North Korea Reacts Violently to Balloon Campaign

A few days ago we asked you to remember North Korea in your prayers and to ask the Lord to protect the Christians in North Korea and to pray for those in North Korea who do not know the Lord.

Today we have a report from Mission Network News in which Todd Nettleton from VOM-USA shares some recent events regarding balloons that are used to send aid, comfort and the gospel into this restricted nation.

North Korea (MNN) ? A massive propaganda campaign by the South Korean military drew an ominous warning from North Korea.

Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs explains that South Korea thought it was high time the people in the North were brought up to speed about current events. "They have since started up again their own efforts, including recently dropping news reports from the Middle East [regarding] how countries and people have marched in the streets and overturned their dictators." 

It's a story that might resonate strongly in North Korea. The balloons also reportedly carried toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, underwear, and basic medicine.

Although the government can block the airwaves, they can't block what gets carried in on the air current. Nettleton says their teams also use this method.  "The Voice of the Martyrs and our contacts are launching Scripture balloons. Other groups are launching different kinds of information into North Korea."

However, Pyongyang says they will fire on anyone sending helium balloons in from South Korea. The VOM balloons are also considered threats. North Korea is taking no chances. "We have also heard that they will mobilize entire military units to go out and pick up and destroy the leaflets when they fall. Even simple Scripture passages are thought to be such a threat that it requires large-scale military intervention."

On the heels of this threat comes another over the annual US-South Korean military drills. North Korea is now threatening a military and nuclear response to the war games that they see as a preparation for "invasion." Although South Korean and U.S. forces brushed off the threats, there is reason to keep defenses raised. 

Kim Jong-un is building his persona as the new leader. It's possible that he would do more than rattle his saber. Nettleton explains, "There is that side of it, as well, of him trying to establish that he is the defender of the Korean people and a great military leader. In that sense, I think perhaps we pay more attention this year than we would have a year ago."

Now that the news of the revolts has made it across North Korea's borders, it's expected that the country will take strong preventative measures against the possibility of unrest. Believers, already facing the severest persecution in the world, can expect more. Nettleton says, "Christians are routinely arrested and sent off to concentration camps, so it's an incredibly difficult place to be a follower of Christ. And what's going on politically hasn't changed that and really may have accentuated it a bit, in the short term."

North Korea has consistently topped the world's human rights watch lists as being the most repressive and closed nation on earth. It leads the Open Doors World Watch list again in 2011. Given the instability right now, Nettleton suggests the strongest course of action: "We can pray for the Christians in North Korea. We know that they are there. We know that they are oppressed, many of them in prison. Pray for their encouragement, pray for their safety. Pray that they will continue to be faithful in spite of their suffering."