November 2016 Persecution Magazine (2 of 3)

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NOVEMBER 2016
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North Korea
Explore the Bizarre World of North Korea:
A state-created false religion, a national
counterfeiting operation,
and first-hand tales of tragedy
and escape from the world’s
worst persecutor of Christians
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Our Prayer for North Korea
Chilgol Church
Chilgol Church in Pyongyang,
North Korea, is one of only two
Protestant churches in North
Korea. It exists as propaganda
for foreigners to convince
visitors that North Korea has
religious freedom.
By Sandra Elliot
This issue of Persecution is the
second in a rare two-part series on
North Korea. Christians there face
the worst imaginable persecution in
the world, but the hermit kingdom
may be slowly unraveling.
North Korea is a totalitarian
regime with
little to no regard for
the lives of its own
people. In fact, North
Korea is concerned
with only one thing
and that is blind
loyalty. Twenty-five
million people are
imprisoned in a state run by an iron-gripping,
exorbitant, and ludicrous family name.
False Religion
The ideological underpinning of the
DPRK is the all-inclusive philosophy of
Juche (see page 18). Within the parameters
of this socio-political-religious concept,
the Kim family is the supreme authority
and spiritual head and the state of North
Korea is the provider of all things. There
are roughly 100,000 Juche research centers
spread across North Korea meant
to indoctrinate the population into this
false ideology. This is part of the North
Korean design to undergird and sustain the
regime’s power and longevity by playing
on human beings’ need to believe in and
live for something.
Christianity poses a direct and potent threat
to the ideological framework of Juche. Juche
dictates that your state and leader are your
religion and god. Christianity says that there
is only one God and we are all His children,
created in His image, equal before Him.
Nationality is of minor importance.
As a result, Christians suffer greatly for
their faith in North Korea as their neighbors
and friends are automatically pitted against
them in their practice of Juche. Christians suffer
the cruelest form of torture, imprisonment
and execution in North Korea, as the state sees
their faith as an existential threat to its claim.
And rightly so. The love of Christ and the
spread of His message by His followers is the
most lucid threat to the Kim regime.
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The Kim family is
the spiritual head of
North Korea and is
the provider of all
things.
Office 39
The Tower of the Juche Idea on the Taedong River was built as a monument
to the regime’s religion of Juche (see page 18). Creative Commons
photo from flickr by David Stanley.
At the end of World War II, the Korean peninsula was divided. See page
30 for some possiblilites that could affect the future of this nation.
So how does North Korea maintain the
loyalty of its people aside from Juche?
Well as with many things in life, through
money and fear mongering. The DPRK is
the only government in the world that has
established a branch of government which
collects illegal funds to operate effectively.
Office 39 is basically a secret branch
of government that engages in illicit economic
activities to create a slush fund for
the running dictator of North Korea (think
“mafia”). This includes counterfeit money
laundering, black market weapons trade,
and insurance fraud that crosses international
borders. All this illegal cash serves
to buy loyalties, build a nuclear arsenal,
maneuver around sanctions and support
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the lavish lifestyle of the Kim’s and other
elites.
North Korea depends on Office 39 to
carry out its criminal activities domestically
and internationally. Perhaps the easy
solution to ending the terroristic Kim reign
is to choke them financially.
Defectors
Most of what we know about North Korea
comes from the testimonies of defectors and
escapees of the DPRK.
On pages 23-27 you can read the personal
accounts of some who have heroically
escaped the hermit kingdom. They have faced
death, torture, enslavement, and great loss in
their journey to freedom. Once free, they must
overcome the trauma of their past and face the
real world as they never thought they would.
Thankfully, our Lord Jesus is sovereign and
merciful. In Sammy’s story you will see how
the untiring and powerful prayers of a mother
for her son’s salvation came to fruition. We
also interviewed New York Times bestselling
author and TED star, Hyeonseo Lee. The Lord
provided all the strength she could ever imagine
when facing impossible circumstances.
Their stories reveal the true nature of North
Korea and the power of Christ at work in saving
lives.
Future of North Korea
But Christ can do more. While we celebrate
and thank Him for the salvation of individuals
within North Korea, we beg Him for more.
The future of North Korea, according to many
scholars, is dimly lit and destined to fail (see
page 30). The severity and harshness of the
Kim Jong-Un regime is creating discontentment
and likely rebellion among his inner circle
of loyalists. China, while still the strongest
ally to North Korea, has also recently defected
in their alliance and support to the regime. But
most importantly, Christians are finding new
and creative ways to get the Gospel inside the
DPRK.
