In a stunning move, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigned on Tuesday, citing his failure to ensure a thorough investigation into historical child abuse allegations tied to Christian summer camps.
His decision comes after the release of a scathing independent report, known as the Makin Report, which found that Welby, despite being aware of the abuse claims since 2013, had not taken sufficient action to address them.

The allegations revolve around John Smyth, a former lawyer and prominent figure in the Iwerne Trust, which ran the camps in Dorset, England.
Smyth is accused of subjecting over 100 boys and young men to brutal physical and sexual abuse over a 40-year period.
Some of the victims were beaten with up to 800 strokes of a cane, with severe physical and psychological consequences.
The abuse, which began in the 1970s, continued even after Smyth moved to Africa in 1984.

The Makin Report, commissioned in 2019, criticized Welby for failing in his “personal and moral responsibility” to ensure the allegations were properly investigated when he became Archbishop in 2013.
Though Welby acknowledged the church’s failures and expressed his sorrow, the report concluded that he should have acted more decisively, suggesting that had the matter been reported to the police in 2013, Smyth might have faced charges before his death in 2018.

Welby’s resignation follows growing calls for accountability from both within the Church of England and outside it. In his statement, he expressed deep regret, saying, “The last few days have renewed my long felt and profound sense of shame at the historic safeguarding failures of the Church of England.”

The timing of Welby’s resignation is significant, as it comes amid increasing divisions within the global Anglican community, particularly between more liberal churches in Britain and North America and their conservative counterparts in Africa. Churches in countries like Uganda and Nigeria had previously expressed a lack of confidence in Welby’s leadership, and his resignation is likely to be welcomed by these factions.

As the Church of England begins the search for a new leader, potential successors include Bishop Graham Usher of Norwich, who has been an advocate for gay rights and climate change action, and Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani of Chelmsford, who could make history as the first female Archbishop.

Whoever succeeds Welby will face the formidable task of mending divisions within the Church while addressing the deepening crisis of faith and declining church attendance in the UK.

Kim Dong-soo of the Institute for National Security Strategy adviser has explained why more North Korean Diplomats are defecting to the south

In recent years, a series of cases continues that senior diplomats, many of whom are considered key elites in the North Korean regime, have defected to South Korea, including Il-kyuRi, 52, who served in the North Korean embassy in Cuba. The cases of diplomats defecting from North Korea’s diplomatic posts abroad, which are North Korea’s “outposts” for foreign relations and a source of foreign currency, have been frequent in recent years.

These days, those most loyal to Jong-un Kim’s regime (the highest class) are consumed with fear and avoidance of responsibility as they watch Jong-un Kim’s ruthless executions and purges of senior officers, including Song-thaek Jang, etc. Unlike under Jong-il Kim, they are the first to flee to other countries, including China and Russia, as well as South Korea, in the event of a drastic change under Jong-un Kim.

Under Jong-un Kim, the middle class has already been ideologically and consciously transformed, and they are a group that can be swayed to the side of the people at any time in the event of a drastic change in the Jong-un Kim’s regime. The future survival of the Jong-un Kim’s regime will be determined by how the middle class reacts and moves.

The illusions that the lowest class of North Koreans had about Jong-un Kim at the beginning of his rule have already been transformed into resentment and antipathy toward the greatness of the supreme leader, “General Jong-un Kim,” due to the ongoing economic hardship. For North Korean people, Jong-un Kim is now perceived as the heir apparent to Il-sung Kim and Jong-il Kim, a leader irresponsible to the “plain people,” and an incompetent ruler unable to solve the country’s economic woes.


In North Korea, since diplomats have more of a vested interest in the regime than any other group, they are a highly supportive group, but in recent years, there has been a growing number of diplomats who are changing their minds about Jong-un Kim. North Korean diplomats used to think that if Jong-un Kim died, they would die, but that perception is now a thing of the past. When Eastern Bloc socialism collapsed, no officials or diplomats were killed, and there are many examples of people in positions of power who have become entrepreneurs and wealthy in the wake of regime change.

A series of ruthless executions and purges under Jong-un Kim signaled his strong determination to instill fear in the upper class to extract loyalty. Jong-un Kim, who inherited power in a relatively short period of time and has a relatively weak power base, has tried to keep his officers disciplined through the use of “scolding politics”. Unlike Il-sung Kim and Jong-il Kim in the past, Jong-un Kim’s frequent reprimands, tirades, and outbursts of anger appear to be a way of asserting his relatively weak authority.

Nevertheless, there has been recent indications of dissatisfaction with Jong-un Kim, even within the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Security. Since intelligence agencies have a lot of information, they are considered to be pessimistic about reality. Recent defector diplomats testify that intelligence officers are now being executed in secret in large numbers, and that if the people’s heart is lost, the intelligence officers will act first.

In this context, the recent exodus of North Korean diplomats working abroad and the subsequent departure of North Korean diplomats to South Korea have led to testimonies of widespread dissatisfaction with Jong-un Kim’s regime within North Korea’s central government and state institutions at the provincial, municipal, and military levels. These moves are likely to continue for a while and are considered fundamental factors in eroding Jong-un Kim’s power base and leading to regime collapse.


The current North Korean regime is faced with increasing social unrest, including an extreme acceleration of nuclear and missile advancement, severe economic hardship, and a tightening of the regime’s control and repression of the population, which has led to growing social unrest and the spread of the South Korean wind across North Korea. In this regard, we should continue our efforts to bring the winds of freedom and truth to the people inside the North Korean regime, which stands on the sandcastle of the worst fiction and manipulation on earth.

