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Land
of Mystery - North Korea
 North Korea is considered one of the harshest communist regimes in the
world today. During the last 54 years North Korea has attempted to
destroy all religious faith including Christianity.
All citizens have been required to worship their dead leader Kim
Il Sung and his son, current dictator, Kim Jong Il. Both leaders have
developed huge personality cults where their every word and deed has
been elevated to divine status. It has been normal practice for North
Koreans to give thanks by saying grace to Kim Il Sung before their
meals.
ch in North Korea is one of the most persecuted in the
world. For years a veil of silence muffled the tears, persecution and
hardship Christians had to endure.
We are now aware that thousands of Christians have been imprisoned
in political prisoner camps where they face untold hardships such as
being forced to keep their head permanently facing the ground, so their
heads are continually held at a ninety degree angle to the rest of their
body.
The rationale behind this is that because they believe in a God in
Heaven they must not look up. As they work, sleep, and eat, they must
always face down. A former prisoner reports that after years of keeping
this position many of the Christians' necks were permanently deformed.
Even in death, their necks were broken by the guards and they were
buried face down to prevent them from "seeing Heaven".
Christians occupy a unique position in these camps, they are not
sentenced to a specific number of years. Instead, they are imprisoned as
long as they maintain their Christian faith. If they renounce their
faith, acknowledging Kim ll Sung and Kim Jong ll as the supreme power,
they will be released from prison.
Prison guards are promoted if they succeed in "rehabilitating"
a Christian prisoner. This gives them a particular incentive to target
Christians for beatings, torture, harsh labour, rape, and other
unspeakable treatment. One former prisoner saw a guard pour molten
iron over living Christians in a sadistic effort to force the other
Christians to renounce their faith.
In Wachon Prison, children of Christians were put into cages where they
spent the rest of their childhood. Each morning their mothers would be
forced to walk past these cages where they could see their children,
starving and cold. A former prisoner recounted her experience; "The
noise was awful. Children screamed and called out for their mothers.
Sometimes the women, at great risk to themselves, would knit socks or
gloves with scraps and throw them to their children. If caught doing
this, the mother would be dragged outside and beaten until she could not
hear or see any more."
We have also heard reports that Christian mothers who give birth to
their children while in prison are forced by prison guards to kill
their new born baby or stand by and watch the prison guards kill their
baby.
Most Christians never escape and those in the camps usually - as
far as we know - do not come out alive. Though information is limited,
what we do have paints a most distressing picture.
However, North Korean Christians are confident that prayer is the
answer!
They pray for their leader, believing that Divine intervention will
bring freedom and peace. The primary request of each North Korean
Christian that was recently visited by CSW* was simply, "join us
in praying for our country and those Christians suffering under intense
persecution."
AsiaLink is taking up their call to encourage prayer for these brothers
and sisters in the Lord. The horror and inhuman treatment is
indescribable and we may feel helpless at what we can do. North Korea
may seem distant and impenetrable but prayer can pierce any barrier!
After fifty years of hard-line communist rule, and the most severe
persecution (unconfirmed reports suggest 400 were killed for their faith
in 1999), it is miraculous that there are any Christians left in North
Korea.
How Christians here manage to maintain their faith in such dire
conditions is remarkable. A former prisoner who became a Christian after
her imprisonment recounted: "They had such a warm love that the
rest of the people did not know...in such a difficult situation they
were able to express love for others. They sometimes even took
responsibility for others' wrongdoing; they took the blame to protect
others!
I reflect back and keep it as a guide, remembering them as they gave up
their lives for the kingdom of God with the type of love that all
Christians should have."
It would be easy to be discouraged about the future of Christianity in
North Korea. However, we must realize that the persecution of Christians
has been ongoing in its intensity for five decades and Christianity has
not been destroyed!
A former prisoner stated that when imprisoned in the late 1980's she
knew about 40 older Christians. When she was released in 1992, all of
the original 40 had died but there were now 250 Christians ranging in
age from teenagers to people in their 60s.
God is building His Kingdom among North Koreans of all ages - contrary
to the aims of Kim ll Sung and Kim Jong ll!
*Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is a UK based human rights charity
working for the religious liberty of persecuted Christians.
This article was first published by AsiaLink UK. AsiaLink is grateful
for the assistance of CSW with this article.
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