The Gospel, in and of itself, disqualifies the
Kim claim on these 25 million people. When
North Koreans learn of the true God, they will
undoubtedly recognize the counterfeit ones.
As ambassadors and followers of Christ, our
contribution to the freedom of North Korea is
to pray He opens the eyes of the blind.
As you read through the pages of this
month’s magazine, pay close attention to
what you could do beyond praying for North
Korea. Join us in our efforts to free the prisoners
of North Korea and spread the Gospel to a
desperate and desolate people. Remember the
word of your Savior:
I will build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. I will give you the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever
you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and
whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven. - Matthew 16:18-19 (ESV)
3

False Religion
and the Repression
of Christianity
By Sandra Elliot
Chaju
Political Independence
Yielding to foreign
pressure or idea (i.e.
Christianity) is
abominable
In early 1907, a city that was known
for its debauchery was set ablaze
with a powerful revival after years of
prayer. Fifty thousand people were
converted to Christianity in 1907
alone! Afterwards, there were so
many Christians living out their faith
that Pyongyang, the present North
Korean capital, became known as
“The Jerusalem of the East.” The
Pyongyang Great Revival lasted through 1910.
Two years later, a baby was born – the
son of Christian parents and grandson of
a Christian pastor. The baby’s name? Kim
Il-sung, the founder of North Korea.
Kim was intimately familiar with
Christianity and witnessed Christians choose
martyrdom over worshipping the Japanese
Emperor during Japan’s colonization of the
Korean peninsula. Recognizing the power of
Christianity, he wanted the worship directed
at himself. So he took Christianity, removed
God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy
Spirit, and set up himself, his wife and son
as the new trinity. This false religion was
later complimented with the addition of a
full-fledged ideology known as Juche. It is a
counterfeit religion that is deathly afraid of the
true version, and rightfully so.
The Philosophy of Juche
Juche (JOO-chay). It’s not a word with
which most of us are familiar. In fact, I doubt
any one of us knows how to correctly pronounce
it upon reading. Juche. It means selfreliance,
in some sense or another. It has been
described as Kim II-Sung’s “original, brilliant
and revolutionary contribution to national and
international thought.”
In the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea (North Korea), it is the reigning philosophy
and the
most adhered-to
line of thinking. In
1972, when Kim
II-Sung established
his iron grip
on North Korea,
Juche became the
autarkic state ideology
of the nation.
Any other beliefs,
Christianity included,
are considered
a threat to Juche
Chawi
Military Independence
Violence is the best
way to defend the
nation
and the survival of the state of North Korea.
If you want to understand North Korea, you
must first understand this twisted ideology of
self-reliance and the extensive irony under
which it operates.
Kim II-Sung, upon instituting Juche as a
national thought, explained it as so:
“This means holding fast to an independent
position, rejecting dependence on others,
using one’s own brains, believing in one’s
own strength, displaying the revolutionary
spirit of self-reliance.”
Why is this so blatantly and grossly ironic?
If you know anything about North Korea, you
know that it is a nation obsessed with controlling
its people, specifically the minds of its
people. So by use of this “self-reliance” and
self-determination, Kim II-Sung enslaved a
whole nation into thinking as one and believing
this as freedom.
The regime at the time instructed the North
Korean people in Juche by using an analogy
of the human body. Kim II-Sung, the great
leader, was the brain in which decision making
and issuing orders are the primary role.
The government is the nervous system that
channels information to the bone and muscle
(the North Korean people) who must, in turn,
Juche
These components
of Juche illustrate the
self-sufficiency of this
false religion.
Charip
Economic Independence
To establish total political
independence, North
Korea must be selfsufficient
physically execute the orders of the brain.
This is probably the greatest example of
the success of socialist revolutions in that the
masses have rallied around and supported
leadership under a single ideology and line of
thought. Now we must better understand what
it is they believe/are indoctrinated with.
There are three main components to Juche
ideology: (1) chaju, which means political
independence, (2) charip, which is economic
independence, and (3) chawi is military independence.
Chaju is the central tenant of Juche in that
it is the obsessive focus on state sovereignty.
This basically means that yielding to ANY
foreign pressure or tolerating ANY foreign
ideas (i.e. Christianity) is an abomination.
Chaju is basically a justification for the political
grip of the Kim family and the hermit
kingdom style of North Korea.
