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RFA's Korean Service
Last Updated on Thursday, 6 October 2011 06:53 Written by RFA15 Wednesday, 21 September 2011 06:10
Thank you for visiting RFA's 15th Anniversary site. This month we're featuring RFA's Korean Service.
Please scroll down to explore the unique features of RFA Korean, including the stories of North Korean defectors living around the world, special programming, exclusive coverage, major news events, listener comments, and awards won by RFA Korean journalists.
You can also view major news events and story highlights since 1997.
Fast Facts
First Broadcast: March 3, 1997.
Languages: Korean.
Coverage: 5 hours of programming per day, 7 days a week.
Distribution: Radio, Internet and satellite. RFA Korean can be heard on nine diversified frequencies.
Website: http://www.rfa.org/korean/
English Language Website: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea
Special Programming: In addition to news, RFA's Korean service reports stories of North Korean defectors and holds round table discussions with them, in-depth analysis of current situations on the Korean peninsula, as well as airing technology reviews, book discussions about banned literature and the writings of defectors, economic news related to North Korea (DPRK), cultural programming, fact-checking analyses of North Korean propaganda, reports on food and health issues in the dictatorship, information about NGOs and church groups aiding defectors, current event roundups from the region and outside world, and stories about family reunions with defectors and relatives living in South Korea and the United States, among other topics.
Target Audience: RFA Korean's main target audience is ordinary North Korean citizens; however, the service carries news and feature programs aimed at North Korean women, students, youth, and elites, which include Workers' Party members and government officials. These programs deal with political and economic situations in North Korea, North Korean market analyses, women's issues, North Korean defectors in South Korea and other countries, and news about younger people living in both parts of the Korean Peninsula.
Media Environment and Human Rights Situation in North Korea
RFA's Korean language service faces the challenge of broadcasting into the least free country on the planet. Freedom House ranks North Korea dead last in its annual press freedom index and gives it the lowest possible rating for both political rights and civil liberties and Reporters Without Borders ranked the dictatorship 177 out of 178 in their 2010 Press Freedom Index. Human Rights Watch stated in its 2011 World Report: that the North Korean regime remains "one of the most abusive in the world" and that "All media and publications are state-controlled, and unauthorized access to non-state radio or TV broadcasts is severely punished."
A huge network of informers and police forces monitors and controls every facet of social, political, and economic life. The U.S. State Department's most recent human rights report describes North Korea as "a dictatorship under the absolute rule of Kim Jong Il" where "members of the security forces have committed numerous serious human rights abuses." Among the abuses cited were "extrajudicial killings, disappearances and arbitrary detention, and political prisoners," harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, and forced abortions and infanticide in prisons.
In this grim context, RFA's broadcasts offer a glimmer of the outside world that is growing a little brighter as more citizens take the risk of resetting their fixed radios to stations beyond the DPRK. Detentions of 10 years are common for accessing foreign media. Despite these obstacles, independent research has shown that many North Koreans listen to RFA, and, in the 14 years since RFA's Korean service began broadcasting, the service has provided them with exclusive reports on the North Korean government's corruption, human rights abuses, health and nutrition crises, and missile testing, as well as airing in-depth series on North Korean refugees in China, human trafficking, and the lives of defectors.
First Broadcast: The first Korean broadcast included news and feature programs about food shortages in North Korea, the four-party talks, North Korean fishermen's defection to South Korea and negotiation between South Korea and China about granting political asylum to Hwang Jang Yop, a high-ranking North Korean official staying at the Korean Embassy in Beijing.
It also included a message from RFA President Dick Richter and a commentary from RFA Korean Service Director Jaehoon Ahn. In the inaugural message, Richter said RFA will broadcast balanced, accurate and impartial news to North Korea.
Reaction from North Korea: The North Korean regime began attacking RFA's Korean Service even before its first broadcast. Reported by the North Korean Central News Agency on March 1, 1997, the government called for an end to RFA broadcasts: "This intolerable [broadcast] cannot be allowed. The radio is aimed … to paralyze the national consciousness of the people of Asian countries for independence, obliterate their national culture and realize the U.S. domination over them. The U.S. is attempting to destroy Asian countries with the same 'vigor and will' as it displayed in destroying the Iron Wall in Eastern Europe. But this can never work today. The U.S. is intensifying its sinister ideological and cultural infiltration and false propaganda … but there is no one who will lend an ear to it."
One week later, on March 8, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK criticized the United States for RFA's Korean broadcasts during an interview with KCNA. He told KCNA: "The more false propaganda the U.S. makes against the DPRK, the stronger the Korean people's anti-American sentiments will grow and the firmer their absolute confidence in their ideology, culture and cause of justice will become. American 'values' and culture can never affect the DPRK, which has the best political philosophy in the world and blooming socialist culture."
A Look Back at RFA Korean: Record Speed
RFA's Executive Editor Daniel Southerland recalls the early days of RFA Korean service, including the hiring of RFA's first Korean Service employee and long-serving Service Director Jaehoon Ahn, who recently passed away; the challenges of getting the service on the air; and how the new team developed story ideas.
Q. What was it like trying to get a Korean language service on the air?
A. We launched all of our language services on tight deadlines, but I think the Koreans set a speed record. The founding service director had only about six weeks to recruit broadcasters and get on the air.
Q. Tell us how the Korean service director was selected.
A. When it came to Korean broadcasting, I first thought of Jaehoon Ahn, a Washington Post researcher for more than 25 years. He'd also had reporting and broadcasting experience. And he'd shown great interest in Radio Free Asia, even before it was launched. Jae was born in Pyongyang and fled to South Korea with his family when he was only five years old. When RFA started, he was a consultant to a major Seoul daily newspaper, where he was helping to restructure the newsroom and create a style section.
We went through the HR process and Jae seemed to be the best potential candidate for the job. I called Jae and told him that he would have to take a pay cut and give up his perks, such the company car and corporate credit card that went with his job in Seoul.
Jae immediately said that he wanted to work for RFA. We negotiated the timing, and Jae joined us in early January, 1997. He had only 44 days—about six weeks—in which to help us hire five Korean broadcasters and get a basic half-hour of programming on the air. That he did this was quite an achievement. I don't know of many other people who could have done it. And Jae didn't have to be educated regarding a code of ethics. He was already a great believer in accurate, fair, and balanced reporting.
Q. What were the initial challenges?
A. Hiring had to be done at incredible speed. Fortunately, the Washington area is blessed with a large South Korean population, including journalists. So we were able to find several experienced Korean journalists, some with radio broadcasting experience, who could help put out that first broadcast without much training.
Kris Keegan, an RFA producer who worked closely with the Korean service, describes the initial RFA Korean team as "very, very motivated." Kris put it this way: "Basically it was their eagerness and motivation that got them through this. Forget about voice or mike training, there was no time for that."
Q. Where did you get story ideas for broadcasting into such a difficult country such as North Korea?
A. Jae had a large network of expert friends who were able to advise us. He recommended hiring several outside analyst-commentators. One was the Korean-speaking Russian expert Andrei Lankov. Lankov had studied in Pyongyang.
When Jae decided we should do a series on the true history of the Korean War, Lankov advised us to use Russian documents, historians, and experts as sources. He said that they would be more believable to North Koreans, who had been taught that the war was started by the U.S.-backed South Koreans.
Jae also recommended bringing in Greg Scarlatoiu, a Korean-speaking scholar of Romanian origin. As a student in Romania, Greg witnessed the fall of the Ceausescu regime, so he brought a unique perspective to his analyses of North Korean developments. Greg was recently appointed as the executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.
In Seoul, Jae identified a prominent South Korean broadcasting personality who gave us expert advice on how to set up a Seoul office.
Hyunju Lee then joined us as Seoul officer manager and proved to be a person who was skilled not only in administrative work but also in reporting, editing, and production. She brought out the best in everyone as we added staff as well as North Korean defectors, who serve as commentators and analysts.
RFA Korean Programming
Broadcasting on nine medium and shortwave frequencies, the RFA Korean Service carries: (1) breaking news in or concerning North Korea; (2) in-depth analysis and coverage of news relating to North Koreans: (3) stories concerning the lives of ordinary North Koreans – in North Korea and beyond: (4) commentaries, including those by North Korean experts and defectors to help those back home understand the broader world; (5) feature programming that exposes North Koreans to thoughts and ideas that are either banned or rarely heard in North Korea; and (6) international stories that provide needed context for understanding outside events that impact North Koreans.
Use of North Korean DefectorsWhat distinguishes the RFA Korean Service from other international broadcasters beaming signals to North Korea is the extensive use of North Korean defectors. These contributors not only add value to our broadcast content, but also verify the accuracy of information originating in North Korea. They include a former North Korean Army artillery company commander, diplomat, professor, engineer, concert pianist, trade official, journalist, and student – who together represent almost all walks life in North Korea.
In early October 2009, RFA Korean launched a new show in a weekly Q&A format featuring a prominent North Korean defector. Ko Young Hwan, a French-speaking former DPRK diplomat who defected from the North Korean embassy in Brazzaville, Congo, in the early 1990s, takes on a variety of topics. Based on 13 years' experience in the DPRK foreign service and his recent work as a senior researcher in South Korea, Ko has so far responded among other things to questions on North Korea's leadership succession, hunger and nuclear weapons, and the North Korean soccer team.
An RFA Korean broadcaster, who defected from North Korea, produced a six-part series in 2009 on human rights violations against North Korean refugees in China. In 2006, the service aired a similar series, following a visit to China by another RFA Korean defector broadcaster. Risking arrest, the broadcaster interviewed 14 North Korean women who had fallen victim to criminal gangs of traffickers on both sides of the border.
Seoul Bureau
RFA's Seoul office, opened in March 1998, enables the service's reporters and broadcasters to get as close as possible to North Korea without endangering the lives of their sources as they break important news and air the stories of defectors. RFA's Seoul staff contributes to programming on a daily basis by filing North Korea-related news originating in Seoul, feature programs dealing with the activities and lives of some 22,000 North Korean defectors living and working in South Korea, and collecting information about various developments in North Korea using its contacts and network established in Seoul and rest of the country.
