Persecution Blog

North Korean Media Calls Out VOM

One of VOM's ongoing projects to reach North Korea with the gospel, in cooperation with our sister mission in Seoul, South Korea, is the launch of "Scripture Balloons," which float across the border and drop gospel leaflets and whole New Testaments into North Korea.

The project is clearly hitting its mark! Recently North Korean state media specifically mentioned VOM's balloon efforts. Here is a blog post from our sister mission in South Korea:

North Korea's state media (KCNA) released a statement condemning us by name ("Voice of Martyr") for our accurate and "tricky" balloon launches into North Korea this year. They even noted the dates of our launches and the locations where our Bibles landed, which we of course already knew because of our use of GPS technology. KCNA references our use of "e-media," noting that we send the Bible in both printed and electronic forms.

The KCNA report follows.

[Translation note: When NK uses the term "Riff-raffs" they are typically referring to North Korean defectors--in this case, our Underground University and Underground Technology students who are proud members of our organization and balloon launch ministry.]

Pyongyang, August 14 (KCNA) -- The south Korean puppet forces have reached an extreme phase in their leaflet-scattering operations against the DPRK.

Riff-raffs affiliated to the Voice of Martyr, a puppet die-hard conservative organization in south Korea, scattered by use of balloons anti-DPRK leaflets over areas in the DPRK from the area of Hapsu-ri in Jung-myon of Ryonchon County, Kyonggi Province on July 24.

Similar operations were conducted by other south Korean die-hard conservative bodies in the area of Aegibong, Jogang-ri, Wolgot-myon in Kimpho City, Kyonggi Province on July 27 and in the area of Rodongdangsa, Jung-ri, Cholwon County of south Korean Kangwon Province on July 31.

Entering August, the puppet forces have got zealous in scattering anti-DPRK leaflets and various kinds of undesirable e-media as evidenced by their scattering operations on August 5, 6 and 7. They conducted 3 to 5 operations in June and 9 operations in July.

They are getting trickier in fixing time and locations for their scattering operations against the DPRK.

In view of this critical situation, the frontline combined units of the Korean People's Army released an open statement on August 14.

What is more serious is that the die-hard conservative bodies have conducted anti-DPRK leaflet-scattering operations with the tacit connivance of the south Korean regime and military, the statement said, and went on:

The south Korean puppet joint chiefs of staff named the anti-DPRK leaflet scattering operations of the non-governmental reactionary organizations "balloon operations", gave an "order" to all frontline guard units and artillery units to "tighten vigilance against the north" and "get ready to open fire."

The operations for massively scattering anti-DPRK leaflets and undesirable e-media that have spilt over to the whole area along the military demarcation line are an open declaration of a war against the DPRK.

If one side mobilizes forces while conducting a psychological warfare against its opponent, that just leads to a total war.

Now that such large-scale joint military drills as Ulji Freedom Guardian are close at hand, the Park Geun Hye group has launched such a large-scale psychological warfare as leaflet-scattering operations. This clearly proves that the north-south relations have been plunged into the state of a war, in actuality.

The puppet forces should not forget even a moment that the whole of south Korea might turn into a sea of fire due to the foolhardy leaflet scattering operations.

There is a limit to the patience of the frontline soldiers of the KPA.

Please pray for North Koreans to come to know Christ, and for the safety of our workers and partners helping to deliver these vital gospel resources. You can read the original VOM-Korea blog post here.

Going to Church in North Korea

I find the nation of North Korea almost endlessly fascinating. There seems to be no way that anyone born and raised in a free nation can understand the level of control and paranoia that exists inside “The Hermit Kingdom.” And very few of us will ever be allowed to visit.

Suki Kim was allowed to visit…and even to live in North Korea. She was hired to teach English at a university in Pyongyang. While teaching, she was also collecting material for a book. That book, “Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s Elite,” was published last year.