Charip, meaning economic independence,
is the material basis for chaju. To establish
total and supreme political independence,
North Korea must be totally and supremely
self-sufficient.
Lastly, chawi, the military independence of
Juche ideology, sees violence as the best way
to defend the nation. It is decidedly belligerent
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JUCHE
Kim Il-sung
Kim Il-sung
Kim Jung Sook (wife)
Kim Jong-il (son)
Writings and teachings
of Kim Il-sung
North Koreans are required
to worship Kim Il-sung with
all their heart and might
Fear
On Self
Man is master of the world
and his own destiny.
North Koreans must hang
pictures of Kim family in homes
and bow to worship.
Spy on your neighbor
North Koreans gather regularly
to admit their wrongdoings.
and overly presumptuous, referring to outside
ideology as imperialistic and aggressive.
The Repression of
Christianity
In light of these tenets of Juche, it’s easy
to understand why the North Korean government
is so adamantly against Christianity.
Juche ideology allows the Kim family to act as
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Founder
Trinity
Holy Text
Worship
Motivation
Reliance
Master
Images
Others
Confession
CHRISTIANITY
Jesus Christ
God the Father
God the Son
God the Holy Spirit
The Bible
“Love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind.”
Matt. 22:37 NIV
Love
On God
Jesus in submission
to God.
“You shall not make for yourself
an image in the form of anything in
heaven above or on the earth beneath
or in the waters below. You shall not
bow down to them or worship them.”
Ex. 20:4-5 NIV
Love your neighbor
“Therefore, confess your sins to
each other and pray for each other
so that you may be healed.”
James 5:16 NIV
stand-in gods to the North Koreans. In Juche,
you rely on your nation, your teaching and
your leader…and no one else. Juche is your
absolute religion, false though it may be.
There are estimated to be some 200,000 to
400,000 Christians living in North Korea today.
Of that number approximately 60,000 are serving
in prison and labor camps for their faith.
Prison camps in North Korea closely resemble
the concentration camps of WWII, which killed
almost 12 million people. It doesn’t take much
to end up in such a dreadful place.
Christians in North Korea can be prosecuted
for propagating religion, possessing religious
items, carrying out religious activities, or having
any sort of contact with religious persons.
Secret police are integrated into society at the
most intimate level. For this reason, Christians
in North Korea must keep their faith an absolute
secret.
Those who are found out easily suffer arrest,
torture, imprisonment and execution. Perhaps
the greatest challenge and tragedy is that
Christians are often turned into authorities by
their own neighbors and friends.
Juche means total loyalty to the government.
You do not love your neighbor in Juche, you
spy on him. You do not feed the poor in Juche,
for that man is not self-reliant. Christianity is
the anti-juche, the greatest threat to the Kim
dynasty and pet nation. This is why North
Korea fears Christianity and makes examples
of anyone daring to accept this faith.
Stories from defectors paint horrifying illustrations
of living conditions and punishments
inflicted on the Christian population. For
example, reports tell of ‘execution by train’ in
which the authorities go to the extreme trouble
of having men and women tied to railroad
tracks and run down by trains. This is not a
simple execution to rid a threat; this is a terrorizing
form of persecution.
When looking at the history and timeline
of Juche, one can easily see spiritual forces of
evil at work. This false religion and counterfeit
Christianity is not just the work of one crazy
man but was birthed through him.
In 1907, there was one of history’s most
amazing revivals in Pyongyang. Thirty-five
years later, the Soviet Union installed Kim
Il-sung as a puppet leader who went on to
lead the Korean War that killed 2.5 million
people. After the Korean War, he consolidated
his power and then went on to strangle
Christianity.
As Christians, we know that our battle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers
and principalities of darkness (Eph. 6:12).
Satan wanted to extinguish the light that
burned in North Korea and then to build a
fortress to keep out the light and to imprison
and blind the North Korean people from truth.
Juche and the false worship of Kim and his
progeny were keys to that prison. Belief in
both are fading quickly inside North Korea
and it’s only a matter of time before the locks
break and the prison doors of North Korea
swing open.
5

Interviews
with
Defectors
Two North Korean defectors share their stories of loss,
freedom and salvation with ICC.
By Brianna Young and Ashley Shay
Praise and Sammy are two North
Korean defectors who shared
with ICC their stories of courage
and escape from one of
the most evil regimes of the
modern world. Now living in
a free world, they both share
how the power of the Gospel
has impacted their lives since
escaping North Korea, and
how the Word of God reaches across the borders of a
nation where to be a Christian is punishable by death.
