Your experience:
First of all, can you tell me about your experience with North Korea?
I am brother John. I supervise Open Doors’ work in North Korea and have met many NK Christians.
What are the circumstances in NK?
The whole country is one big façade, a theater spectacle. Especially for Western tourists, who are easily misled. Some however pay good attention and from them I hear that when travelling the country you see certain people spying on you. When visiting a store, firstly ‘customers’ are picked from the streets. On Sundays people row in the river in Pyongyang, but boats are tied to the shore and the people have no rowing technique whatsoever. People believe in the leadership of the country. They are like gods to them. They have to bow down for statues. The leaders are worshipped everywhere.
It feels like North Korea is covered in a heavy, thick, spiritual layer. Inside NK the whole atmosphere is depressive.
Still, there are Christians in this country. They have the same Father as us. What is very encouraging for them is that we pray for them. We have informed NK Christians about our prayer campaigns in countries like The Netherlands, the US and France.
Do you have a particular emotional link with this country and its inhabitants?
Yes, North Korea is a country close to my heart. Nowhere in the world are Christians persecuted with such hatred and violence. Nowhere are people so misled by the ‘father of the lie’ than in North Korea. I love every North Korean. I pray desperately that they will know that it is not ‘Father Kim il-Sung’ who is taking care of them, but Jesus Christ.
How do NK Christians see their country?
The façade (see first question), but also the immense worshipping of father and son Kim. Did you know that NK has its own Trinity? Kim Il-Sung the Father (he died in 1994 but is still president), Kim Jong-il the Son, and the Juche ideology reflects the Christian Holy Spirit. There are many parallels between the worshipping of the Leaders and Christianity. One of the nicknames of Kim Il-Sung is the morning star, a title that belongs to both Lucifer and our Lord Jesus Christ (the ‘new Morning Star’).
You see their statues and images everywhere. There is the propaganda. Newspaper articles always centralize the Kims. It’s always about revolution. The rice revolution. The potato revolution. In other words: production must increase, because Kim Jong-Il has directed his people to do so, without providing the resources by the way.
Also, North Korean Christians see deadness and despair in the eyes of other North Koreans. The Christians see and feel they are empty people. Not able to think freely. North Koreans are not capable to think themselves. Even Christians have difficulties with that.
But there is a big difference between Christians and non-Christians in this country. Christians rely on God and try their utmost to help each other and other civilians where they can. We know of stories of NKs who have not enough to eat and still share with others.
We heard about riots after the devaluation of the Won. Do you think that the people’s mindset has changed?
No, not really. People are so hungry, so angry, so despaired that this happens. It doesn’t mean people think more freely, or they blame the State. Most people are still very loyal to Kim Jong-Il. It’s very likely they blame local officials and attack them. We can’t realize the effect of hunger on our mindset. I know from refugees that hunger changes everything. It makes you selfish. It makes you leave your family, it makes you risk everything to find food.
North Korean people’s distrust in Kim Jong-il is so great that the Premier Kim Young-il has apologized for the aftermath of the currency reform and as a result 4 people were executed. And the government is allowing the operation of the market in Pyongyang and also the usage of the foreign currencies.
We know some people have radios and / or cell phones. Do you think that the majority of the North Korean knows what is going on in the rest of the World?’
No, most people don’t know much about the world. People with illegal radios know about news from outside NK. People with illegal radios, DVDs, mobile phone know about the outside world. Open Doors is sending thousands of radios each year to North Korea. Some people also hear the news from the visitors from China. Nowadays, many people talk through mobile phones with their families outside the country. The minds of many North Koreans have changed and their anger towards the government is growing. Now the North Korean government is trying everything they can to block the signal and in worst cases people are even executed.
And what North Korean Christians also know is that thousands of people pray every day for them. We told them that. That encourages them in a way that is indescribable.
North Korea Christians
The North Korea prayer campaign ended 2 years ago. We feel like this campaign has changed something on the field… What do you think? Is the reality different today?
Yes. Many miracles have happened. We can never say: this is because we prayed, but we believe that God has used our prayers. Some Christians were freed by God in miraculous ways. Others persevered in their difficult situations. North Korean church leaders tell us: ‘Keep praying. Christians are much braver than they used to be. We evangelize in our country. This should be impossible, but God makes it possible. With the help of Open Doors we can feed 60.000 Christians.’
Providing food, medicines and clothes for so many Christians is extraordinary. How can we do these projects in this closed country with these risks, if we are not protected by a cover of prayer?
We hear about an underground Church, but it’s difficult for us to imagine that it could be true. How do they recognize each other? Do they use codes like Christians under the Roman Empire?
Christians in NK are very isolated. However, they are somehow connected to each other. People who were Christians before the Korean War have inherited their faith to their descendants and so on. This has continued for 3 generations and has formed a network between them. This does not mean that all Christians know each other. Christians may know who their regional church leader is but not so familiar with other fellow Christians.
Kim Jong-Il sees Christianity as a threat. Do you think that the growth of the Church could lead to the breakdown of the North Korean dictatorship? Do you think that the regime could open up slowly and peacefully like it has been the case for Albania?
It’s our prayer that it does. But everything is in God’s hands. He is the only one Kim Jong-Il should fear. Not the Church. Christians are very loyal to their country, but they have one big difference with other North Koreans. They are free of mind. They have come to know the truth. That’s why Kim Jong-Il has declared them as the enemy.
Let’s pray fervently for a non-violent revolution. If the country collapses all of a sudden, that’s a disaster for the people, for neighboring countries like China and South Korea and for the international community. Nobody is willing and able to take care of the North Korean people. Who is going to explain to them they believed in a lie for over 60 years? Who is going to teach them how to govern a country?
Do you have a memory or a testimony of a North Korean Christian that moved you? Do you remember an intervention of God in a dangerous situation in the country that could exhort our supporters?
Yes. I have met this person. What touched me most were the inhuman choices he had to make and his experience in the notorious labor camp Yodok.
What do North Korean Christians pray for?
The North Korean Christians are praying for the unification of the country and the recovery of the church in North Korea. They are not praying for bad things to happen to their country leaders but praying that they can be renewed through Jesus Christ.