RFA Korean empowers its listeners with accurate, credible information on various developments in North Korea, the region and the rest of the world. Given the extremely repressive nature of the North Korean society, it is impossible to conduct any scientific survey of the impact of listenership inside North Korea. However, a recent survey undertaken by an independent media research group indicates that 27 percent of the North Korean people listen to non-North Korean radio broadcasts, and among them, RFA Korean tops the list. This media research group conducted the survey among the North Korean refugees in several Chinese towns bordering North Korea between March and September of 2010.
A recent survey of defectors showed that a surprisingly large number of former North Korean residents would prefer to live in the United States despite pervasive anti-American propaganda in the DPRK. The 2009 study's leader, Marcus Noland of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, attributed the positive feelings toward the United States among refugees in strong part to Radio Free Asia's broadcasts into North Korea.
A similar study of refugees in 2008 showed that international radio listeners said they particularly valued North Korean news and, more specifically, local market news. The data suggest listeners are very aware of the risks in listening, yet are increasingly willing to listen to foreign radio and share RFA information with trusted relatives and friends Though most learned about foreign radio stations by searching around their radio dial, a significant number also heard about RFA through others.
In 2008, a Bloomberg News report quoted a North Korean magazine publication, saying, "The most popular item now is a radio for listening to Radio Free Asia for information."
RFA Korean broadcasts are frequently cited by global news sources and outlets, such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Reuters, Chosun Ilbo, Yonhap News, Guardian, Agence France Presse, and Korean Broadcasting Service, among many others.
Online Multimedia
The Korean service began publishing online stories and audio links in August 2002. In September 2004, RFA.org was redesigned to give each language its own site. In June 2005, the RFA Korean site presented photo slideshows of a North Korean defector hiding in caves in China.
Online podcasts of broadcast were made available in December 2005. In April 2008, all RFA sites were redesigned allowing each language site to have a distinct color scheme and identity. Technical help, ethics, mission statement, terms of use, and privacy policy are provided in Korean. Photo and video sections have been placed on the RFA Korean homepage since a digital media contract was made with Yonhap News Korea in February 2009.
RFA Korean also offers many channels to communicate with online users through blogs and social media includng Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and Me2Day — a Korean micro-blogging service.
RFA Korean featured a slideshow entitled 60 Years of Tensions which includes key dates on the Korean Peninsula, the world's last Cold War frontier.
Korean.rfa.org, the first of 10 RFA mobile sites, went live on November 2010. The first native iPhone app playing Korean programming was approved and made available in the App store since May 2011.
In February 2011, a rare breakthrough occurred when, for the the first time, RFA Web-traffic tracking software picked up nine visits since November 2010 from a North Korean IP address using Google to find the RFA website. The registration address associated with the IP address is listed as Pyongyang, but our software detected that the origin of traffic was from Hanam-ni, Jungpyong-gun, South Hamgyeong province, also in North Korea.
Listener Comments
"My general feeling when listening to RFA was as if I saw a lighthouse of hope." – Female defector, 62, originally from North Hamkyeong province
"While listening to it, it is so interesting that I forget about the punishment." – Female listener (chief of neighborhood unit), 38, Pyongyang
"When I was in North Korea, I listened to a lot of excellent programs carried by the RFA Korean Service. Through RFA programs, I was able to learn what was going on in North Korea and real world." – Male defector, 43, originally from Hoeryong, North Hamkyeong Province
"RFA consists of the best in staff and specialists, so the broadcasts also reflected the credibility and reputation. Also, all the presenters worked in a respectful and friendly manner toward the audience." – Male listener, 33, originally from South Hamkyeong province
"Before listening to RFA, I knew only about North Korea, but now I know there is a different world out there where people live without their rights being infringed upon." – Female listener, 26, originally from South Hamkyeong province
"I knew too well that if I got caught, I would be punished. But the more I listened, the stronger my desire to keep listening." – Female listener, 43, Kangwon region
"Through RFA I learned that South Korea and America are trying to help our people, not isolate us. It made me rethink why North Koreans are so badly off." – Female listener, 43, Kangwon region
Click here to read more comments from our listeners.
Awards and Recognition
Of the many special programs that the Korean Service has produced since 1997, particularly noteworthy is a piece on "New Year Celebrations Thousands of Miles Away from Home" which won a gold medal at the 2011 New York Festivals International Radio awards. RFA Korean veteran broadcaster John Hyun-Ki Lee interviewed North Korean refugees living in the U.S., Australia and Canada as they reminisced about their families, friends and lives they had left behind. The program was aired on February 4, the day after the Korean diaspora marked the new lunar year, with the hope that long-lost relatives of these defectors would be able to listen.
The online edition of Korea Daily carried Lee's NYF gold medal story.
Another special series – a three-part investigative report on the North Korean "street kids" wandering in China – earned the 2010 David Burke Distinguished Journalism Award from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. Given annually, the awards recognize courage, integrity, and professionalism displayed by U.S. international broadcasters pursuing accurate and balanced news reporting.
In Korean Children Left in China, Jin-Seo Lee reported on the plight of thousands of North Korean street children who have been abandoned or separated from their parents. His investigative series, done at considerable risk, found that despite the best efforts of Korean missionaries, conditions for many North Korean orphans have been deteriorating. Some can be seen wandering the streets and train stations seeking food. In his reports, Jin-Seo captured the voices of a number of these children, thereby humanizing their story as never before.
Other major awards that Korean service broadcasters have won include:
National Association of Broadcasters
Distinguished Nominee of the 2000 NAB Excellence Award to John Hyun-ki Lee for his January 1, 2000 story "New Year Hope for Koreans in the World".
The Foundation of American Women in Radio & Television
2000 Honorable Mention, Gracie Allen Award: Won-Hee Lee for "Comfort Women of North, South Korea".
New York Festivals International Radio Programming Awards
2010 International Radio Programming Finalist Certificate: Songwu Park's "Young Defectors, New Lives" was selected as a Finalist for Best Human Interest.
2002 International Radio Programming bronze medal: Won-Hee Lee for her Korean story "Women's International War Crimes Tribunal: Japan's Responsibility For The Sexual Slavery of Comfort Women".
2001 International Radio Programming Finalist Certificate: Won-Hee Lee for her program "Reunion of Separated Families In Two Koreas: Short Embrace, Long Farewell, Eternal Anxiety".
2001 International Radio Programming Finalist Certificate: Moonhui Kim for her Korean story "Train Of The Reunified North Korea".
2000 International Radio Programming, Finalist Certificate: Hyun-Ki Lee for "New Year's Hope Of Koreans In The World".
1999 International Radio Programming, Finalist Certificate: Won-Hee Lee for "My Freedom Trip Series No. 1 & No. 2" .
1999 International Radio Programming, Finalist Certificate: John Hyun-Ki Lee for "Kim Jung Il's 57th Birthday Party And The Hungry In North Korea".
AXIEM Award for Absolute eXcellence in Electronic Media
2001 Silver Axiem Award to John Hyun-Ki Lee for his story "N-S Korean 2000 Sydney Olympics: Teams and Cheers".
KBS Seoul Prize
2000 International Radio Programming, the Output Award: Won Hee Lee for "Comfort Women Issues of Washington".
Programming Highlights
In July 2010, RFA's Korean service first reported on the circulation of a poster in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang suggesting the dictatorship, despite claims to the contrary, was responsible for the March sinking of South Korean naval ship the Cheonan. The poster, a photograph of which RFA obtained exclusively, depicts a North Korean sailor using his fist to slam a ship resembling the Cheonan into pieces. The slogan below in translation reads, "We will smash you with a single blow if attacked." The story was picked up widely worldwide.
An RFA Korean broadcaster, who defected from North Korea produced a six-part series in 2009 on human rights violations against North Korean refugees in China. The series focused on the harsh conditions facing child defectors and the human trafficking of North Korean girls and women. In 2006, the service aired a similar series, following a visit to China by another RFA Korean defector broadcaster. Risking arrest, the broadcaster interviewed 14 North Korean women who had fallen victim to criminal gangs of traffickers on both sides of the border. The series won a David Burke Award from the Broadcasting Board of Governors and was picked up by South Korea's Yonhap News Agency as well as other regional outlets.
In recent years, RFA aired stories of cases in which North Korean officials diverted food aid to the military and black market for their personal gain and profit. Kim Jong Il fired a number of officials after RFA exclusively reported on corruption involving the North Korean agency that handles humanitarian aid and South Korean investment in the North.
Major News Events Covered by RFA Korean
1998 Nagano Winter Olympics
1999 Geneva Four Party Talks on the Korean Peninsula
2000 Sydney Summer Olympics
2000 U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright's Pyongyang Trip
2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics
2002 President Bush's Beijing trip
2003 The Highest-ranking North Korean defector Hwang Jang Yop's RFA Visit
2004 Former South Korean President Kim Young Sam's RFA Visit
2004 Athens Summer Olympics
2006 Turin Winter Olympics
2007 Beijing 6-Party Talks
2007 Swiss Geneva US-DPRK Talks
2009 China-DPRK border area coverage on human trafficking of North Korean female defectors
2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic
2010 Yeonpyeong Island after DPRK's Attack
2011 US New York US-DPRK Talks
Exclusive, In-depth Coverage and Story Highlights
RFA Korean broadcast exclusive interviews with Choi Joo-Hwal and Ko Young-Kwan, two high-level defectors from North Korea, who provided North Korea with a behind-the-scenes look at how their government operates.
There were two historic news events that RFA Korean broadcast including an unprecedented summit between the leaders of North and South Korea—which RFA covered with live morning and evening broadcasts for three consecutive days—and a long-awaited reunion among relatives who had been separated since the 1950-53 Korean War.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's Visits North Korea
Secretary Albright met with Chairman Kim Jong Il, Presidium President Kim Yong Nam of Supreme People's Assembly and Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun on October 23 and 24, 2000. Albright held six hours of talks with Chairman Kim in two days, conveyed President Clinton's views and his letter to Chairman Kim Jong Il and discussed proposals on NK's missile restraint, diplomatic relations and other security issues.
