While Christians all over the world just celebrated Christmas, North Korea may apparently be secretly honoring the season as 2016 marked the anniversary of a great Christian martrydom on the banks of the Taedong River in Pyongyang.
It has been 150 years ago since the death of the Welshman Robert Jermain Thomas , one of the brave missionaries who brought Christianity to the land of Korea.
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While his death was celebrated in churches in Cardiff and Seoul, it was not the case in Pyongyang, where he was martyred.
Robert Jermain Thomas was a Welsh Protestant Christian missionary who served with the London Missionary Society in late Qing Dynasty in China then developed a strong desire to share the good news to the people of Korea.
However, Korea was closed to foreigners at that time because of the government’s fear of foreign influence. Thomas had just received a letter informing him of the death of his wife Caroline Godfrey from miscarriage, but it did not stop him from attempting to share the gospel.
It was Thomas second missionary journey to Korea when he took a job as an interpreter on an armed American trading ship with the General Sherman who later on who initiated hostilities between the Korean government and Christian community by firing cannon and guns thus resulting in seven deaths and five wounded.
This hostility led Governor Gyu-Su Park of Pyong-An Province to declare that General Sherman was heading an enemy vessel and ordered his troops to prepare for battle. Governor Park launched a burning boat which set General Sherman’s shi on fire and ked to the death of his crew. Thomas was one of the members of his crew.
There are varying accounts about how Thomas died.
In another version of the story, Thomas abandoned the burning ship and was captured by hostile troops on shore. But before he was killed, he allegedly gave a Bible to his executioner.
Thomas’ sacrifice in bringing the gospel to Korea has not been forgotten especially in South Korea where Christianity thrives.
According to the BBC, Gi Jung Song,  Korean pastor of the International Church in Cardiff said, « Korea was in darkness spiritually, and this young man from Wales brought the Bible.  »
Thomas was killed soon after his arrival but his death influenced Korea as the person who killed him became a Christian, and his house became a church.
Pyongyang became a strong Christian city with a hundred churches 15 years later. A revival of Christian belief in Korea in 1907 echoed the Welsh Religious Revival of 1904.
An island in the wide Taedong River in Pyongyang is the site (as the Koreans term it, « Mr. Thomas’ Resting Place ») of Thomas’ grave.
The BBC reported that Christian activist group, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, published a report in September 2016, which said: « Among other basic human rights denied to the people of North Korea, freedom of religion or belief is largely non-existent. Denial of this right has occurred since the 1950s, and the current leader, Kim Jong-un, continues to violate citizens’ religious freedom.  »
The group said that the regime claims there are about 500 unofficial churches in North Korea where people worship privately. Many who attempted to take Christianity into North Korea found themselves behind prisons doing hard labor after being threatened with execution.
The Welshman missionary Thomas was not the last Christian martyr in Korea.

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Ban Ki-moon, the outgoing  UN secretary-general,  says he laments not ending conflicts and doing more to promote peace as he ended 10 years at the UN.
Thronged by UN staff as he made his way out of UN headquarters on Friday, the  South Korean  diplomat thanked his colleagues, saying it was an honour to have worked with them.
« You should be very proud, just as I am so very proud to call you my colleagues, » he said.
The 72-year-old  transfers stewardship of the world body to Antonio Guterres, a f ormer Portuguese prime minister,  amid continuing conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Mali, the Central African Republic and Libya, to name but a few.
Ban said he lamented the « fires still burning », and in a rare show of criticism of world leaders, criticised unnamed presidents, prime ministers and monarchs for the turmoil.
Singling out Syria, he said he could not understand why it was being held hostage to « the destiny » of Bashar al-Assad.
The Syrian conflict has killed an estimated 400,000 people, contributed to Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II and allowed the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group to emerge as a global threat.
Turning elsewhere, Ban said in his decade at the UN he had endeavoured « to never give up. To keep dreaming, to keep believing, and to keep working hard until we achieve progress ».
He urged UN staff to remain focused on advancing UN development goals and work towards addressing issues ranging from climate change to gender empowerment.
Despite serving two terms and being unanimously re-elected in 2011, the South Korean diplomat leaves behind a mixed legacy.