The international community’s efforts to make information flow into the North Korea’s highly closed system could have a more powerful effect on the population than nuclear weapons. While the world’s worst human rights situation in North Korea should be made known to more countries in the international community, we should also consider various ways to make North Koreans aware of the dignity of freedom, democracy, and human rights so that they will have the will to resist Jong-un Kim’s tyrannical regime.

In particular, a strategy that targets, separately by class, the North Korean leadership, the middle class who are forced to be blindly loyal, and the lower classes who remain abandoned by Jong-un Kim is needed now more than ever to connect North Korea’s grave human rights problems with the momentum for regime change.

For this purpose, we should introduce various news from South Korea and the international community, as well as information and materials on freedom, human rights, democratic supremacy, reform and opening up, through broadcasts, printed materials, movies, records, MP3s, etc. into North Korea, so that North Korean soldiers and people have a proper understanding of a free and democratic society. Thus, they must recognize the anti-people nature of Jong-un Kim’s dictatorship and become liberal democratic engagers leading reform and opening up. //
Profile

Former North Korean diplomat in Italy, Switzerland and Norway
Former North Korean Foreign Ministry International Organization Director-General of the United Nations
Present Institute for National Security Strategy adviser


***North Korea’s trash balloons terrorize skyways

Researcher International Activities Team, North Korea Institute, Park Yoo-sung has challenged the international community to respond to North Korea’s sewage balloon terrorism.
North Korea had launched a series of six attacks on South Korea Since May 28,, releasing a total of more than 2,000 trash balloons.
North Korea has not only launched missiles, but also sprayed trashy garbage into South Korea from the air.
“While North Korea’s behavior was effective enough to draw the attention of the international community and South Koreans, who have been accustomed to the news of missile launches, North Korea has proven itself to be an abnormal country and a terrorist state that threatens the international community.

“It’s striking that North Korea is a country that was recognized by the world and joined the United Nations in 1991.
According to him, North Korea’s trash balloon attacks can only be described as an acknowledgment that it has abandoned its statehood and recognized itself as an abnormal state.
“North Koreans had hoped that their lives would improve under Kim Jong Un, but instead, the dictatorship has only gotten worse and the people have been subjected to even greater control.
“Since the pandemic, human rights in North Korea have become even more repressed and the economy has continued to deteriorate.
Yet the regime continues to waste money on nuclear weapons and missile development without regard for the human rights and suffering of the North Korean people.
“In addition to its constant verbal and missile provocations against the South Korean government, the regime has also provoked South Korea by sending balloons filled with trash to South Korea.
The provocations he indicated threaten the peace of not only the Korean Peninsula but also the international community, challenging international order and security, and clearly demonstrating that North Korea has given up on being a member of the international community.

“North Korea’s provocations with sewage balloons are not only crude and fanatical, but they are also serious acts of terrorism that threaten citizens and foreigners alike.
“North Korea’s trash balloons have damaged citizens’ vehicles, home windows, and rooftop roofs, and even caused fires due to malfunctioning detonators.
“This caused serious property damage and created a dizzying situation that could have led to human casualties. It also disrupted the takeoff and landing of aircraft at Incheon International Airport in the early morning hours of June 26th.
“Incheon International Airport explained that it controlled takeoffs and landings due to the possibility of an accident if foreign objects were sucked into the engines of airplanes in flight. “This means that North Korea’s trash balloons could lead to major accidents on domestic and international flights.
“The Joint Chiefs of Staff also determined that the balloons weigh about 10 kilograms, so there is enough risk that they could cause a fatal accident if they were to dive. In the end, North Korea’s provocation with these balloons is a serious act of terrorism that threatens the daily lives and safety of all people, both South Koreans and foreigners.
“This issue is a serious challenge to the international community, including the security of the Korean Peninsula, because there is a possibility that North Korea may carry out terrorist acts in the future with biological and chemical agents instead of trash.
Recently, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification released the results of its analysis of North Korea’s trash balloon.
“An expert analysis of the soil found a large number of parasites, including roundworms, whipworms, and whipworms, in the soil contained in the spraying waste,” the ministry said, adding, “Human genes were also found in the soil, suggesting that the parasites came from human food.”
“These parasites are common in underdeveloped countries where people use human fertilizer instead of chemical fertilizers and where living conditions are unsanitary.
“Analysis of the balloons’ contents also revealed the poor living conditions in North Korea. The balloons contained socks that had been worn multiple times, cloth gloves, cloth masks, cloth T-shirts, baby pants with holes in them, and socks.
“This is a stark reminder of the dire living conditions in North Korea that the regime tries to cover up. The children’s clothing and socks were particularly worn out.
While North Korea is spending its resources on nuclear and missile development, its people are living in poverty and violating their human rights by not having basic hygiene and not wearing proper clothing.

“North Korea’s provocations are not a matter for South Korea alone, but for the international community. North Korea’s provocations with trash balloons are not just a threat to the South Korean people, but also to all citizens of the world traveling to and from South Korea, and should be treated as a serious act of terrorism by the international community.
“Therefore, the international community must condemn North Korea’s provocations in terms of international law and ethics and strongly hold the Kim Jong Un regime accountable.
We hope that the international community will strictly condemn North Korea’s extraordinary provocations and work together to pressure the North Korean regime to stop its low-level provocations to ensure a safe future for the international community.
The international community must take an active role in responding to North Korea’s sewage balloon terrorism