A series of interviews with North Koreans who later stormed the Spanish Embassy in Beijing seeking political asylum was broadcast exclusively by RFA.
Coverage of President Bush's Asia Tour
During his February presidential trip to Japan, South Korea and China, U.S. President George W. Bush made a speech at Tsinghua University on US-China relations. He took questions from the students after his remarks. Then Chinese Vice President (and current President) Hu Jintao, a graduate of Tsinghua, was present on the stage.
In response to escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula, RFA doubled its Korean-language broadcasting to North Korea in January. RFA President Dick Richter said RFA's North Korean listeners "have demonstrated extraordinary ingenuity to secretly hear our broadcasts, and we are pleased that we can now provide them with more programs to help satisfy their hunger for news from outside their closed society."
North Korean Teenage Defector Reads Memoirs on RFA-Korean
Jang Gil-su, the teenage defector whose grim drawings of life in North Korea have made him an international celebrity, read excerpts of his memoirs in a broadcast series.
Kidnapped fisherman Escapes to South Korea, 30 Years and a New Family Later
More than 30 years after a clam-fishing trip turned into a nightmare, South Korean fisherman Kim Byung-do returned home to be reunited with the family he left behind. "I can not find proper words to describe this feeling," Kim told RFA's Korean service. "I hadn't expected the world to have changed so much. Everything has changed except the rocks and seawater."
North Korea Accused of Diverting Food Aid
Japanese and South Korean human rights activists released video footage they said shows international food aid being sold at inflated prices on the North Korean black market, RFA's Korean service reports. They said the video was shot in September in Haesan, a North Korean town bordering China.
U.S., South Korea to Discuss Nuclear Issue at APEC: Two Presidents to Meet on Sidelines of Bangkok Summit
U.S. President George W. Bush will hold talks with his South Korean counterpart Roh Moo-Hyun on the North Korea nuclear stand-off when the two leaders meet in Bangkok for next week's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, RFA's Korean service reports.
Top North Korean Defector Says Defectors Play Key Role
The highest-ranking North Korean official yet to defect told RFA he believed other defectors will play a key role in undermining the Pyongyang regime. In an interview with RFA's Korean service in Washington, DC, the late Hwang Jang Yop, who died at 87 in 2010, also said he blamed himself for the suffering of relatives and colleagues he left behind. "Defectors have experienced both sides of ideology…They lived under unimaginable tyranny and are living in democratic South Korea. They know what it is to be completely denied human rights by the government, and on the other hand they have also experienced democracy," said Hwang, 80, who served as North Korea's chief ideologue until he defected to South Korea in 1997. "That is why I believe North Korean defectors are remarkably valuable assets to bridge rifts between the two Koreas. They have networked in North and South Korea. They will be invaluable to the collapse of Kim Jong Il's regime and to the reunification of the Korean Peninsula."
Horrors Reported in North Korean Gulag
Starvation, infanticide among routine horrors of detention
Survivors of North Korea's labor camps and detention centers said deaths from exhaustion, starvation, and infanticide are common in a system where inmates can be detained indefinitely for trivial offenses.
North Korea Women Raped, Sold in China: Some Female Defectors Cross Border Aware of Dangers
Women who make the dangerous journey across the border from North Korea to China as defectors are routinely raped and even sold when they arrive, RFA's Korean service reported. Interviews with numerous North Korean defectors recently arrived in South Korea revealed systematic terrorizing of female defectors by the Chinese security forces, frequently with the tacit approval of their North Korean counterparts.
Ex-South Korean President Slams Rights Abuses in North
During his week-long U.S. visit, former South Korean President Kim Young Sam took aim at widespread human rights abuses in the Stalinist North, calling the regime "a frozen land" destined to collapse. "There is no freedom or democracy there. Until this system changes, there is no hope," Kim told RFA's Korean service in an interview at RFA studios in Washington, D.C.
Dozens of North Korean Diplomats Caught Smuggling Drugs
At least 50 North Korean diplomats have been arrested for drug-smuggling over the last two decades, apparently to fund the activities of Pyongyang's overseas embassies. "There have been over 50 documented incidents in the last 20 years where North Korean diplomats have been caught [smuggling drugs]," a senior U.S. official told RFA's Korean service, speaking on condition of anonymity.
RFA Korean featured in-depth reports about North Korea's human rights abuses and controversial nuclear program, with live, on-site broadcasts from international conferences in Washington and Seoul.
North Koreans Spent Years in Chinese Mountain Dugouts
Two North Korean couples living as refugees in South Korea dug holes high in the mountains of northeast China to hide from police—living there for years despite bitter cold and the constant threat of starvation. "We went to the mountain on March 19, [2000]," defector Sung Kyung-il told RFA's Korean service. "The ground was frozen so we could not dig very deep." Sung, now resettled with his wife Chu Myung-hee in the southern South Korean city of Daegu, said the couple endured the freezing nights and lack of food for two years on Dokgol Mountain in China's Jilin Province for fear of being apprehended and sent back to North Korea.
Interview with North Korean Cave-Dwellers in China
RFA Korean aired a three-part series with the couple who lived in hiding in a hole dug in the ground in North Korea. Here is an excerpt:
RFA: How did you come to start living in the cave?
Kyung-il Sung: First, we went to a town and met new people. We told people we were North Korean escapees, and asked them to feed us and provide shelter for us in return for free labor. After that, we happened to meet a Korean Chinese who was a clerk of the Communist Party … We took care of his father-in-law for three years. … On the mountain, we took care of four other North Koreans. We depended on and helped one another. At that time, we were all we had in the whole world. I felt like we were the only people on earth. Now, I have come to South Korea. In South Korea, there are a lot of things to think about. I have to catch up with other people. At that time, all I needed were three meals a day. I still miss that simple life.
RFA: How did you come to South Korea, after two years of life in the cave?
Kyung-il Sung: If there had been only two of us, we still could have lived there. But I took care of four more North Koreans who did not have any place to go, just because I felt so bad about them. I knew how to survive. But, as I accepted more people, the word spread in the town. When North Koreans arrived from other towns, people would tell them that we are living in the mountains, helping other North Koreans. So they came to us to look for work and food. One day, I got a call from the police station, saying I was causing too much trouble and the Chinese police would start an inspection on us.
North Korean Guest-Workers Defect in Siberia
North Korean laborers assigned by Pyongyang to camps in Siberia to earn their government foreign currency are increasingly fleeing their work teams to go it alone as illegal workers. Some hope eventually to seek refuge in a third country, according to an eyewitness report.
North Korea Tells Aid Groups To Leave
North Korea has ordered European NGOs to pull out of the country next month after the European Union submitted a U.N. resolution criticizing Pyongyang's human rights record, aid workers told RFA. "I can confirm that the NGOs have been asked to leave the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea]," Padraig O'Ruairc, Pyongyang coordinator for the Irish aid group Concern, told RFA's Korean service. "They asked last week basically that we should stop operations by the 31st of December and leave at the latest by the end of March," he added.
When North Korea conducted missile launches, followed several months later by a nuclear test, the Korean Service dropped its regular format in order to provide in-depth reporting, filling in the gaps left by official North Korean media. The Service added seven weekly features written by Korean defectors and increased its coverage of human trafficking of defectors inside China.
North Korean Pianist Gives First Concert Since Defection
A North Korean pianist who risked his life to seek greater freedom and creative expression outside the isolated Stalinist state gave his first public concert since arriving in the South Korean capital. Chul-woong Kim's emotional rendition of a nationally adored Korean folk song brought the audience in a packed church in downtown Seoul to its feet.
North Korea Nuclear Test Strains Ties with China, World
The United Nations Security Council rebuked North Korea's claim to have tested a nuclear weapon and is set to discuss what to do next, including enforceable and mandatory sanctions. U.S. President George Bush said his administration was working to confirm what he called Pyongyang's "provocative" claim. The Bush administration was said to be circulating a draft resolution aimed at securing targeted sanctions, including a halt to any trade with North Korea in materials that could be used to make deadly weapons and stepped-up cargo inspections.
South Korea Rethinks Business Ties to North
Amid fears of plans for a second North Korean nuclear test, South Korean officials and businesses curbed commercial ties with their Stalinist northern neighbor. "Investors already in Kaesong are deeply worried, although not yet hesitant over continuing their engagement there. It is a very tense state of affairs," Song Byung-Yul, executive director of the Seoul-based Dongdaemun Special Zone Council, told RFA's Korean service.
Starvation Feared in North Korea
Millions of people could face starvation in North Korea, with aid supplies likely exhausted by January, international aid organizations said. World Food Program (WFP) South Africa representative Michael Huggins, just back from a visit to North Korea, told RFA's Korean service that the WFP faces holes in the food pipeline from November, and the situation will get progressively worse.
RFA Korean doubled its broadcasts to North Korea in 2007, following Pyongyang's detonation of a nuclear weapon. Highlights included a 10-part investigative series on the trafficking of North Korean women inside China; a survey of North Korean defectors' challenges after fleeing their homeland; Pyongyang's crackdown on South Korean TV programs and films; and an exposé of traffickers' use of addictive drugs to sedate abducted North Korean women.
Thousands of North Korean Women Sold as Slaves in China
Thousands of North Korean women who fled famine in their homeland in recent years are believed to have been sold as "brides" to Chinese men, who often put them to backbreaking labor and subject them to constant fear, physical assault, and sexual abuse. In an unprecedented series of interviews by RFA's Korean service, women who were trafficked into China, lured by the promise of food and a decent living, described their experiences on air.
North Korean Women Sold Into China Speak Out
These interviews were first aired as part of a 10-part feature series by RFA's Korean service. They owe their existence to the courageous work of Han Min, the pseudonym of a North Korean defector who spent three weeks near the border area in 2006. There he met North Korean trafficking victims, listened to their grievances, and collected their compelling testimony.
