North Korean Defector Speaks at VOM Conference

Mr. K is the current speaker for our conference. He is a defector from North Korea and now lives in South Korea.

There is more freedom for Christians in South Korea. There are 13,000 defectors in South Korea and approximately 130,000 around China and other places.

It is widely known that North Korean defectors are considered traitors and often sought for death.

He is sharing how he had to learn that quotations from Kim Jong Il were worthless. There are 600 songs in the hymn book to Kim Jong Il, when he saw the hymn book for Christians only had 558 songs he felt sad. At that time "I was refusing God".

Then one day, I went to the mountain to pray and overheard Chinese and Korean Christians. They were passionate about their prayers even though it was very very hot. They were praying for the North Korean defectors. This is when he realized it would be wrong to criticize the Christians.

Then one guy promised to send him to South Korea if he would copy the bible one time. Then in 1997, he gave up copying the bible and left the church.

While waiting for a boat to leave for South Korean, he was arrested. They handcuffed him and forced him to go back to North Korea.

Then he was tortured and interrogated. His mouth was torn and all of his fingers were broken. Then sent to his prison cell, after less than an hour.

After a public trial was held, he may have been killed. However, all he could do is pray to the God he rejected. He prayed for three days on the journey to his trial. It should have taken one day, but instead it took three days.

He then told the Lord he would give his life for Him if he was set free.

So when he was in the bathroom, he sensed it was his time to escape. Without thinking he jumped off a moving train.

As the train disappeared from his sight, his body was flattened. He cried out to the Lord, "Thank you for saving me!"

Then he was able to defect back to China, where people noticed he had been saved.