Christmas in North Korea: Why North Korea is still number one on the World Watch List, according to a North Korean Escapee. Read his harrowing and challenging account of the three options facing North Koreans who have a religious faith, knowing that if you are discovered, you will be imprisoned, tortured, and almost certainly killed. Spare them a thought as we approach Christmas.

Dec 20, 2019 | News

 

Why North Korea is still number one on the World Watch List, according to a North Korean

A view from North Korean escapee 

I was born in North Korea in the late 1980s, when the country was heavily controlled by the cult of personality surrounding the nation’s leaders, the Kim family – they were worshipped as gods. Like every North Korean citizen, I regarded the Kim family as gods, and embraced them in my heart. From nursery age, I asked my parents to take me to the Kims’ statues, and I even cried if I found a single grain of dust on them. (It’s estimated that there are 30,000-50,000 monuments to honour the Kim family in North Korea.) When Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of present leader Kim Jong-un, died on 7 July 1994, I cried all day – because I really believed he was my grandfather and god of all North Korean citizens.

However, the idea of seeing the Kims as gods in North Korea has gradually been decreasing since the 1990s, particularly by us, the third generation under the Kims. When we were growing up, when we were in nursery school, we were given free lunches, and before we ate this meal, we thanked the Kim family. We thought that as long as the Kim family lived, we would not have to worry about food, because they were gods and would take care of us.

But then, from the first year of primary school, we saw how some of our classmates could not come to school because they had no food. They were eating poisoned grasses in their desperation to find something to eat. Amongst my classmates, we collected bread, rice and potatoes for those hungry classmates.

But this was just the beginning. The situation went from bad to worse, and eventually even I found myself living on the street, with nothing to eat. If the Kim family were gods, how could they leave us to starve to death? North Korean millennials (the so-called ‘market generation’) see that it isn’t the Kim family who help them to survive – it’s the black-market.

Christianity seen as a betrayal

Despite the glaring differences between what North Koreans are taught to believe about the Kims and the real experiences of the North Korean people, North Koreans are still expected to believe in the absolute authority of the Kims. There is no place for Christianity or any other faith that suggests there is a higher power than the Kims. There isn’t even a free space where people can talk about it. This is one of the reasons why it is so dangerous to be a Christian in North Korea.

Many messages from the Bible are attributed to the Kims – for example, they have the ‘Ten Principles for Establishing the Party’s Unique Ideology System’, with a similar structure the Ten Commandments found in the Bible. Claiming that these come from Christianity, and not from the Kims, is seen as treason.

During my repatriation to North Korea in 2004, the first question they asked us was, ‘Did you go to church and pray in China?’ One guy who was stood next to me denied going to church in China. But when the policeman came closer, he got scared and told him which church he went to and how many people used to attend Sunday services. He was beaten mercilessly, and the blood streaming from the top of his head left the rest of us trembling.

Why would that questions matter to the North Korean policeman, when they could simply put us in a prison camp and leave us to die? This was a demonstration of North Korea’s continuing rejection of Christianity.

The next question from the policeman was, ‘Where is your God? If he is there why did he not save you while I beating you? Our Dear Leader is your God. He is the North Korean people’s leader and god.’ Christianity was clearly seen as a threat to the personality cult around the Kims.

I’m not the only one who has seen how desperate the North Korean regime are to eradicate Christianity. I met another North Korean escapee in the UK, and she told me her story: “When we escaped from North Korea to China, Christian missionaries looked after us. One day we were in the church service and all of a sudden, the Chinese police entered. My son, granddaughter and I had managed to escape through a hidden route. But my daughter was arrested in front of her two-year-old daughter.

“My daughter was sent back to North Korea and because of her Christian faith, she was then sent to a prison camp. We haven’t heard anything from her since then. My granddaughter barely remembers her mother’s face.” Her granddaughter is now in her 20s and was brought up by her grandmother.

“The North Korean regime does not compromise with Christianity and Christians; they are destined to be arrested and killed.”

As well as being seen as a rival to the personality cult around the Kim family, the ‘threat’ of Christianity is also seen as a matter of national security. The regime claims that that America uses Christianity as a weapon to destroy their socialist nation. The UK’s Independent Review for the Foreign Secretary on Support for Persecuted Christians confirmed this, stating: “The state ties Christian belief to the West and particularly the United States of America as a way of indicating that Christianity is a national security risk.

Persecution from the beginning to today – but not forever

North Korea’s persecution of Christians didn’t just start recently – it began in the earliest days of modern day North Korea, with the division of Korea at the end of World War II in 1945. The Kims quickly established a legal structure in North Korea that denied freedom of expression, thought and religious faith, and which justified punishments such as torture, execution, enslavement, enforced disappearance and starvation.

And it carries on today. There are around 250,000 people in closed off villages, detention centres, prisons and labour camps in North Korea – that’s one per cent of the population! And of those, 50,000-70,000 are Christians.

Christians in North Korea have three options:

–        Attempt to escape to another country, where you can be open about your faith – but the journey is dangerous and illegal, and you may not be successful.

–        Stay in North Korea and give up on your faith.

–        Stay in North Korea and keep your faith a secret – knowing that if you are discovered, you will be imprisoned, tortured, and almost certainly killed.

The US State Department, Aid to the Church in Need and Christian Solidarity Worldwide have all confirmed what Open Doors has been saying since 2002 – that North Korea is the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian.

And yet, God is powerful enough to break through the darkness of the most oppressive regime on earth. We must not stop praying and providing for the practical needs of North Korea’s underground believers through Open Doors secret workers. With our freedom, we can send in food and medicines to give physical strength, and we can call out ‘Amen’ to give spiritual strength to those secret believers in North Korea. And our prayers must continue until the concrete walls of persecution fall down.”

Spare them a thought as we approach Christmas.

Lord David Alton

For 18 years David Alton was a Member of the House of Commons and today he is an Independent Crossbench Life Peer in the UK House of Lords.

Social Media

Subscribe to Blog

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Site Search

Recent Posts

Share This