In his first term he was criticised for not speaking out against human rights abuses in China and Russia. And, in his second term, for the UN’s handling of the cholera epidemic in Haiti and its failure to deal effectively with sexual abuses by UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic and elsewhere.
His decision to remove an Arab coalition bombing Yemen from a UN blacklist after Saudi Arabia threatened to stop funding UN programmes was sharply rebuked.
But he has also won plaudits for helping move climate change to the top of the global agenda and strongly backing gay rights despite opposition from many countries.
Beginning Sunday, Guterres, 67, takes over from Ban. He is the first former head of government to lead the UN and will preside over a five-year term.
Source:   Al Jazeera News

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Over the last couple of months, North Korea seemed to be the last thing on everyone’s mind. As the little Hermit Kingdom toiled away on its nuclear arsenal, many in the West have remained focused on what President-elect Donald Trump Donald Trump Putin’s New Year’s statement congratulates Trump, not Obama Anthony Bourdain on Trump win: People were sick of ‘privileged’ liberals 10 celebrities who could run for office MORE and the resurgent Republican Congress could mean for trade, taxes, and health care.
Yet according to the latest reports, President Barack Obama warned Trump that a nuclear North Korea may be the greatest foreign policy concern of the next four years. For all the focus on domestic issues, the Trump administration may find its first challenge in the dangerous game being played by Kim Jong Un.
First, the Trump administration should explore withdrawing conventional U. S. military forces from the Korean Peninsula, a move he called for multiple times along the campaign trail. As foreign policy scholar Doug Bandow of the Cato Institute has argued , the 28,500 U. S. troops on the peninsula likely do more harm than good. There is wide agreement that the advanced South Korean military is more than capable of defeating the poorly equipped North Korean military and the Kim regime knows this.
Beyond wasting U. S. taxpayer money, the deployment may actually prevent an end to the 66-year long conflict. North Korean officials regularly refer to the presence of U. S. conventional forces on the peninsula to justify the escalation of the nation’s nuclear program. By removing conventional forces from the Korean Peninsula, a Trump administration could help move us closer toward a normalization of relations and a formal end to the half century-long conflict.
Second, while working to diffuse the immediate military threat of a nuclear North Korea, Trump’s administration should refocus the conversation on reform within North Korea. One low-cost way to inspire reform could be to expand access to the outside world among North Korean citizens. Educational and cultural exchanges, similar to those that occurred among the U. S. and the Soviet Union in 1958 , could expose North Korean elites to the freedom and affluence of the outside world.
Another option is to expand radio broadcasts into the country. With an estimated 8 to 15 percent of North Koreans listening to international radio, Radio Free Asia could play the powerful role played by Radio Free Europe during the Cold War in subverting totalitarianism. Beyond radio, smuggling USB drives loaded with soap operas , books, and movies into North Korea could reduce dependence on official regime propaganda.
In the end, the more information North Koreans have about the outside world, the more they will press for reforms in whatever ways available to them. According to North Korea expert Andrei Lankov , such programs played a substantial role in exposing Eastern Europeans to the backwardness of their living conditions and drove Soviet elites like Mikhail Gorbachev to institute sweeping reforms.
Finally, the Trump administration should critically reassess the utility of sanctions. Importantly, no sanctions on North Korea will ever work without buy-in from China. China is North Korea’s biggest trading partner , providing the North Korean regime with food, arms, and energy since the installation of Kim Il Sung in 1948.
Getting China to stop cooperating with the regime is no small task: Beijing benefits from having a friendly nation buffering its border against a U. S.-friendly South Korea. Worse still, according to national security expert Robert Maginnis, the main effect of current sanctions is to keep average North Koreans poor, hungry, and dependent on the current regime. By reforming current sanctions and focusing on restricting military goods and sensitive resources, the administration could alleviate the suffering of millions and facilitate communication between North Korean citizens and the outside world.
