Christians speak out

Christian groups are speaking out against the human rights violations occuring in North Korea:

Tens of thousands of fans of all ages gathered over the weekend for the annual three-day Rock the Desert Christian music festival screamed for hit bands like Mercy Me and Pillar and kicked Hacky Sacks by a creek renamed the Jordan River and a small pond called the Dead Sea.

Between the Prayer Tent and an abstinence-promotion booth, however, worshipful revelers also stumbled into a more sobering pavilion, the North Korea Genocide Exhibit.

Inside, Kang Chol Hwan, a North Korean defector recently summoned to meet President Bush, signed copies of his memoir of 10 years in a prison camp. Drawings by defectors depicted the torture of North Korean Christians. A video, available free on DVD, showed shaky, grainy footage of two public executions.

Typical right-wing unilateralists. Why can't they play along and participate in the South Korean government's conspiracy of silence?

Mr. Kang shook his head in astonishment at the depth of concern evident on Saturday, especially at the mock gas chamber. He had never seen such a thing.

"In South Korea," he said, "people are generally ignorant or they don't even care. It is amazing to learn that American youth have this knowledge and they care to build a replica to show other people!"