U.S. Envoy Says China, South Korea Could Do More on North Korean Rights
South Korea and China "could be doing more" to pressure North Korea on human rights, a senior U.S. official said, adding that South Korea had grown too supportive of the Stalinist regime without demanding enough in return. U.S. Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea Jay Lefkowitz told RFA's Korean service, in an interview recorded July 26 and broadcast to North Korea July 27, that Washington was working closely with Asian countries to bring more North Korean asylum-seekers into the United States. "The issue is in part that a lot of countries in the region are still concerned about facilitating the movement of North Korean refugees," Lefkowitz said.
RFA Korean Led the World with Two Widely Cited Stories
On Nov. 15, RFA's Korean service reported that North Korea launched a high-profile investigation into corruption involving the North Korean agency that handles the distribution of humanitarian aid as well as South Korean investment in the North. Korean and Chinese investors have long complained that aid funding is not being properly disbursed. At the same time, investors often complain that they are forced to pay bribes and are cheated. According to a Chinese-Korean travel agency, staff members of the North Korean agency, the National Economic Cooperation Federation (NECF), "don't really understand how the market economy works." It's not yet clear whether North Korea will closely investigate the problem, but apparently Pyongyang is aware of the complaints and realizes it must appear to be taking action. RFA's story was quoted widely by leading South Korean media.
A second story on a North Korean worker in Russia facing deportation back to North Korea also gained South Korean media attention. The North Korean, who worked in the timber industry in Siberia as a "guest worker," had escaped from his North Korean unit, married a Russian woman, and decided to stay in Russia. The Russian authorities decided he was living illegally in Russia and detained him with the intention of sending him back to North Korea. The worker escaped from Russian police and contacted an office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the Russian Far East. He is staying in a UNHCR safe house and is now appealing a Russian government decision rejecting his application for asylum.
RFA Korean broke a series of stories on North Korean agencies responsible for overseeing foreign investments. This year saw a marked increase in republication of RFA news in major South Korean newspapers, television and Internet news.
The Korean service published a slideshow of photos taken inside the Yongbyon nuclear facility, 100 km north of Pyongyang, as it is being dismantled under the 2007 framework agreement. Inside the reactor building, a red-and-white slogan reads: "Let's safeguard Dear General Kim Jong Il with our lives." Photos of both Kim and his father Kim Il Sung can be seen on the wall of the reactor's control room.
Although a number of news organizations took part in the visit and published their own pictures, RFA's pictures and report were the ones picked up by the Korean press the following day.
Media outlets in South Korea republished RFA stories almost daily and the Korean Service's impact on setting the news agenda on the Korean peninsula was noteworthy. In just one day, one RFA Korean Service news report was picked up by more than dozen major news organizations in South Korea.
The story was an exclusive report by CS Pyon on Professor Siegfried S. Hecker's report to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in March on his visit to Yongbyon Nuclear facilities in February in North Korea. Dr. Hecker, a renowned expert who had been to North Korea five times, estimated it would take North Korea at least 6 – 18 months to restart its nuclear facilities. In the exclusive interview he did with RFA's Korean service on his report, Hecker said it would be hard for North Korea to make a full declaration of its nuclear capabilities and programs, including uranium enrichment, as would be required to in the event that the United States and other countries concerned would meet their obligations according to six-party talks.
The Korean service aired an ongoing series of stories about official corruption in connection with the sale and export of North Korea's mineral resources. They reported extensively on Pyongyang's missile testing, and recent efforts to strengthen military ties with Burma's military junta.
Korean Web
RFA wrote an article about the fate of North Korean women sold in China as brides and prostitutes, based on a report by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, and illustrated by an interactive graphic.
The Korean service covered manifestations of the yearly North Korean Freedom week with a series of videos, interviews and analyses as well as testimonies from defectors.
Helping North Koreans to Escape
Korean-American Mike Kim, author of 'Escaping North Korea: Defiance and Hope in the World's Most Repressive Country,' discusses how and why he put a career in finance on hold to help North Korean refugees in China. RFA Executive Editor Dan Southerland interviewed him in RFA's Washington, DC, office on March 24. Here's an excerpt:
RFA: Welcome to Radio Free Asia. Tell us what caused you to give up, or at least postpone, your career in financial planning. You stopped doing that, and you took up what amounted to a nonpaying job smuggling North Korean defectors out of China.
Kim: Well, to answer that question I'd have to take you back to July 2001. At that time, I had my own financial planning business in Chicago. My clientele was growing, and I had just hired my own personal assistant. Business was looking good, and I decided to take a two-week vacation to travel to China, and it was there in northeast China that I met a North Korean refugee for the first time. And when I met this little girl, a North Korean refugee, my immediate question was: What's a North Korean refugee? I'm a Korean-American, born and raised in the States, but I had never heard of refugees in China before. So that trip was the first I had begun to learn about the problem of the famine and political and religious oppression and people fleeing the country. And as a result, when I returned to the States, I decided that I had to do something to help out.
Kim's Palaces, Via Google Earth
The luxurious residences of North Korea's leaders stand in stark contrast to reports of the hardships endured by the majority of the country's population. The luxury palaces and holiday homes of North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong Il include private railway stations, lakes, and swimming pools, according to a U.S. economist. "Most of Kim Jong Il's mansions have a nice garden, a private lake, a checkpoint ensuring his security, and a surrounding wall," George Mason University economist Curtis Melvin, who has made a study of properties belonging to the leader of the ruling Workers' Party through satellite imagery, said. "Many of these mansions also include private train stations. [In some], the train station is inside the residential compound, and the train enters that compound," Melvin said. Melvin's research, published as "North Korea Uncovered" on the Google Earth online mapping system, has revealed dozens of luxury mansions used by Kim Jong Il and his family in the isolated Stalinist state, where the United Nations has said up to a million people are currently at risk from malnutrition and starvation.
Defection 'Sparks Crisis' for Kids
They flee North Korea and often hide for years in China to get to South Korea. Then comes the hard part. Young defectors who risk death and imprisonment to flee hunger and political repression in Stalinist North Korea face new problems on arrival in the capitalist South, with many failing to complete their schooling, or to find an identity outside the self-described Workers' Paradise they left behind. North Korean children who are resettled in the South face unexpected difficulties caused by language differences, a world-view taught by one of the last bastions of hardline communism, and many years of missed schooling while hiding in neighboring China. "First of all, due to language differences, there is the problem of the rather unfamiliar environment the North Korean students encounter in regular South Korean schools," said Chae Hye-Seong, head of research at Seoul's Yeo Myung special school for North Korean defectors.
A family of North Korean defectors has detailed their perilous flight from hunger and oppression along a missionary-backed "underground railroad" to the United States, beginning with several years hiding in northeastern China for fear of being sent back to labor camps across the border. Suh Won Kyung, his wife Kim Yeon Hwa, and their sons Suh Cheol and Suh Cheol Young arrived in the United States after a tortuous road that took in the mountainous jungle border regions of the Golden Triangle and several months hiding in an embassy. "We saved much of the money the three of us made while working in China," Suh Won Kyung said. "We bought the cheapest food available, didn't waste a single penny, and managed to save some money, up to about 15,000 yuan (U.S. $2,200)." With help from missionaries in China's northeast, the Suh family decided to try traveling the length of China by public transportation. That route is much riskier than the usual defector route through Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, or Cambodia.
Defector Describes Graft, Torture
Corruption is so entrenched in North Korea that military officers will even give away information on nuclear test sites, according to an elite defector. It's now easier to collect such information in exchange for bribes, said the defector, who uses the alias Kim Ju Song. Rampant corruption, collapse of the state-controlled ration distribution system, the opening of local markets, the breaking of laws to obtain food, and the under-funding of the military and local government units has led to bribe-taking at all levels, he said. This is occurring even among sentries charged with guarding North Korea's long border with China and its nuclear sites, this defector and others have reported. "As the market economy began entering North Korea, people came to value money more than allegiance to the Dear Leader," said the defector, referring to Kim Jong Il.
Korean Children Left in China
A freezing December wind rakes across northeast China, as a group of seven children sit in a circle in the living room of a missionary's Dandong apartment, a stone's throw from the border with North Korea. The seven boys and girls of elementary school age are playing a game with the foster mother who cares for them in spite of Chinese laws which forbid taking in a stranger's child as if it were one's own. According to the foster father, who preferred to remain anonymous, "It is illegal [so] we are not allowed to receive any foreign aid. … I tell others that I am taking care of my relatives' children…It is obvious that none of their relatives can take care of these children." Many of the children in his care were left stranded after their North Korean mothers were forcibly repatriated by Chinese authorities.
Former RFA Commentator Honored
Dr. Lee Ae-ran, who joined RFA as a commentator and analyst from 2005 to 2008, was in Washington on March 10 to receive an International Women of Courage award from the State Department for her vigorous work for North Korean human rights. Dr. Lee spent eight years in a labor camp, following her Christian grandparents' defection to South Korea. She and her family were designated by North Korean government as a 'bad elements' and in prison she endured abuse, starvation, and horrific conditions.
She has since worked to help North Korean children in South Korea by donating scholarship money to help them learn English – a skill critical to succeeding in South Korean universities and colleges. Additionally, she has helped NK women defectors with various education opportunities and opened a culinary institute to help them learn practical entrepreneurial and culinary arts skills.
On the day on which she received the State Department award, Dr. Lee participated and was featured as a guest on two RFA programs.
Posters Show Smashed Ship
North Korean propaganda posters in circulation seem to be refer to a recent attack on the South Korean vessel Cheonan, which resulted in the deaths of 36 of its crew. North Korea has denied sinking a South Korean navy ship, but the regime is also circulating a propaganda poster that appears to brag about the incident in which 46 people died. The poster, photographed in late June by a visiting Chinese businessman, shows a helmeted North Korean sailor smashing a ship in two. "We will smash you with a single blow if you attack!" it reads. The businessman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that high-ranking North Korean traders he dealt with "expressed self-esteem in relation to North Korea's military strength" and told him, "regardless of U.N. sanctions, we [North Koreans have] never stopped reacting." Whether the poster is new or dates from an earlier North-South naval clash, such as a 2002 confrontation in the West Sea, wasn't immediately clear. If the latter, Pyongyang appears to have been re-circulating an old propaganda poster to boost morale within the country.
