korea will field joint teams in the men's and women's doubles as well as the mixed doubles in the tournament to be held in the South's city of Daejeon from Tuesday to Sunday, Yonhap news agency said.

It cited an unnamed official at the Korea Table Tennis Association.

South Korean TV footage showed North Korean athletes and delegates arriving at Seoul's Incheon International Airport Sunday via a flight through Beijing.

Eight female and eight male athletes from North Korea -- including Kim Song I, a bronze medalist at women's singles at the 2016 Rio Summer Games -- will form the joint teams with the South's players, Yonhap said.

It will be the third time that table tennis players from the two Koreas form a joint team following the 1991 world championships in Japan and this year's championships in Sweden.

The joint team in 1991 shocked the world by defeating defending champion China to win gold in the women's team event. This year's joint team won bronze in the women's team event in Sweden.

The Korea Table Tennis Association could not be immediately reached for comment.

The two countries are technically still at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty, but sporting cooperation helped spark an ongoing diplomatic thaw after the North agreed to participate in the Winter Olympics held in February in the South.

The diplomatic detente triggered a rapid improvement in relations between Pyongyang and both Seoul and Washington, culminating in last month's summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump in Singapore.

A group of South Korean basketball players visited the North earlier this month to hold friendly basketball matches with its athletes.

The two Koreas also recently announced they would field joint teams in three sports -- canoeing, rowing and women's basketball -- at next month's Asian Games to be held in Indonesia.

Asian Games could have 7 joint Korean teams: Seoul official

Yahoo – AFP, Sunghee Hwang, Apr 30, 2018

The sight of North and South Korean skaters wearing the same jersey drew emotive
 responses from spectators and quickly became a Wintern Olympic favourite (AFP
Photo/Brendan Smialowski)

Seoul (AFP) - Seven South Korean sports associations are considering forming joint teams with North Korea for this year's Asian Games in Indonesia, an official told AFP Monday - but reports said football will not be joining them.

At their groundbreaking summit on Friday, the latest step in a rapidly moving diplomatic sequence, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the South's president Moon Jae-in agreed to show solidarity by "jointly participating in international sports events such as the 2018 Asian Games".

The phrasing left open whether it was a reference to unified teams, or marching together at opening ceremonies, as they have done at several past Olympics, including this year's Winter Games in Pyeongchang in the South.

But a spokeswoman for the South's national Olympic committee told AFP that the country's governing bodies for "basketball, judo, canoe, gymnastics, table tennis, rowing and soft tennis have expressed interest".

No details had been discussed yet, she added.

Seoul's unification ministry declined to comment on the issue but said the two sides will soon hold a working-level meeting which may include discussions on joint teams at the Asian Games.

Some sports bodies are already pushing ahead, proposing their own plans for the Asian Games, which will take place in Jakarta and Palembang from August 18 to September 2.

The Korean Canoe Federation said Monday a joint team for the dragon boat race -- one of three canoe disciplines at the event -- will be a good idea since neither Korea has a national team for it.

"Even if we form a joint team, it won't affect any existing athletes," the group said in a statement.

The joint teams could hold open practice sessions on the Han river in Seoul as well as the Taedong river in Pyongyang, it added.

Final whistle

But the South's football association declined the idea, Yonhap news agency reported, saying the move could require unwanted sacrifices from its players.

In South Korea, male athletes who win gold at the Asian Games or any Olympic medal are exempted from the country's mandatory two-year military service.

Tottenham Hotspur forward Son Heung-min could be among the players seeking the Asian Games title to enable him to extend his career in Europe without interruptions.

Son withdrew from consideration for the South Korean team for London 2012 -- when the side finished third, earnings its members the exemption -- to concentrate on his club activities with Hamburg SV.

When a joint women's ice hockey team was first mooted for the Winter Olympics it provoked a backlash in the South, on the grounds that Seoul was depriving its own athletes of the chance to compete on the Olympic stage.

Ultimately the sight of North and South Korean skaters wearing the same jersey and passing the puck to each other drew emotive responses from spectators and quickly became an Olympic favourite, despite the team being thrashed in all five of their matches.

The rapprochement on the peninsula was triggered by the Games, to which the North's Kim sent athletes, cheerleaders and his sister as an envoy.