It’s hard to say with any certainty how the new Trump administration will change America’s foreign policy, as Trump’s comments on the subject have been vague and often contradictory. But one thing is certain: the status quo with North Korea cannot last. By normalizing relations, connecting to average North Koreans, and rethinking our sanctions policy, the new administration could shake up policy for the better. The outgoing Obama administration views this as the new administration’s greatest challenge, and with good reason. Without a change in how we approach the issue, the suffering of average North Koreans will worsen, the regime will grow stronger, and the security of our allies in the region will deteriorate.
Katarina Hall is the director of the Human Rights Center at Universidad Francisco Marroquin. Nolan Gray is a graduate student at Rutgers University.
The views expressed by authors are their own and not the views of The Hill.

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South Korea banned imports of U. S. table eggs last year after the United States grappled with its own bout of bird flu.
If a new agreement is reached, U. S. shipments could bring some relief to South Koreans who have faced soaring egg prices and rationing since the outbreak there began last month.
The egg shipments also would help U. S. farmers cope with an oversupply that is depressing prices.
About 26 million birds, more than a quarter of South Korea’s poultry stock, have been culled to control the outbreak, and most of the birds have been egg-laying hens.
The opportunity to profit by filling the resulting shortfall with U. S. eggs has sent brokers and traders into overdrive.
Strains of bird flu, which can be spread by wild birds, have been detected across Asia and in Europe in recent weeks. Two people in China and one person in Hong Kong have died in the outbreaks.
The United States could reach agreement to resume trade with South Korea as early as next week, said Mark Perigen, national supervisor for shell eggs for a division of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.
« Everybody’s working hard to get it done, » Perigen said in an interview on Friday, adding that USDA employees had worked during holiday vacations on the issue.
« They’re desperate for eggs over there, and the government realizes that, » Perigen said.
South Korea’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.
Glenn Hickman, chief executive of Hickman’s Eggs in Arizona, has received calls from brokers searching for U. S. eggs to ship to South Korea.
« Everybody in Korea who needs eggs has Googled everybody in the world who might have eggs, » Hickman said.
« We’re getting calls from brokers who have no idea even the right questions to ask us, » he added. « It’s just somebody who knows how to freight stuff from the U. S. to Korea.  »
With no agreement yet between the two countries, Hickman is asking employees to take contact information for the potential customers.
United States Egg Marketers, a cooperative of farmers that was established to export eggs, has received « numerous inquiries about this already, including from people who have never exported anything in their lives, » said Eka Inall, the group’s president.
« Our phone is blowing up, our email is blowing up, » she said.
Last year, U. S. food companies imported eggs from Europe after bird flu ravaged domestic chicken flocks and sent egg prices to record highs.
Since then, U. S. prices have tumbled as farmers have ramped up production.
The United States produced 7.44 billion table eggs in November, up 11.5 percent from a year earlier, and there were 312 million hens laying table eggs on Dec. 1, up 8 percent from a year before, according to USDA.
On Dec. 26, the average price for a dozen large white U. S. eggs was $1.17, down from a high of $2.88 in August 2015, according to market data firm Urner Barry.
« Current conditions in the U. S. are definitely a motivating factor to get this thing done, » Brian Moscogiuri, an Urner Barry analyst, said about U. S. efforts to ship eggs to South Korea.
In South Korea, the average retail price for 30 eggs has risen nearly 25 percent to 6,781 won ($5.68) since the outbreak began on Nov. 18. That is the highest price in more than three years, according to state-run Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp.
If South Korea begins importing U. S. eggs, its residents may need to adjust to a different appearance of the food staple.
Jim Sumner, president of the U. S. Poultry and Egg Export Council, said many Koreans prefer brown colored eggs, while the United States mostly produces white eggs.
« As they say, beggars can’t be choosers, » he said.
(Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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In this Wednesday, Dec. 28 photo, a boy sits on a screen showing Korean traditional characters at the National Hangeul Museum in Seoul, South Korea. Impeached President Park Geun-hye’s surname is « Park, » right? Nope. In Korean it’s closer to « Bahk.  » Park’s allegedly corrupt confidante, Choi Soon-sil, pronounces her name more like « Chwey » than the way it’s rendered in English. There is a gulf, often a wide one, between the way Koreans write their names in English and the way they actually sound. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
(The Associated Press)
In this Wednesday, Dec. 28 photo, high school students take a selfie in front of a screen showing Korean traditional characters at the National Hangeul Museum in Seoul, South Korea. Impeached President Park Geun-hye’s surname is « Park, » right? Nope. In Korean it’s closer to « Bahk.  » Park’s allegedly corrupt confidante, Choi Soon-sil, pronounces her name more like « Chwey » than the way it’s rendered in English. There is a gulf, often a wide one, between the way Koreans write their names in English and the way they actually sound. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
(The Associated Press)
In this Thursday, Dec. 29 photo, a dual-language street sign written in Korean and English is displayed at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea. Impeached President Park Geun-hye’s surname is « Park, » right? Nope. In Korean it’s closer to « Bahk.  » Park’s allegedly corrupt confidante, Choi Soon-sil, pronounces her name more like « Chwey » than the way it’s rendered in English. There is a gulf, often a wide one, between the way Koreans write their names in English and the way they actually sound. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
(The Associated Press)
SEOUL, South Korea –   Impeached President Park Geun-hye’s surname is « Park, » right? Nope. In Korean it’s closer to « Bahk.  » Park’s allegedly corrupt confidante, Choi Soon-sil, pronounces her name more like « Chwey » than the way it’s rendered in English. And Samsung’s ailing chairman, Lee Kun-hee? That English « Lee » is more like « Yi » or « Ii » in Korean.
There is a gulf, often a wide one, between the way Koreans write their names in English and the way they actually sound.
Even the ubiquitous « Kim » — the moniker of beloved South Korean Olympic figure skating champion Yuna Kim and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un — belies: It’s pronounced « Ghim » in Korean.
While the flubs of foreigners who take the Romanized spellings literally cause smirks for the bilingual, the mispronunciations can also create confusion and embarrassment among visiting politicians, tourists and business people.
The disputed reasons behind the discrepancies are linked to a complex mix of history, American influence, herd mentality and individual quirks.
Here’s a brief look:
___
THE HISTORY
South Korea’s guidelines for converting the Korean language into the Roman alphabet were last revised in 2000 to try to get road signs, places, internet domain names, guidebooks and surnames closer to their actual Korean pronunciations.
When those rules are applied to surnames, « Lee » should be « I » (pronounced « Ii »), « Kim » should be « Gim, »  »Park » should be « Bak » and « Choi » should be « Choe.  » But because people can decide how to spell their own names, many simply go with the way everyone else does it, which means they follow what their families have favored for generations.
So Kim, Park and Lee still dominate.
Experts differ about the origins of these English spellings of Korean surnames.
Some think that when South Korea was briefly under U. S. military rule following the end of Japan’s 1910-45 colonial occupation, Americans chose existing English names or words — such as Kim, Lee and Park — for Korean pronunciations that sounded similar. Others say it was South Koreans who started borrowing those recognizable English words.
When there wasn’t any easy match in English, South Koreans simply settled for spellings that « felt O. K., » according to Brother Anthony of Taize, a British-born scholar and prolific translator of Korean literature.
The spellings of some names are linked to a 1939 Romanization system invented by two Americans that was widely used before the 2000 revision.
Isolated, proud Pyongyang uses a variant of the old system. « Kim » is the same in both Koreas, but the southern « Lee » and « Park » are « Ri and « Pak » in the North.
___
THE MISTAKES
English mispronunciation, of course, happens in many languages that don’t use the Roman alphabet, but the list of foul-ups by foreigners relying on the confusing Korean system is long.
During a joint news conference with South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Washington in October 2015, President Barack Obama called her « Park, » just as it sounds in English, not « Bahk.  » When he held another joint press conference with Park’s predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, in 2012, he pronounced his name as « Lee, » not « Ii.  »
If Obama, who has a staff of Korean experts, couldn’t get it right, your average visitor to South Korea is doomed.
In some ways, the new Romanization rules are as bad as the old ones.