100th Defector Resettles in U.S.
A defector becomes the 100th North Korean refugee to resettle in the U.S. after seeking refuge in Russia. The 100th North Korean defector to the United States says he values freedom more than life and wants to eventually return as a missionary to help his compatriots toiling as laborers in the Russian Far East. Jo Jeon Myeong was allowed in as a refugee in early September after he sought sanctuary at the South Korean consulate in Russia, where he was among what is believed to be several thousand North Koreans working as laborers. The U.S. has only accepted North Korean refugees since 2004, when the North Korean Human Rights Act was signed into law. "I am free. It feels like a dream—like living in the midst of a fantasy," Jo said, withholding his real name for his own security.
After the North Korean Attack
RFA journalists go to Yeonpyeong Island to see the devastation left by North Korea's Nov. 23 artillery attack.
Cost of Defection Goes Up
North Korean security forces, along with Chinese brokers, take bribes to help defectors cross the border. The cost of illegally crossing the river border from North Korea into China has significantly increased in the wake of stepped-up North Korean security efforts following the North's shelling of South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island in November, sources report. "The cost of defecting from North Korea is no laughing matter," Kim Chul Min, a North Korean defector living in the United States, said, citing contacts in the region.
Mobile Phone Rentals Banned
A ban by North Korean authorities is linked the visible role of mobile devices in pro-democracy protests in Arab states. North Korean authorities ban foreign visitors, including diplomats, from bringing mobile phones into the country and routinely seize their phones at Pyongyang airport or elsewhere and return them as they leave the country.
Women Tricked, Trafficked into China
North Korean women crossing into China as defectors are frequently preyed on by trafficking gangs, with some targeted for abduction before they even leave their homes, according to sources in the region. Many are traded as commodities and sexually assaulted. Sometimes, the process of entrapment begins with brokers scouting for women willing to leave the North, sources told RFA Korean. "Members of trafficking gangs operate in North Korean cities like Hoeryong, Chungjin, and Hamhung," said Kim Jae Sung, a North Korean defector living in China. "If the gangsters see pretty girls walking down the street, they tempt them by asking if they would consider living a 'good life' in China."
Mobile Phones Ring in Growth
Foreigners visiting North Korea will not be able to rent mobile phones following a government order that could be linked to concerns over information flow about pro-democracy protests raging in Arab states.
Following the release of business statistical data by Egyptian cell phone operator Orascom Telecom on its North Korean subsidiary, Koryolink, RFA Korean broadcaster Borah Jung authored a report featuring that data and interviews with relevant experts. The report indicated that Koryolink, North Korea's domestic cellular phone network provider, reached 535,133 users in the January-March period of this year, up from 431,919 users in the final quarter of 2010. The number of subscribers represented a year-to-year 420 percent jump from 125,661 in the first quarter of 2010. Mobile subscribers now number more than half a million, according to new statistics released by the country's telecom provider, suggesting that cell phones are no longer exclusively for the wealthy and elite. However, expert interviews indicated that, despite the increase in numbers, mobile phones are owned mostly by strong backers of the Kim Jong Il regime. According to experts, the number of mobile phone subscribers is relatively low for a nation of 24 million.
Opium Poppy Cultivation Thriving
On June 6, RFA Korean broadcasters Min Suk Choi and Sung Hui Moon reported that, while North Korea suffer from farm crop failures and pleads for food aid from the international community, opium poppy farming seems to flourish. The reclusive, government-run poppy farms pay their workers handsomely, in some cases salaries more than double of those earned by average workers in the hardline communist state, according to sources inside North Korea. College students were also mobilized to help in drug cultivation during their spring break, sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
On July 7, RFA's Borah Jung reported that, even as North Korea demands food aid from the international community, it continues to import Swiss-made expensive watches. An original RFA report indicated that, from January through May 2011, North Korea imported 229 Swiss-made watches worth $45,000 and nine watch components. These imports included 174 mechanical movement watches and 55 quartz oscillator watches, worth an average $198 each. According to North Korean defectors interviewed by RFA, Swiss watches inscribed with the name of NDC Chairman Kim Jong Il are a true status symbol, and their owners face harsh punishment if they sell or lose them.
On August 25, RFA Korean broadcaster Sung Hui Moon reported that 400 persons were tried publicly in only one day in Hweryong City, North Hamgyong Province, North Korea. One person was publicly executed after being sentenced on illegal drug-related charges.
On September 5, RFA Korean reported that North Korean border guards have serious illegal drug addiction issues.
Site Map
While much has changed at RFA since we began in 1996, our mission has remained the same: to advance the principles of the fundamental right to the free-flow of information and the right to seek, receive, and impart information.
Please take a moment to explore this webpage where you can revisit important milestones, accomplishments, and moments from RFA's early days to the present.
—Libby Liu, President of RFA
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RFA Home Page
Contact Us
Media Inquiries:
Rohit Mahajan
Media Relations Manager
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Telephone: (202) 530-4976
RFA Headquarters and Mailing Address:
Radio Free Asia
2025 M Street NW
Suite 300
Washington, DC 20036 USA
Telephone: (202) 530-4900


text:
Web Site Monitoring Software
Use this security logo:
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee.
Tutorial not found. Let know us about any useful video tutorial.
network monitoring, web site software, monitoring software, web site monitoring
Major Update
This shareware software may be freely distributed, provided that:
1. Such distribution includes only the original archive supplied by Xequte. You may not alter, delete or add any files in the distribution archive.
2. The distribution does not include a registration number or information on disabling the registration features. You are also forbidden from distributing a registered version of Smart Pix Manager.
3. No money is charged to the person receiving the software, beyond reasonable cost of packaging and other overhead.
For further information about redistribution of Xequte products e-mail us at firstname.lastname@example.com
By receiving and/or using Xequte software products, you accepting the Xequte Standard Evaluation and Registered User Agreement. This agreement is a binding legal agreement between Xequte and the purchasers, users or evaluators of Xequte's software and products. Details of this agreement can be viewed in the Help file or by contacting firstname.lastname@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
can use this form to contact our webmaster
trouble with our web site? For boat- & data-related questions
please e-mail us directly: bettemonfort <at> roadrunner.com.
For technical problems you can dispatch an e-mail to our webmaster
by using this form.
Aladdin Products, Inc. d/b/a
Monfort Associates
50 Haskell Road
Westport, Maine 04578
Phone: 207 882-5504
e-mail: bettemonfort <at>


text:
By Kristin Nador/@KristinNador
I'm a master at the two-fer. I love to multitask, to combine offers, to kill two birds with one stone. Sometimes this is to my detriment, particularly when cooking is involved. But sometimes it works out well, as with this week's Write Anywhere venue. I had another purpose, but writing wiggled its way into the itinerary, with some interesting results.
Write Anywhere #49: Farmers' Market
I arrived at my local Farmer's Market, a train station in its former life, mid-morning on Saturday and the heat gave a light sweaty sheen to all in attendance. My goal today: to purchase all the groceries I needed and save money. I wanted to prove wrong the idea that healthy and local is expensive. With the exception of two items I did it.
But the Farmer's Market is more than a frugal shopping destination. It's a people watching paradise. The vendors sell their wares: everything from fleece rugs to goat milk to birdhouses to Greek pastichio. The customers run the spectrum: reserved retired couples in matching t-shirts, groups of mothers in maxi-dresses pushing babies, old men in birkenstocks and bandanas, cyclists loading their backpacks with the market's bounty, all seeing and being seen. Dogs of every type wag a greeting to one another as they walk their owners past the tables loaded with splashes of tasty color.
Tomatoes, squash, herbs, garlic bulbs, potatoes, green beans. All the makings of something good.
The farmers' market is also a great place for dialogue. Listen to it. Participate in it. People love to talk about their passions.
The farm couple crafting goat cheeses and butters shared excitedly their best-selling herb flavors. A farmer in overalls unloading his Ford F150 demonstrated the proper way to thump a melon. A sweet lady told me how she makes her beloved fleece throw rugs and was proud when I asked permission for a photo.
I took my bag of groceries with an order of pastichio and found one of the few shady spots under a tree. A few bites, a few words in my notebook, a few more bites. The breeze carried the music of the market: voices, barking, the cicadas buzz, the rhythm of tires crossing the railroad tracks.
As I relaxed on the bench, I noticed a booth over on the far side of plaza: the local news radio station was running a remote broadcast. None of the market patrons took notice and the three radio station employees looked lonesome in their booth. Then a thought only a writer would have popped into my head: "I should go over there. They might have free pens." How to explain the workings of the mid-century brain…
I chatted with two nice ladies who identified themselves as producers while a local garden expert took to the airwaves. The ladies asked why I came to the market and I shared my shop local experiment. Their eyes got big as they said almost in unison: 'Would you say that on the air?"
Before I knew it I had a microphone in my hand and I was on the radio! I wished Keeper Hubby could have heard me, because weird things like this seem to happen to me and I'm not sure if he doesn't think my imagination is working overtime. But you never can tell what will happen when you get out of your regular routine and Write Anywhere. 😉
Where did you write this week?
Question: Do you have a farmers' market or roadside produce booth in your area? What's your favorite summer fruit or veggie?
**Important News: Week #52, the one year anniversary of the Friday Write Anywhere venues, is coming up fast. Stayed tuned for interesting things like hashtag virtual parties, surprise giveaways, and announcements on what is happening for year two of kristin nador writes anywhere. Make sure you're subscribed in email or RSS feed so you don't miss any of the fun. Share this post by clicking the Facebook, Twitter or Google+ sharing button below and tell all of your creative friends. Thanks for your support!


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Joe Miller proved his status as the continent's longest hitters when he won the Long Drivers European Tour event at the Heathfield Park Golf Centre, near Bletchingdon.
The 29-year-old from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, who was world champion in 2010, won the contest with a longest drive of 361 yards into the wind and on a sodden fairway.