Sammy’s Story: Plucked from
Hell
“My life there was empty,” recalls Sammy of his
existence in North Korea. “People in North Korea are
living empty and meaningless lives.”
The decision to leave North Korea is never made
lightly as it may end in your death or imprisonment.
In Sammy’s case, it was even more complicated
because he had loyally served in the military for more
than 12 years.
The path that led Sammy from his life in North
Korea to his final decision to escape is one wrought
with pain and loss. He had lost both of his parents
while serving in the military and, after being discharged,
nearly starved to death. Sammy knew that
his family could lead a better life outside of the confines
of the Kim regime.
In the summer of 2007, Sammy, along with his
wife and 14-month-old daughter, left their home for a
future in an unknown world.
The journey was daunting, beginning with a
40-mile trek to the Tumen River, the border between
North Korea and China. It was the rainy season, and
floods delayed the family’s escape by several days.
By this time, the police had distributed flyers and
were searching intently for the runaway family who
was hiding in a friend’s home.
On June 19, after 15 days of waiting in hiding for
the flood waters to subside, Sammy and his family
ventured out to cross the river into China.
Tragically, Sammy’s daughter, LeiSung, drowned
in the struggle to make it through the water.
“My wife lost her mind and she couldn’t remove
our daughter’s (body) from her back.”
Overcome by grief, Sammy and his wife were
forced to learn to live in a world without their daughter.
He purchased a blue teddy bear and gave it to his
wife in memory of their daughter: “Since that time, the
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Many barriers keep North
Koreans trapped in an
oppressive life - some
physical, some geographic,
and some psychological.
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7

Tumen River Bridge
The Tumen River runs between
North Korea and China. It acts
as both a barrier and route to
freedom for North Korean
defectors like Sammy. Creative
Commons photo from flickr by
user wifarm.
blue bear stayed with us through the fear, risk,
and suffering. Now it is sitting nicely in our
bedroom. That blue teddy bear is [figuratively]
our daughter LeiSung and also a painful scar.”
Despite the tragic loss of his child, or maybe
because of it, Sammy found Christ.
In all his years in North Korea, Sammy had
never heard of Jesus, and yet, looking back,
he realizes that God had been working in his
life long before he escaped and found Christ.
Years before Sammy’s escape, his brother
had recounted their mother’s strange actions
before she died. Desperate for food, she had
daringly crossed into China for food but
according to Sammy’s brother, his mother
brought back more than food.
“My brother told me that my mom had developed
a mental disorder after visiting China
several times. He said she kept talking to herself
every morning… saying, ‘Please take Sammy to
the father. Please let Sammy meet you, Father.’”
At the time of hearing the story, Sammy
assumed that perhaps she was speaking to
his father, who had died of starvation. After
Sammy became a Christian, he realized that
his mother wasn’t crazy but had been praying
incessantly for his own salvation.
“Now, I know that the Father, that my mom
was talking to was not my dad, it was our God,
the Father.”
Since his escape, Sammy has helped his
brother and sister-in-law escape North Korea.
He now lives in the United States and continues
to raise awareness regarding the plight of those
still living under the control of the Kim regime.
“Now that I look back to our journey, I
know that it would be impossible if God
hadn’t guided us with his love and [direction].
I thank our Lord for picking me out of hell,
[out of] the darkness; and guiding us to this
In all his years in
North Korea, Sammy
had never heard
of Jesus, and yet,
looking back, he
realizes that God had
been working in his
life long before he
escaped.
land of freedom (the United States).”
Praise’s Story: God at Work
in the Market Generation
Praise Ju is a member of a young generation
of escaped North Koreans who are seeing
many North Koreans come to Christ after
years of labor to reach the closed country
with the Gospel. She shared with ICC her life
story and how the spread of the Gospel and
underground believers in North Korea are
the hope of the future of the prison state.
They’re called the Jangmadang (Market)
Generation. They grew up during North
Korea’s great famine and during the breakdown
of the country’s Public Distribution
System, a rationing system used to control the
populace and reward and punish citizens based
on their loyalty and use to the regime.
Early on, this generation was weaned from
dependence on the state; these youth have grown
up buying and selling on the black market, for
which their generation is named, and this has
shaped their worldview in a completely different
way than their parents and grandparents.
You see, the black market has brought in
more than food. It has brought in a flood of
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media; everything from South Korean soap
operas to Western pop movies (Titanic is a
favorite) and access to this information is
changing the face of the most closed and
secretive country in the world.