Friday's historic meeting saw Kim and Moon agree to pursue the complete denuclearisation of the peninsula and to improve inter-Korean relations.

Seoul's defence ministry said Monday it will start removing propaganda loudspeakers along the border with the North on Tuesday.

South and North Korea consider joint teams for this year's Asian Games in Indonesia https://t.co/mRJFvWPlqz pic.twitter.com/4lNa2zmPGZ

— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 30, 2018

Surf's up! N. Korea tourism agency tries to woo foreigners

Yahoo – AFP, July 19, 2017

Pyongyang city skyline: the national tourism agency is wooing visitors

North Korea's tourism agency has launched a website offering holiday options ranging from surfing to rice planting, despite strong US warnings to avoid travel to a nation where several trips have ended in jail.

Sixteen Americans have been detained in the past decade in North Korea, including 22-year-old student Otto Warmbier who was given a long prison term for stealing a hotel propaganda banner. He was sent home in a coma in June but died several days later.

The "DPR Korea Tour" website, run by the North's National Tourism Administration, depicts the country -- which is subject to stiff sanctions over its weapons programmes -- as just another tourist destination.

It introduces package trips to various parts of the country including the capital Pyongyang, and offers various "theme tours" for travellers seeking something more unusual.

Visitors are invited to check out beaches on the east coast, including the Majon Bathing Beach, where "surfing has come into vogue among tourists" for its favourable conditions and clean water.

The website also provides basic travel information like air and train routes and ways to get around Pyongyang using public transport such as cabs and buses.

However, it does not allow users to book tours directly and does not list the handful of foreign agencies that arrange trips to the isolated state.

The site is available in Korean, English, Chinese, Russian and Japanese and can be found at tourismdprk.gov.kp. The country's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The US State Department strongly warns Americans against travelling to North Korea, citing "serious risk of arrest and long-term detention".

Canada, Australia and New Zealand are among other nations giving similar warnings.

North Korea's tourism agency has launched a website offering holiday options https://t.co/OLUZxvrEhO pic.twitter.com/jJTf0SBcCQ

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 19, 2017

North Korean defector criticises China in rare Beijing talk

Yahoo – AFP, Tom Hancock, 26 March 2016

North Korean defector and activist Hyeonseo Lee, who lives in South Korea, 

poses as she presents her book 'The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean 

Defector’s Story' in Beijing on March 26, 2016 (AFP Photo/Fred Dufour)

Beijing (AFP) - A North Korean defector made a rare public appearance in China on Saturday, criticising Beijing's repatriation of asylum seekers despite alleged warnings from South Korea not to speak out.

Hyeonseo Lee, who escaped from North Korea to China in 1997, called on Beijing to let refugees from her original homeland -- who it routinely sends back -- pass "safely without being caught by the Chinese authorities".

The sun rises over the bridge on the 

banks of the Yalu River in the Chinese 

border town of Dandong opposite the 

North Korean town of Sinuiju on

February 10, 2016 (AFP Photo/

Johannes Eisele)

Human rights groups have for decades condemned Beijing for deporting North Korean asylum seekers, who they say face torture and imprisonment when repatriated.

China is North Korea's sole major ally and chief trading partner. It has recently supported UN sanctions on Pyongyang after its fourth nuclear test, but restricts criticism of its neighbour in the media and in public venues. It generally says those deported are illegal economic migrants.

Lee said she was detained and interrogated by police after arriving in China in the 1990s. Though later released, she said she subsequently had to hide from authorities during her near 11-year stay in the country, fearing repatriation.

Speaking at a book festival to promote her recently published title "The Girl With Seven Names" -- which describes living in constant fear of Chinese authorities -- Lee told an audience that China "has no obligation to listen (to) the North Korean regime".

"China is a heaven compared to North Korea", she said, but also described harassment by Chinese police.

This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News 

Agency (KCNA) on March 24, 2016 shows the operation of a new type large-caliber 

multiple rocket launching system at an undisclosed location in North Korea (AFP Photo)

"I want to tell the very basic things about what is happening to North Koreans here," she said, speaking in English to an audience of several dozen mostly non-Chinese listeners.

"China is the place we have to cross, but here many people are caught, less than 50 percent will succeed".