This was some way short of a season's best of 397 yards, for Miller, who is unbeaten in competition this year.
In the final, he beat Scott Beaven, from Mortimer, near Reading.
Lee Gautier, another English player, won the play-off for third place.
Despite the torrential morning rain, the event, which also featured a display by disabled golfer Tony Lloyd, attracted several hundred spectators.
"It was a most enjoyable day," said Heathfield's co-owner Geoff Robbins.
"It was amazing to see golfers hit the ball such vast distances.
"We'd love to be able to stage it again."
Latest Sport news


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Daily Mail reports 'help for tinnitus sufferers'.
The Daily Mail had an article titled Could this device be a cure for tinnitus? iPod-style gadget 'cuts ringing in the ears by up to 50%'
This is an optimistic account of using an ipod to mask noise. The article link is at
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2116915/Could-device-cure-tinnitus-iPod-style-gadget-cuts-ringing-ears-50.html#ixzz1pajRFByQ
It is worth reading the comments that go with this article. The cost of the device is £4000 and you need to wear the devise for several hours to gain any effect. As one comment put it, it is easier and cheaper to buy an ipod and put something you like to hear on it.
It is also interesting to note it has been offered through a private tinnitus clinc. It is worth remembering that tinnitus is not found in the ear and the perception of 'noise' (tinnitus) is likely to originate in the brain.
The full article is attached below.
|Could this device be a cure for tinnitus.pdf


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The Amazing Race > The Racers
TAR 22: Anthony & Bates Battaglia "Brothers"
<< < (7/17) > >>
Surprisingly I kinda love this team after the premiere. I hope they won't be boring as the race progresses
We were fortunate to see a little more of them on this last episode. They seem to be emerging as the dominant team in the Race, and I'm starting to get Eric & Jeremy vibes from them now. But at the same time, I like them a little more now!
"Even with our brains, two is better than one."
"I need rope to floss my teeth."
I love these guys :hearts:
Call me insane, but Bates looks like Peyton Manning. :stare
--- Quote from: BlooperGuy on March 02, 2013, 06:43:28 PM ---Call me insane, but Bates looks like Peyton Manning. :stare
--- End quote ---
Insane :lol3:
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My son Oliver was born in 2006 at home following a wonderful labour and birth attended by my independent midwife, Debs. It was a fantastic experience and I was on a high for weeks afterwards. When Oliver was about 18m old we started trying for another baby, but after struggling with secondary infertility my husband and I had two cycles of IVF in 2010. The second cycle led to a non-identical twin pregnancy.
At first I was overwhelmed by the idea of caring for two babies, but was blasé about the birth, as I felt it was just a variation on normal, and assumed I would plan a home birth. Once I started Googling though I had a big wobble. Everything I read said I would have a more medicalised experience of pregnancy and birth, and "natural" birth when it came to twins seemed to mean vaginal birth but with lots of intervention (cannulas, epidurals, CFM) that contradicted everything I had learnt about facilitating the hormonal cascade necessary for a smooth birth. To make matters worse, I'd had a swab when I'd gone into hospital at 13 weeks pregnant with suspected kidney stones, and this had come back positive for GBS – another reason why I might end up in hospital for the birth. Having found my first labour intensely painful, though manageable because I was able to move instinctively and felt safe with my known midwife and husband, in familiar surroundings, I was terrified at how much pain I might feel stranded on my back, in bright lights, with strangers coming in and out of the room, and fearful. Not only was I fearful for myself, but more importantly I was fearful for my babies. I didn't want my babies to struggle with breastfeeding because I'd had an epidural. I didn't want them to be anaemic because their cords had been cut too quickly. I didn't want them to be damaged in the course of a forceps delivery, and all because the normal process of birth had been disturbed. If these interventions were necessary for their safety, then of course that would be different, but I feared they would happen simply because of a cascade of unnecessary interventions. I was in quite a state. But then two things happened. I confessed my fears to the local consultant midwife in normality, who was amazingly reassuring and positive, and my midwife from my first pregnancy came back from an extended trip abroad and I could talk things through with her properly.
I went through every significant additional risk of di-di twin pregnancy and birth with my midwife. About the two biggest risks, pre-eclampsia, and premature birth, I could do nothing but give myself the best chance of avoiding them by eating well, resting enough and keeping my stress levels low in pregnancy, and dealing with them as best I could if they happened. My premature birth plan (pre-35 weeks) was not much different from my term birth plan, except that I would go into hospital.
For twin birth at or near term, I really struggled to find much credible evidence about additional risks. Breech birth was one consideration, but the Hannah Breech Birth trial is extremely flawed and did not evaluate the option I would have chosen, that of physiological breech birth with an attendant skilled in this mode of delivery. Postpartum haemorrhage is also more common with twins, but I felt that a physiological birth with an oxytocin-promoting environment (warm, dark, trusted birth companions, privacy and avoiding stimulation of the neo-cortex with language) would give the best chance of minimising blood loss. I decided to use nipple stimulation if needed to slow the bleeding, and of course my midwives would have oxytocic drugs to administer if needed. As a well nourished, healthy woman, the worst that was at all likely to happen was a trip to hospital for a blood transfusion. The final category of concern was regarding condition of the second twin and possible cord prolapse. In my midwife's experience, if the mum stays upright after the birth of the first twin gravity brings a heavy part of the second baby (head or bottom) down into the pelvis and onto the cervix, re-starting contractions. Baby number two's sac is usually intact at this point, and the pelvic outlet being plugged from then on by the head or bottom means that the cord is unlikely to prolapse. It was difficult to get any specifics about the general "condition of the second twin" issue, but I felt that a physiological, oxytocin-driven birth was the most likely type to result in both babies being fit and well, and that in the event of a concern over baby 2's condition I could always transfer to hospital, as in any labour.
By the time I'd had these long discussions with my midwife, and read for hours around the subject – including evidence-based books, original research papers, RCOG green top guides and the views of leading birth experts, my head and heart were in agreement that I would be most likely to have a safe, gentle birth if I planned to be at home with my very skilled and experienced independent midwives. Once I felt at ease with my plans for the birth, I relaxed and mostly enjoyed the rest of my pregnancy.
I loved going to Aquanatal and yoga classes and was very amused at the fact that at every class from about 35 weeks onwards women at the pool said "ooh, you'll not be here next week – look the size of that bump!". They'd given up saying it by the time I attended my last class at 39 weeks.
On my due date, I went into labour. That morning I'd felt… well, just different. Even more frequent peeing than usual, and lots and lots of pressure in my pelvis. Then contractions started, but not much more strong or frequent than my normal Braxton-Hicks at first. The tightenings were very chaotic and irregular, but over several hours became more strong and regular and I began to find it difficult to interact with my 5yo. At about 11 am he said "Mummy, what do I do when you're in labour" er, good question. We decided he and I would both be happier if he went out with friends so he was collected and the contractions continued to build in frequency, length and intensity. Soon I was on my hands and knees on the bed, sounding (singing long low notes) and vigorously swinging my hips in a figure of 8 with every contraction. I was still pretty lucid in between contractions. Although Oliver was going out, I decided that although the friend I'd lined up to come and be responsible for him during my labour wasn't needed for him, I really wanted her there for ME! Caroline soon arrived and was wonderfully encouraging and reassuring, not to mention an excellent masseuse. I'd felt a bit lonely beforehand as my husband was busily setting up the pool in the living room, lighting candles and so on. When I was getting desperate to be in the pool, it was finally filled sufficiently for me to get in
As I got into the pool I had a little weep because it felt so completely amazing, It made a huge difference to the pain of the contractions and suddenly it was all much more manageable. As the contractions intensified I was gradually entering labourland. My ability to use language was drastically reduced as my primitive brain took over. For example, to indicate to my midwife, who'd arrived by this time, that a contraction was finishing and that she could listen to the babies' heartbeats, I just sat back and said "baby" – I wasn't capable of forming full sentences.
My need for privacy was intense, as is normal for women deep in labour. My one regret about Oliver's birth had been that the room was too light because I had very thin curtains. This made me feel observed and exposed, so this time around I made sure the room could be made very dark, and even put up curtains to separate the living room from the corridor and kitchen.
At one point I had the strangest sense of being in a circus ring being observed by a crowd, so I asked for some people to go in the kitchen (by this point the second midwife had arrived so there were 4 people there). By now I was pacing the pool on my hands and knees, sounding loudly. Every few contractions I'd get a particularly intense one, and I couldn't sing through it – I roared instead. I found that the sounding helped to keep my lips and jaw soft and relaxed, and this has been associated with a relaxed cervix. In reflecting on my first labour, I'd felt that fear of the pain and of a baby passing through me had contributed to quite a long pushing stage. This time I wanted to accept and submit to the strong physical sensations and concentrate on allowing my body to open up. Whilst deep in my second labour I kept moaning "open, open". At one point I felt between my legs and, with great surprise said "oh! I am open!" As time went on, I started to say that I wanted it to stop, that it was too much. I also fiercely told the people in the kitchen to stop whispering. Clearly I was entering transition, and around this time my contractions spaced out markedly. I got a bit of a "rest and be thankful" stage. My lower back felt quite crampy at this point and I wanted some counter-pressure. I asked Paul to rub my back, but he told me afterwards my back looked completely different to normal and he was worried about damaging it. I think he must have seen the Rhombus of Michaelis appearing as the baby started to move down – in fact the ilea being pushed out was probably what gave me the crampy feeling in the first place.
Then I started to get a little grunty and then POP my waters went with a violence that really shocked me. My upper body shot forwards. I didn't know what had happened. Had a baby's head shot out? No, just the waters, but then the pushes started in earnest, with frightening intensity. It felt like my body was trying to vomit out my baby from below and I was retching at the top end too. My breathing became panicked and I said I was frightened. My midwife gently suggested I blow and almost immediately I felt more in control.