Praise Ju, a young leader in this promising
generation, was born in 1991. In 1998,
her father brought home an illegal radio that
would change his family’s life forever. North
Korea routinely jams foreign broadcast signals,
especially Gospel broadcasts in a cat and
mouse game. But Ju’s father would diligently
search and find Christian broadcasts as well as
Chinese media coming in over the border. For
the next 10 years, Ju and her family would be
transformed by what they heard and watched
behind closed curtains and beneath blankets at
night. While her father was drawn to Gospel
broadcasts, Ju was initially more interested in
foreign songs, soap operas and movies coming
from China. Even though the content was
mostly drivel, this kind of media has been vital
in breaking the hold of the regime’s propaganda
stranglehold on the minds and imaginations
of its citizens and especially its youth.
By 2000, her father had come to the conclusion
that they had been duped by the Kim
regimes for their whole lives and it left him
outraged. For the sake of his children, he
decided to defect and began making preparatory
trips to China before finally escaping in
2007 to make way for his family. They agreed
to flee separately to avoid undue attention.
After a seven-month journey, Ju’s father
arrived in South Korea and began working
feverishly to earn enough money to reunite his
family. In 2008, Ju’s mother and two younger
‘‘People around the
world are praying
for you, so don’t be
afraid,” Ju’s father
told her. Ju said, “I
didn’t know what
prayer was, but I
prayed to God to save
my life.”’
siblings followed and arrived safely the same
year – leaving Ju alone at the age of 17.
Fortunately, her parents had moved their family
to the country during the famine to ensure
their children would continue to eat to survive.
After talking her way out of a close call with
North Korean police who had been tipped off
to her father’s use of foreign radio, Ju was able
to contact her father in South Korea and plan
her first attempt to defect in 2009. By an act
of providence, Ju was late to meet the broker
who was to assist in her escape. Her broker
was arrested upon his arrival – as she would
have been had she been on time. Her father
advised her to lay low for a time and even
suggested she remain in North Korea indefinitely
to spread the Gospel. Ju readily agreed
and enrolled in nursing school to pursue that
calling, but later learned her that mother was
becoming physically ill at the thought of being
separated from her daughter forever.
Street Market in North Korea capitol Pyongyang
The “Black markets” in North Korea have been a source of smuggled food, media,
and technology that has brought up a new generation of citizens who are more
aware of the outside world. Creative Commons photo from wikimedia.
In 2010, her father hired another broker who
helped her and another young girl to bribe the
border guards and escape across the river. In
China, Ju and her new friend were arrested when
police raided the broker’s home. Miraculously,
Ju was able to contact her father from prison.
“My father told me on the telephone,
‘People around the world are praying for you,
so don’t be afraid and pray to God,’” Ju told
ICC. “I didn’t know what prayer was, but I
prayed to God to save my life.”
In a short time, an underground organization
in South Korea raised nearly $100,000 –
enabling her father to bribe police. On the day
they were to be repatriated to North Korea, Ju
and her friend were loaded on a truck and driven
to safety. In 2011, Ju crossed through Laos
and Thailand and finally rejoined her family in
South Korea, where she still lives today as an
advocate for human rights and reaching North
Korea with the Gospel.
“We don’t consider ourselves lucky,” Ju
said of her family’s escape. “If not for the
intercessory prayers of other believers and
for us submitting ourselves in obedience and
humility to God, I don’t think we would be
where we are today.”
Ju’s exhortation to fellow defectors of her
generation is to send more than money back
to their families in North Korea.
“If the Church could train defectors to not
just be Sunday Christians, but true disciples of
Christ, they could send more,” Ju explained.
“Sending in the Gospel would bring about
true change.”
Never before has a North Korean generation
been so open to change and so likely to act.
North Korea is not the hermit kingdom it once
was. While it remains a prison state, there are
whispers within of coming change.
The people of North Korea are anxiously
awaiting the change of political salvation and
release from their prison. The need for regime
change is great, but their greatest need is for
release from their eternal prison. Economic
sanctions, diplomatic agendas, or even war
will not meet the deepest need of North
Korea—only Jesus can.
If there were ever a time to reach North
Koreans with the truth of the Gospel, it is
NOW! We have the treasure of Christ and
we are shepherds of the Word of the Lord.
We have been called by our master to take
that treasure to the end of the earth - to
North Korea!
Please join us in doing just that by going to
page 32 to see how to open the prison doors of
North Korea.
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9

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