Lee said intelligence officials from South Korea, where she now lives, tried to dissuade her from visiting China, warning of possible damage to diplomatic relations.

"They are telling me I had to be careful in China, saying only talk about North Korea, don't ever touch China, especially don't touch the Chinese government," she said.

'Many evils'

Hyeonseo Lee, who escaped from North Korea 

to China in 1997, called on Beijing on March 26,

 2016 to let refugees from her original homeland -- 

who it routinely sends back -- pass "safely without

 being caught by the Chinese authorities" (AFP 

Photo/Fred Dufour)

China's attitude towards North Korea has hardened as Pyongyang continues with an internationally-condemned nuclear program, but it defends the isolated communist state against criticism of its human rights record and routinely censors media which take too critical a stance.

North Korea released a video Saturday showing a nuclear strike on Washington and threatened South Korea with a "merciless military strike" for slandering leader Kim Jong-Un.

AFP could find no record of a North Korean defector previously giving a public speech in mainland China or publishing a book there.

"No defector made a public speech in China, but I have to make a stand & tell Chinese people the truth," Lee said on Twitter.

She was encouraged by the reception of an earlier subtitled video in which she described her stay in China, viewed more than 110,000 times on Chinese video sites.

Speaking to AFP, she said: "I will not change the Chinese government," adding: "people in the mainland, to let them know what their government is doing, that's really crucial".

"There are many evils living in China, human traffickers, but at the same time there are many good people," she said.

"I'm grateful to those good people, but not the Chinese government".

Related Articles:

"Quantum Patterns" - Jan 23 - 24, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

"... The Darkness Can't See Beyond Itself

I want to give you proof yet again of something unusual and very telling of the way low vibration works. Within the first channel of the year [2016], I spoke about the young North Korean leader. I'm going to do it again. I'm going to do it again as a profound example of how low consciousness cannot see above itself. That means that it can only work with what it sees and knows. As powerful, as smart, as intellectual as it thinks it is, it can't get out of its own circle.

The former leader of North Korea was a classic egotist. When he died, his son took over and could do anything he wanted. This boy had watched his father for decades and knew he would take over someday. Naturally, he inherited the attributes his father taught him of self-importance, and he also became egotistically driven to the max. When he took power, he had the choice to make changes that would allow him to be even greater than his father. He wanted something that would elevate his name and his position to the highest egotistic place imaginable. His father was the model, and now he could do anything he wanted to be even more famous. What happened is classic. He completely missed the greatest opportunity that any man has had to become the most famous and beloved person on the earth. The idea never occurred to him. Even though he had been educated in the western world, he missed it.

If he had considered the high road and included the earth instead of a restricted population of his own country, he could have been the most famous and beloved leader on Earth, all of his life. At the moment he took over, all he had to do was to think beyond his circle. He was in the unique position to be a "wild card" and do something amazing - unify North an South Korea, drop the zone of death that was between those countries, bring families together after generations, stop nuclear programs that he really never needed other than to look important and, thereby, give his people abundance, food for all and peace in his region. All of Korea would worship him and the earth would give a sigh of relief in thanks for his wisdom and courage.

He would have received standing ovations upon entering the United Nations great room and they would bow before him and give him the highest peace prizes. He would have his ego stroked and stroked and stroked and stroked and be far greater than his father had ever been. But it never occurred to him. Instead, he perpetuated the dark box he inherited, and now he presides over the lowest energy possible, representing the most dangerous renegade energy on the planet. At the expense of keeping his people poor and impoverished and creating instability in his region, he gets to be a powerful and famous person for a moment in time from a small population. He will not last long. He can't see that what he is doing has no support within the majority of the planet's population, and he will lose everything. Isn't it interesting how strong the circle is that keeps a low vibration low. All of this is beginning to change, dear ones. If you examine individual people and the way they act, you're going to see this coming. You're going to recognize it.  ..."

THE OLD SOUL 2013 TOOLKIT" – Jan 13, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll)  (Text version)

"... The Change in the Way Things Work

Now I'm going to be very cautious with number five, and I'm going to change a paradigm of the way we channel. For 23 years, we have given you information in the soup of potentials that we read around you as the highest probable potential that exists. These things eventually become your reality because they are your free choice, and we know what you're thinking. We know what the potentials are because we know what the biases are, and we see all of humanity as a whole. Potentials are energy, and it gives us the ability to project your future based on how you are working these potentials. We have done this for a long time. Twenty-three years ago, we told you about many things that were potentially going to happen, and now they are your reality.