For instance, an affluent southern area in Seoul, and the inspiration for the world-dominating 2012 song by South Korean rapper PSY, is spelled « Gangnam.  » The first part of this word will look to many English speakers without any Korean like the first syllable of the word « gangster.  » But a better spelling is « Gahngnam.  »
A southern town famous for traditional red pepper paste is spelled « Sunchang.  » Many English speakers pronounce the first part of the word as « sun » from « sunshine; » it’s actually « soonchahng.  »
The rules are simply too far off from the reality, according to Yaang Byungsun, a linguist at South Korea’s Jeonju University. « It’s a system that no one, except for South Koreans, can pronounce, » he said.
South Korean officials defend their Romanization rules by saying they are for all foreigners, not just English-speakers.
___
THE BIG THREE, AND BEYOND
The National Institute of Korean Language says it’s working to come up with a recommended standard for spelling surnames.
But it’s probably too late.
The English spellings of the three surnames that account for nearly half of South Korea’s 50 million people — Kim, Park and Lee — are firmly in place.
A study by the institute that ended in 2015 showed that about 99.5 percent of South Koreans with the country’s most popular surname spelled it « Kim, » while the rest used « Gim, »  »Ghim » or « Khim.  » For the second most common surname, about 98.5 percent favored « Lee, » overwhelming « Yi, »  »Rhee, »  »Li » and « Yee.  » In the case of the third most popular surname, « Park » was used by about 96 percent.
For other surnames, some English spellings are meant to avoid embarrassment.
Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang stayed away from the awkward « Gang, » which is what South Korea’s Romanization suggests.
Former President Roh Moo-hyun used to spell his surname as « Noh » in English, which is how it’s pronounced. But during his 2002 presidential run, he reportedly switched to « Roh » to stay away from the negative sounding « Noh.  »
There are calls to overhaul the current, awkward Romanization system to avoid problems for foreigners who do businesses and travel here.
But it would be expensive.
A 2011 study showed that revising public signs and government-issued publications and performing other changes needed under a new system would cost 300 billion won ($250 million).
Some also question whether a perfect Romanization of Korean is even possible.
« It’s confusing and stupid, but that’s the way it is, » Brother Anthony said.
___
Follow Hyung-jin Kim at www.twitter.com/hyungjin1972 and Kim Tong-hyung at www.twitter.com/KimTongHyung

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SEOUL: More than half a million South Koreans marked New Year’s Eve with a massive protest Saturday (Dec 31) calling for the immediate arrest and ouster of impeached President Park Geun-Hye.
Candle-carrying and banner-waving protestors marched towards key buildings in Seoul including the presidential Blue House and the prime minister’s office.
Police figures were unavailable but organisers estimated crowd numbers to be more than 600,000.
« Park Geun-Hye step down. Go to prison now, » they chanted.
Parliament voted on Dec 9 to impeach Park over a corruption scandal in which she allegedly colluded with her friend, Choi Soon-Sil, to wrest donations from large conglomerates to two dubious foundations.
The case is now being considered by the Constitutional Court, which has up to 180 days to rule on the impeachment.
« I came here to help usher in a new year that has no Park Geun-Hye », Kang Jae-Chun, who was at the protest with his two children, told AFP.
Demonstrators also planned to take part in a midnight ceremony in which a large bronze bell in the city centre is rung to herald in the new year.
It was the tenth protest calling for Park’s immediate departure from office.
But Park, who has been suspended from her duties since the impeachment vote, has remained defiant, declaring she will wait until the Constitutional Court arrives at a decision.
Earlier on Saturday, former health minister Moon Hyung-Pyo was arrested under a court order in a widening probe to determine whether Park and Choi took bribes from businesses including Samsung.
Moon, who is now head of the National Pension Service (NPS), admitted to pressuring the state-run fund to back a controversial merger of two Samsung units – Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T – last year when he served as health minister.
The acquisition was seen as a crucial step to ensure a smooth father-to-son power transfer to Lee Jae-Yong, scion of Samsung’s founding family.
Critics said it undervalued Samsung C&T stock but NPS – the world’s third largest public pension fund and a major Samsung shareholder – backed the deal, allegedly incurring hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for NPS subscribers.
Investigators reportedly plan to question Lee next month to determine whether he told Samsung Electronics executives to funnel millions of dollars into questionable foundations and companies controlled by Choi in return for NPS’ backing.
Lee said at a parliamentary hearing this month he was not aware of the money transfers.

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