With only a few pushes my baby's head was out, and with the next contraction the rest of her body. Debs calmly explained what to do which helped – bring her up to the surface slowly and gently. I just gazed at my beautiful baby in awe. In just 10 minutes or so my upright position brought baby no 2 down onto my cervix and re-started contractions. With baby no 1's short cord, it became very uncomfortable to hold her even with Paul's assistance and as her cord had stopped pulsing Debs clamped and cut it, and I handed her to Paul for some skin to skin. By this time he had got in the pool.
Baby no 2 also came out with only about 5 minutes of full-on pushes and I was amazed and delighted to see as she rose through the water that she was still in the caul, the membrane covering her face. It's supposed to be very lucky (not that I'm superstitious).
Now that there were no more babies to birth, we checked the sex of the babies and I was so happy to have girls. I just sat there with a big grin on my face saying "I have daughters". Although twins are considered to be "term" at 37/38 weeks, my babies had copious vernix at 40 weeks – I could have potted and flogged the stuff as facecream! Their fused placentas were also in perfect condition. I had a physiological third stage but although the placentas separated quickly, annoyingly they didn't come out for three-quarters of an hour or so. I could feel them only just inside me but they stayed put for a while, only coming out when I raised my knee to try standing up.
The babies weighed 7lb 2oz and 7lb, and we called them Rose and Philippa. It was wonderful to snuggle up with them in our big bed and just admire their perfection. Caroline brought me delicious soft fruits to eat and I enjoyed a lovely cup of tea. I spent most of the next few days bed with them, mostly naked to allow for lots of skin to skin and unrestricted feeding. This special, intense time really helped me to start bonding with each of the babies individually and to establish feeding with each.
My twin birth was such a wonderful experience. I felt supported, safe and empowered. Afterwards, when I struggled with breastfeeding (both babies were tongue tied), thoughts of their joyous birth buoyed me up. Their birth had left me feeling invincible, and that's a hard feeling to shake even when things are tough. Physically and emotionally I was in a good place to begin dealing with the challenges of being a mother of three. Looking after twins is hard enough, without having to deal with major surgery or a traumatic vaginal birth.
Nothing is guaranteed in birth, but I felt that I gave my body the best chance I could to have a normal, physiological birth. If I'd had to have a c-section, or any of the less dramatic interventions, I think I would have felt disappointed, but accepting. After all, a small number of women do need the help of modern obstetrics to have babies safely, and thank goodness that support is there if it's needed. I trusted my independent midwives to help me make informed choices, whatever happened, and to stay in control of as many aspects of my birth as possible.
More information on twin home birth


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The pay for love chapter 7
Pairing : Kyumin, kangteuk, kangmin.
length : 7/9 + epilogue
rating : overall R
genre : romance, angst, drama, SMUT
Disclaimer : the idea is mine, if it has some similarity with other fic, I do apologize, but IT REALLY IS MINE.
Summary :kyuhyun is a genius smart ass, he known with his stubbornness. everything he want must be his. and he found one that he really want, a pretty man who is older than him. Lee Sungmin.
but what will happen when the pretty man he love is actually his cousin's boyfriend?
what trick is up under his sleeve to own the man he love?
could it be that he is just a cold hearted man who selfishly didn't to care about anyone else, including his own cousin?
He took another looked at the white door in front of him. Somehow his mind is too preoccupied with something that bothering him in a way he doesn't really know. He is in a dazed, but returned soon as he heard slight voice from the inside of the room. A hummed sound. He smiles a bit and sighs before push the button of door's bell.
A sound of someone running, then a wailed voice that followed by something fell. Kyuhyun chuckles.
When the door finally opened revealing a stunningly beautiful male, he waves his hand.
"hi," he greet the host of the apartment. The smaller man seemed surprise to find him in front his door.
"what? Am I not allowed to come to this place?" he raise his eyebrow playfully.
"eh-oh, not really." The brown haired man bit his lip, eyes narrowed to the younger man after a few seconds, "what are you doing here? What if kangin come?!"
Kyuhyun shrugged nonchalantly. He has nothing to say though, he doesn't want to spill some secret, does he? Who knows what happened right now in his shared apartment..
Walking inside the familiar room kyuhyun pulled off his jacket and put in on the coach, sungmin followed him with suspicious. When the younger man turned his body to face him, he sighed.
"you shouldn't be here, I'm not taking risk."
"and what? I better leave and wandered around city like those reckless boys out there?" the sentences caught sungmin attention.
"did something happen?" he asked worriedly. "did you have fight with kangin?" big doe eyes staring at him suspiciously. He was in not a good mood for this.
"which one you were worrying actually? Me or kangin hyung?" he said irritated.
"kyuhyun ah,"
Kyuhyun shrugged him off. He moved to the kitchen to get some drink. The tall handsome man found a can of soju and drank it in one go, he felt a warm hand wrapped around his waist but he ignored it. Call him sensitive, call him selfish, he careless. All sungmin think about was kangin, that thought pissed him off.
The mood swing man pulled away from the dark brown man's hug to move into the living room. Slamming his tall body on the sofa and pushed the button of the remote TV.
The corner of his eyes could see how sungmin stood on the entrance of the kitchen and staring at him like a dumped puppy. He sighed in regret, putting his can of soju. He then signaled the older man to come closer.
Sungmin's face lit up in an expression he can't read, is it happiness? But kyuhyun shrugged the thought. He felt the smaller figure snuggle closer on his left side, automatically he circling his arm around the smaller body and sniff the nice fragrant into his nostril.
"you can stay here for tonight," sungmin muttered softly after a few seconds.
Kyuhyun doesn't respond but tightened his grip on the small body even more. He kissed the crown head tenderly, secretly showing his apologize for his rude attitude a while ago.
"hey, can I bother you for a second?" the heavy voice he recognize belonged to his cousin coming into his ears. Lit his head up from his assignment kyuhyun furrow eyebrows wrinkled into some tight knot. He have a tight schedule, got bothered is the last thing he needed as distraction.
Kangin chuckled awkwardly at the sight of stressed kyuhyun. He leaned on the wooden door as he spoke.
"can you stay out of the apartment for tonight?"
Kyuhyun eyebrows rose up in curiosity. Kangin cough as red taint his cheeks.
"well, I-I.. was kinda inviting leeteuk for a dinner." Kyuhyun keep his blank face.
"and I cook for him, you know.. today is our 100th day together, so.. I-err.. I need private time with him"
1ooth day together, and you cook for him already? While the last 8 months you shared with sungmin, not even once you cooked him.
Kyuhyun didn't know, but he was so angry at the conversation. In a quick motion he grabbed his jacket, phone and wallet before stormed out of the room. Spoke in a low tone before he left his cousin to his own business.
"sure hyung, do all you want.." somehow the words come in a dangerous tone.
Before kangin could answered kyuhyun already slam the door of their shared apartment.
He play with the soft locks belonged to the sleeping man in his arm. Once a while he left soft kisses on the crown head.
"hey, let's move to your bedroom. Your body will hurt if you sleep like this," he whispers the loving words in sungmin ears. The sleeping man whine when he disturbed his sleep, but looks like he was too deep in his slumber to digesting the words. Kyuhyun chuckled at the sight, he held sungmin left hand in front of his lips, kissing it gently.
"Looks like I have to carry you,"
Leaving a quick peck on the soft lips, kyuhyun tried his best to sweep the man on his arms without waking him up. Sungmin soon wriggled to found a comfortable spot in kyuhyun's chest, opening his eyes slightly to catch kyuhyun soft facial before he continued his sleep.
His lips moved to curve up a sweet smile.
"Hi," he waves his hand to the pouting man. Sungmin was about to open his mouth but kyuhyun already pounced into his apartment.
Sharp glare was sending to freak kyuhyun out, but looks like the younger man already in a happy mood to even realizing that sungmin was glaring at him. He put his things on the couch, thick books, huge bag that filled with things sungmin doesn't know what and his laptop. Sungmin eyes wandering at the equipment in amazed. He doesn't even put his attention when kyuhyun pulled him in a quick kiss.
"are you running from home?" asked the smaller man after he broke the kiss. He blinks his eyes adorably. Kyuhyun chuckles lightly, he sent another kiss to the red lips before taking a seat on the empty side of the couch.
"I was in the library when I finally bored and decided to come here," the younger said nonchalantly. He was already busy taking out his books, full with number that made sungmin dizzy in just one glance.
"you have apartment, your own room, but you choose to come to my place?" the cute man put his hands on his hips, eyebrows raised high.
Kyuhyun ignored the mock and start taking his position on the floor to continue his works. His lips make a secret smirk that sungmin doesn't realize.
The older man speechless at the younger reckless attitude, but he give in and just let kyuhyun do whatever he wants. He return to the kitchen and start taking out another ingredients, he was on the way to cook for dinner, but looks like he have another tummy to filled.
Since that last night kyuhyun always come to sungmin apartment. Sometimes for a short visit, but sometimes for sleepover. Not that sungmin objected, he even used to have kyuhyun roaming around his apartment and companied him doing anything. The presence somehow make him forgot about kangin, and his affair with leeteuk.
Kyuhyun made his days more colorful. He smiles a lot, despite their continues bickering, he can't help but enjoying their times. He still has his phone conversation with kangin, but it less entertaining than kyuhyun mischievous act to gain all his attention. If sungmin added the hot kisses and sexy make out, it could included as heavens in his dictionary.
He met kangin on the college, having their time as lovers, then when he came home he will see kyuhyun waiting patiently on his door. The evening sight full with orange, red and purple added kyuhyun tall body and dark orbs quickly steal his heartbeat.
It doesn't beat for kangin anymore, since when, he doesn't know. It was only racing faster by the step he took to see the younger man closer. When their fingers touched. When their eyes met. When he felt the warm kisses on his eyelids down to his lips.
Sinfully beautiful.
'I'll come to his place this afternoon.'
The short message was sending to his cellphone a while ago, reminding kyuhyun. Leeteuk will come again in their place, that was why he go to the familiar place he used to stay for the last weeks. Sungmin's apartment.
It's his job to distract the pretty man while leeteuk seduce kangin and steal more of his time.
Their plan was doing fine all this time. Everything is according to the plans they made, kyuhyun closed his eyes, resting his brain from another tough subject.
