North Korea

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• In the early Twentieth Century Korea was the
  center of spiritual revival in Asia, most notably
  in what is now North Korea.
• The era of Korean revival began in Wonsan and
  spread to Pyongyang in 1907 in what is known as
  the Great Revival or Korean Pentecost. Many
  thousands were saved and a fervor swept the
  peninsula with the Million Movement evangelical
  campaign.

A Pyongyang church
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• So many churches and seminaries sprang up in
  those days that Pyongyang (the current capital of
  North Korea) became known around the globe as the
  Jerusalem of the East.
• In fact, most of the Korean Churchs unique
  traditions, still in practice to this day,
  originated in North Korea.

A Pyongyang seminary in 1906
Pyongyang seminarians
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• Since falling under the grip of Communism after
  World War II, every effort has been made in North
  Korea to erase their rich Christian heritage,
  compel Christians to renounce their faith, and
  brutally eradicate all who refuse.

Kim Il Sung worship
Currently North Korea is the most idolatrous
state on Earth, enslaving all citizens under the
iron fist of Juche (Self-reliance) ideology.
This virtual religion demands fanatical devotion
to the countrys deceased leader Kim Il Sung and
his ruling son Kim Jong Il.
Juche Tower, Pyongyang
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• Children are taught from birth to worship these
  dictators as gods and to give them credit for
  everything they enjoy in life. This extreme
  brainwashing is present in every aspect of North
  Korean life.

Child Propaganda
North Korea is even home to the largest human
spectacle of today, known as the Mass Games, a
dramatic Juche worship festival using hundreds of
thousands of performers moving in perfect
precision.
The annual Mass Games
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• North Korea has the worst human rights record in
  the world. It has been ranked as the most
  economically oppressed country (Wall Street
  Journal), the top violator of human rights and
  religious freedom (U.S. State Department), and
  No. 1 in human rights violations (Human Rights
  Watch).
• In North Korea, a person and their entire family
  can be sent to a prison camp for merely singing a
  foreign pop-song, listening to foreign radio, or
  damaging a picture of Kim Il Sung.

Satellite view of Camp 22 in Hoeryeong
Prisoners behind electrified fences in Yodok
prison camp
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• Any belief other than the state ideology of Juche
  is viewed as a direct threat. The punishment for
  being a Christian is death, either by execution
  or hard labor in one of the countrys Nazi-style
  concentration camps.

Many escapees have testified that Christians
there are subject to imprisonment, torture, and
even used for biological warfare experimentation.
For over fifty years, North Korea has remained
the most spiritually oppressed country there is.
A drawing made by a former prison guard
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• In the past decade a famine has also killed over
  one-tenth of the population. North Korea is the
  recipient of the largest amount of food aid in
  the world yet most food goes to the military and
  Communist Party officials.
• In many parts of the country people have been
  forced to eat soup made out of grass and tree
  bark, and there have even been widespread reports
  of cannibalism.
• Today children can still be seen wandering in the
  fields and hills looking for anything they can
  put in their mouths for sustenance.

A North Korean childs drawing depicting
cannibalism
Children searching for food
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• This has hit the children the hardest. The
  average 14-year-old boy in North Korea is 16cm
  shorter than his southern counterpart. Thousands
  of children have lost their parents and been left
  to wander the streets in search of food. In some
  areas many can be seen lying in the street,
  waiting to die.

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• Due to these circumstances, many desperate North
  Koreans risk their lives to flee into China, with
  hopes of finding food and safe passage to South
  Korea.
• However, the Chinese government viciously hunts
  down North Korean refugees, imprisoning them and
  sending them back to North Korea where they are
  usually sent to prison camps or executed.

North Korean refugees in hiding
The sign reads, If no freedom, then death (This
woman has most likely already died in a North
Korean concentration camp.)
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• If there is any evidence of a repatriated refugee
  converting to Christianity while in China, it is
  grounds for immediate execution.
• Those who remain in China, mostly women, risk
  being abducted and sold into sexual slavery
  throughout the country. It is believed that
  currently at least 70 of refugee women are
  trafficked. Since China denies them refugee
  status they have no rights whatsoever.

Chinese guards arresting a North Korean family
seeking asylum
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• I will turn their mourning into gladness
• I will give them comfort and joy instead of
  sorrow.
• Jeremiah 3113

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The Underground Railroad

• Hope comes in the form of a handful of intrepid
  missionaries and Christian activists that form a
  network across China and nearby countries.
• These brave Christian soldiers provide North
  Korean refugees with what they need most
• Food clothing
• Shelter
• Escape
• The Gospel
• These missionaries regularly risk their lives to
  save North Koreans
• Many are currently held in Chinese prisons
  because of their work.
• Such as Brothers Choi Younghun (Weifang Prison),
  Kim Seunghwan (Changchun Prison), Phillip Buck
  (Yanji Prison) and many others.
• Others have died while leading refugees to
  freedom.
• In March of 2005, Pastor Jeffrey Park (from
  California) drowned in the Burmese jungle while
  leading refugees to safety.

North Korean refugees praying secretly in China
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• The sacrifices of these Christian heroes have
  brought forth much fruit
• Since the end of the Korean War in 1953,
  approximately 6,300 North Koreans have escaped to
  South Korea, but 1,890 of them escaped in 2004
  alone due to activist efforts.
• The vast majority of recent North Korean
  defectors received salvation while in China
  through those helping them.

North Korean Christians worshipping in South Korea
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The Future is Bright!

• God is answering the prayers of the martyred
  North Korean Saints through the salvation of
  those fleeing the country.
• The Gospel is being spread through the work of
  missionary-activists in China.
• Some North Koreans are secretly returning to
  their country with the message of salvation.
• The Lord is preparing a body of North Koreans in
  South Korea to bring the name of Jesus Christ
  to the north when the country opens its doors.

Young North Korean Christians
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What You Can Do

• Pray
• For the Holy Spirit to break North Koreas
  bondage to idolatry and open up to the Gospel.
• For humanitarian aid to go to those who need it.
• For the strength and growth of the persecuted
  Church in North Korea.
• For safety, salvation, and freedom for North
  Korean refugees hiding in China and wisdom for
  those helping them.

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What You Can Do

• Research Get Involved
• Helping Hands Korea is a Christian organization
  that directly funds sheltering and rescue efforts
  for North Korean refugees as well as Christian
  humanitarian aid work inside North Korea. Visit
  their website for more information

http//www.helpinghandskorea.org
Getting the Word to North Korean refugees hiding
in China
Medical care for North Korean refugees