But now I'm going to depart from that scenario and I'm going to give you a potential on Earth that is not the strongest. I am going to tell you about a Human Being who has a choice. This potential is only about 50 percent. But I'm going to "read a potential" to you that you didn't expect. It's about a paradigm that is starting to shift.

Let's talk about North Korea. There's a young, new leader there. The potential is that he will never, ever hear this channel, so I can talk freely about him. He is facing a dilemma, for he is young and he knows about the differences in the energy in his land. He feels it. The lineage of his departed father lies upon him and all that is around him expects him to be a clone of this lineage. He is expected to continue the things that he has been taught and make North Korea great.

But he's starting to rethink them. Indeed, he wants to be a great leader, and to be heard and seen, and to make his mark on North Korea's history. His father showed him that this was very important. So he ponders a question: What makes a world leader great?

Let's ask that question to someone in an older earth paradigm from not that long ago. He will be an expert and a successful one. So this is a valid exercise, asking someone from the past who knows. We will ask that question to a man who you know and whose name is Napoleon. For us, this was yesterday and some of you were there. 

If you asked Napoleon, "What makes a world leader great?", he will say, "the size of the army, how much area can be efficiently conquered with a given amount of resources and men, how important the leader appears will then be based upon how many citizens call him emperor or king, the taxes he can impose, and how many fear him." Not only was that Napoleon's reality, but he was right for the energy he was part of at the time. So Napoleon went back and forth between world leader, general and prisoner. He accomplished almost everything he set out to do. His expertise was obvious, and you remember his name to this day. He was famous.

What makes a world leader great? What I am showing you is the difference in thinking between then and now. There are some choices that this evolving young Human Being has that could change everything on the planet if he wanted. His father would tell this boy that what makes a world leader great is the potential of his missile power, or how close he can get to having a nuclear weapon, or how he stands up against the power of the West, or how he continues to aggravate and stir drama as a small country - getting noticed and being feared. His father would tell him that this is his lineage and that is what he's been told all his life. His father did it well and surrounded himself with advisors who he then passed on to his son.

Now, there's a 50 percent chance of something happening here, but this is not a strong potential, dear ones. I'm bringing this forward so you can watch it work one way or the other. For if the son continues in his father's footsteps, he is doomed to failure. The energy on the earth will see it as old and he will be seen as a fool. If, however, he figures it out, he could be the most famous man on the planet... which is really what his father wanted.

If Kryon were to advise this man, here's what I would tell him. He could be the greatest known leader the current world has ever known, for what he does now will be something the world will see as a demarcation point from the old ways. Not only that, but what he does now will be in the history books forever, and because of his youth, he has the potential to outlive every other leader on the planet! So he's going to have longer fame than anyone ever has.

I would tell him this: Tell the border guards to go home. Greet the south and begin to unify North and South Korea in a way that no past prophet ever said could happen. Allow the two countries to be separate, but have them as two parts of a larger Korean family with free trade and travel. Start alliances with the West and show them that you mean it. Drop the missile programs because you will never need them!

This will bring abundance to the North Korean people that they never expected! They will have great economic sustenance, schools, hospitals and more respect than ever for their amazing leader. The result would be fame and glory for the son, which the father had never achieved, something that the world would talk about for hundreds of years. It would cause a United Nations to stand and applaud as the son walked into the Grand Assembly. I would ask him, "Wouldn't you like that?"

Doesn't this seem obvious to most of you? He could achieve instant fame and be seen as the one who made the difference and started something amazing. But watch him. He has a choice, but it's not simple. He still has his father's advisors, but one of which he's already dismissed. He may get it, or he may not. There is a 50 percent chance. But I'll tell you that if he doesn't do it, the one after him will. Because it is so obvious. 

We show you this to tell you that this is the evolvement of the Human species. It is the slow realization that putting things together is the answer to all things, instead of separating them or conquering them. Those who start promoting compromise and begin to create these energies that never were here before will be the ones you're going to remember. Dear ones, it's going to happen in leadership and politics and in business. It's a new paradigm...."