Then why he felt these weird feeling of insecurity? Every time he met with the older man, leeteuk didn't brave to look at him in the eyes. Not even when they met alone to discuss their next move.
'Everything will be fine, right?' his heart jumped in places, it's so uncomfortable. He have sungmin's attention already, he can feel it. From how the smaller man saw him with different eyes, how he responded to his kisses, how he took the first move to their intimate scene.
Just a little bit more… a little bit more…
"Your eyebrows wrinkled." Kyuhyun opened his eyes at the soft caring voice.
His eyes met with his affair partner, who staring at him with worried. Sungmin is so pretty, he smiles at he saw. Right hand rose up to touch the pink adorable cheek. The latter close his eyes, surrender on the touch.
"I want to kiss you," he mumbled almost inaudible. But sungmin heard him.
Kyuhyun stayed on his spot, watching how sungmin oh so sexily crawling at him. The smaller man took his position to straddle kyuhyun's lap, legs on each of kyuhyun's waist. Hands raised on the other neck to secure his body. Kyuhyun held the petite waist possessively, squishing the smooth waist under the slightly opened shirt.
He loves this man to the core, he said to his mind, eyes lovingly stared at the man on his lap. He could easily ensure himself to suicide if he doesn't get the same amount of feeling.
Sungmin tilt his head to the side as he lean forward. Slowly closing their gap, in second he could already felt the moist lips. He nibbled the upper lip, hands pulling sungmin closer. The other tongue curiously licking his lips and he grant the request, he opened his mouth to welcome it. His left hand rose to grip onto the soft hair and massaging the nape.
Soon, the kissing scene turned to a sensual battle. Tongues lapping each other, fighting a dominant with hungry groans filled the air. Kyuhyun pulled sungmin's hip up so that he can reposition their body again. Grinding their groins together in a swift movement, he earned a sweet moan. Sungmin broke their kiss, half lidded eyes met kyuhyun lusty eyes.
"want you," kyuhyun whispered. The other gave no response, but sungmin ducked in to kiss him again, this time more fierce.
Discarded clothes, moans, groans, kyuhyun was more than please when sungmin slammed his body up and down in a fast speed. Kyuhyun helped him by holding the waist and bucked up his hips to meet the hot hole in the mid way. His tightened his grip as the pace got faster and harder.
Their lips meeting in a messy kiss, and sungmin let out a gasp when kyuhyun hit his sweet spot again and again. He could see the younger smirked, he really want to smack that face off but the pleasure he received was so hard to ignore. He snuggled his face on the wide shoulder to hide his wanton moans.
If this was more with love, it will be the best make love ever… sungmin arch his body to the back. Gritting his teeth to held his moans to get louder. His small body rock up and down in a steady pace.
"aahhh…k-kyuu..ngghh..ahhh…" he took a glance at kyuhyun. Their eyes met and sungmin felt his body become weaker and melt into the stare.
But he knew the otherwise. Kyuhyun was only treating him nothing but a fling. A game, when he hardly decided what to call their affair.
No love word has said. So he just bit his lip tightly, afraid of loose control and spit the three words unintentionally.
He loves kyuhyun. That was the last thing he expecting. His less attention for kangin.. it's the first clue he realized. The needy feeling to see kyuhyun was killing him.
His love for kyuhyun was the reason why he let the younger man intruding his apartment almost every day. He could careless if one day kangin come and found their sneaky affair, but that will make kyuhyun relationship with kangin get worst. Sungmin will not want that happen. Until that day come, he have to think of something.
But, before that could happen… he really want to know something.
Will kyuhyun love him back?
Kyuhyun let a deep groaned when he come into sungmin warm hole. While the smaller man shiver from the pleasure. Their eyes locked, and kyuhyun move to kiss the older man softly, playing with the hot cavern and sneaky tongue. Their kisses are wet and sloopy. He can felt that sungmin isn't release his load yet, the hardness pressed on his stomach was the proof.
So he move his hands while not breaking their lipslock. He touch the tip of the member and stroke it slowly, he chuckled when he earned a whine from the dark brown haired man. Doesn't want to make sungmin suffer more, he fastened the pace of his stroking. The body soon tensed and squirmed uncomfortably before release it's seed on their stomach. Sungmin pulled away from their wet kiss and lay weakly on his shoulder, breathless from another hot and amazing sex.
I love you sungmin... he really want to say it loudly, but there's something in his chest that make the words left on the tip of his tongue unspoken.
Their eyes met, sungmin eyes shouting a love confession that kyuhyun hardly to ignore. The eyes he used to see whenever the older man staring at his cousin, he hates it, because he knew the stare wasn't for him. He move slightly but the movement only make the man on his chest moan.
"I-I'm sorry, I'm still in you," kyuhyun hurriedly pushing sungmin's body to kneeled as he want to pulled his member out, but sungmin stopped him. Weak smile decorating the flustered face,
"let's stay like this for a while,"
"I'm fine.."
Sungmin smile sweetly when he heard the younger male sighed in defeat then hugged him closer.
I love you… kyuhyun ah,
Sungmin close his eyes.
The dark brown eyes seemed in a deep trance. His auburn hair swung lightly at the moves of the strong wind. The whether a bit cold as it started moving to autumn, and he stood lifelessly on the balcony of his apartment. He doesn't do anything to reduce the cold, ignoring the chill through his spine his eyes just staring at nothing in front of him. Heart clouded with strong feeling of sadness.
His mind playing the scene in the other day, where he left his heart for a man he loved. It maybe broke into pieces right now, he smile bitterly.
"can't you break up with sungmin?"
Kangin head shot up at his sudden question. His eyes locked gaze with the light brown haired man who standing on his door.
"why do you have to bring it up again?" kangin growled in dismay. He buttoned up his shirt, avoiding leeteuk heating gaze in the process.
"you said you love me! then why can't you break up with him?"
The bigger man in the edge of the bed ruffled his hair. " I can't, I just can't!"
"Is that mean that you don't love me enough?" he knew he is so low for saying this. but he can't hold it any longer. The plan, everything is perfect. But the other side of him really can't stand the treat. What is he? A back up lover? Used when the other need him and left when the satisfaction full filled?
Why can't he win over lee sungmin?? What did sungmin has that he didn't?
"No! leeteuk, don't say that.. I love you,"
The tears perked up on the corner of his eyes. It showed pain, jealousy, anger, which part of him that not shouting those things?
"Then why can't you choose me over him!!" he choked on his own voice. Kangin widened his eyes, slowly he approached the hurting man. The tears threatening to fall any second, and he dislike it.
"Is he that precious?" leeteuk continued. His body too weak to supported his body that the thin body finally fall down on the floor.
Even though his body felt weak, it's different with his eyes. The strong gaze fixed to the guilty kangin who stood a step in front of him.
"If he was that precious then leave me and just return to him!! don't treat me like this!!"
His tears fell, but he made no attempt to wiped it from his cheeks. His heart broke, his pride crushed, what else left for him?
"I hate you.. kangin ah" he cried.
Then he left the apartment, leaving the freeze kangin stood still on his spot.
The buzzing sound of his cell phone on the table in the living room brought his consciousness again. He pushed his body to move, despite his unwillingness to feel the warmth in the room. He wanted to kill the emotion with the cold whether, want to live like a statue or else he will remember about kangin again.
When his eyes stared at the name flashing in his cell phone's display, leeteuk stood lifeless. He doesn't want to speak with the person in the moment, but his brain said the opposite.
Doesn't he want to end this complicated situation?
Leeteuk flip open the dark blue device, voice hoarse from the too much cry. "kyuhyun ah, can you come to my place now?"
"I gave up."
Kyuhyun looked back at the elder in a sharp glare.
"I don't want to continue this again. I don't want to get hurt more,"
"hyung, we almost success," kyuhyun tried to persuade.
Leeteuk cold and pale face showed no interest anymore. He was tired with all of this. The older man looked up toward the handsome man In front of him.
"maybe you should give up too, kyu"
"NO!" kyuhyun shot up on his place. His face stiffed, a slight of anger could be seen on the face.
For this once, leeteuk doesn't think that kyuhyun is dangerous. He looked into the black orbs like reading an open book. He was just foolishly in love, a stupid innocent and selfish boy who finally had the interest of something that unfortunately doesn't belong to him.
"how many times do you need to realized it? he belong to kangin. They belong to each other," leeteuk replied in a hopeful tone. Hope that kyuhyun just surrender and moving on.
There are still many man and woman out there, right?
His heart felt hurt at his own words. Totally a lie, he doesn't know how many times he will need to forget about the bigger man.
The memory of kangin's laugh, smile, tease, warmth, it broke leeteuk cold face to a sad one.
"I'm not going to gave up."
"stop hurting yourself kyu, don't you feel hurt too whenever you see sungmin with kangin? You saw it with your own eyes how they still love each other, cuddling like nothing happen between you and him."
Kyuhyun speechless with the outburst. He saw how leeteuk eyes glittered with tears.
"you're just the third party. Like me. we're nothing, we are just stupid people who lie to ourselves that we have a chance,"
"something useless," the elder continued.
Kyuhyun took his jacket and left leeteuk's apartment. Leeteuk's words stopped him when he was about to close the door.
"I'll tell kangin about us. Our plan. You better realize that whatever you do is useless, kyu."
The door slammed.
"you're just the third party. Like me. we're nothing, we are just stupid people who lie to ourselves that we have a chance,"
"something useless," the elder continued.
Useless?? Useless he said?? Kyuhyun broke into laughs. People around him staring at him weirdly, but he doesn't care. He took a deep breath to steadying his performance, the laugh disappear.
None of my plan is useless. I'll show him that..
His determinant eyes are staring at the tall building across the street. His orbs wandered to a certain window. His heart beat fast, his fingers that make a fist shaking due to his worries.
He is mine..no one else but me..
A/N : I'm sorry because missing for so long T^T I didn't meant to....
as I told you before, this story is going to end and I present you the last 2 chapter ^^ I hope you enjoy it ~
I'll post the epilogue in the next week ^^ MIA again hehehe...