Seems to be a semantics game going on in China, while thousands of their south-eastern neighbors continue to perish from hunger. A new famine is on the way, but China continues to hide. Hiding behind what they think is international law, but most certainly is not, China stalls the UN, decent people worldwide, and hungry Koreans day after day. And hiding behind their supposed friendship with Kim Jong Il, they have become the sworn enemies of human rights.

Problem is with the word refugee. Simply put, the word means "An exile who flees for safety". But there are other ways to say it. How about, A person afraid of his government? Or, A person who has been placed in the sub-basement of humanity by the leader of his country and denied food and basic human dignity, and therefore tries to escape? A person not allowed to worship on the pain of death, and who yearns to breathe free, as the "wretched refuse" that used to come to our own shores so freely? A person not permitted to hold a second opinion about anything political and who just wants to have an honest conversation, and so runs across the border? What do you think, good definitions for refugee?

And by those very valid - I think - definitions, wouldn't you agree that the North Koreans are refugees? China doesn't think so. They're just hungry, says China. They're "economic migrants," or at best "environmental refugees" and as such are entitled, say the Chinese, to no special privileges. Nice. We won't talk about why they are hungry, because they are in the wrong political class, or said something to offend someone, and are therefore being starved to death. "They're just looking for food." Not fleeing. So they are routinely gathered up by the ever-diligent, and often rewarded, Chinese military and quickly sent back to Kim Jong Il, where they face torture and death.

And why torture and death? It is widely known that the NK government fears associations with the West, including and especially, Christians. Christianity represents America, George Bush, and the failed ways of democracy. Can't have our folks mixing with such corrupt ideas. And throughout northeastern China, where Koreans have shown up by the hundreds of thousands, there are such folks. Americans. South Koreans. Christians. Pure poison.

When the refugee -for he is a refugee- is forcibly returned, there is a possibility that if he was "merely hungry", he will not be punished so long and so ferociously for having gone to feed his belly. But it is almost certain that if he contacted a Christian or a South Korean, he's in for trouble.

Hungry Christians knew that when they left. All North Koreans know that. Why then are they not considered refugees when they try to escape? Doesn't the Geneva standard clearly state that a refugee is a person who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of... religion...or political opinion... is outside the country of their nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of that country"?

The fact that they are hungry on top of all that should not diminish the notion that they are fleeing from a government that hurts religious people and people whose ideas are different than Kim's.

When will the UN and the international community step in and make the difference that they are supposed to be making in the world's governing? Who will stand up to China and say they must obey international law? And the question that everyone seems to be asking still, except the Chinese government, how in the world could the unprecedented privilege of hosting the Olympics - humanity's masterpiece- have been awarded to a nation that defies the very foundations of humanity by its cruelty to so many millions of people?