It is a fascinating read. Kim does not claim to be a Christian, though those who hired her to teach at the university believed that she was. One of the more fascinating parts, to me, was her report on being taken to “church” in North Korea, a stage-managed experienced designed to convince the foreigners that there were both openly-practicing Christians and religious freedom in North Korea. Here is how she tells the story:

Although we were late because we had been stopped, the entire church had been expecting us and had waited to begin the service.

Inside, about a hundred parishioners and a choir sat in almost perfect silence on the pews. They were mostly women between the ages of thirty and fifty. As we entered they turned toward us and smiled in unison. They looked reasonably well off, although not as affluent as our students, and for a moment I wondered why those people were not at the voting booth. We were directed to front-row seats and given brand-new Bibles and hymn books in Korean and English. Each of us was also given a set of headphones and a device so we could listen to the service with the aid of simultaneous translation. When you turned it on a perky voice said, “Welcome to our church,” as though it were an English conversation lesson. Next to the pastor was a projector screen on which we could see ourselves. I looked around to see who was filming us, but it was impossible to tell. Soon a woman in a shiny hanbok went up to the altar to recite a prayer—really more of a beseeching soliloquy about unification, the sorrow of the Korean people, and the evils of those who had separated us. It sounded as though she had performed it many times before.   

The sermon was much the same. The pastor talked about the evils of the South Korean regime, which, backed by the American imperialists, kept Korea divided. This crime would be punished, he insisted, quoting Romans 6:23—“For the wages of sin is death…”—to underscore his point. At some point we all had to go to the front and sing to our North Korean Christian brothers and sisters, who put on happy and excited faces as if on cue. We were encouraged to take photos throughout.

I kept looking at the faces of the pastor and parishioners, which revealed nothing. It was all theater, and I was part of it. They were pretending to be Christians, and we were pretending to believe them.

…

It was a relief to listen to the choir, which sang so fervently and beautifully that I wondered if they had been selected for their singing talent. This was not such a terrible duty, I thought. They could come here and daydream for an hour and sing. Their friends might even envy them such a cushy assignment.

…

Soon we were ushered out and encouraged to take a Bible and a hymnbook with us as souvenirs. The parishioners smiled and waved and sang, “Let’s meet again,” and the pastor stood outside and posed for pictures with all of us. And we got on the bus, all the parishioners still waving at us, and then we could see them walking away all at once, quickly disappearing into Pyongyang’s streets as though they had dispensed with their morning duty.

Todd Nettleton has served the persecuted church and VOM more than 17 years. He has been interviewed more than 2000 times by various media outlets. He's the author of Restricted Nations: North Korea, and served on the writing team for FOXE, Extreme Devotion, Hearts of Fire and other VOM books. You can read his post about another North Korea book here.

Disclosure: VOM is part of the Amazon Associates program. If you click on the links in this post and purchase the book from Amazon, VOM will receive a very small percentage of your purchase as a referral fee.

Letters of Confession Delivered

Last summer VOM asked our readers to send a letter to Kim Jong Un, the brutal dictator of The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Not just any letter, either, but a letter of confession. Each letter began with the words, “I am a Christian.”

It seems such a simple declaration to those of us who live in free nations. I am a Christian.

But it isn’t a simple thing for our brothers and sisters in North Korea. For them, “I am a Christian,” means “I am going to a concentration camp,” or “I am going to be executed.”

The letter VOM created was based on letters that North Korean Christians, as well as foreign Christians arrested in North Korea, have been forced to sign. But the VOM version finishes with a different confession from those DPRK-approved letters: a confession that the signatory will pray for North Korea, and for Kim Jong Un personally.

More than 93,000 people from 150+ nations signed the letter, and in recent weeks VOM staff have delivered those signatures, as promised, to the North Korean delegation to the United Nations.

That delivery took place in two stages. The first was an in-person delivery directly to the offices of The Permanent Mission of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the United Nations in New York City. Because of the logistical and security challenges of getting 25+ boxes into a high-security building in New York City, our first step was to deliver a digital collection of those 93,000+ names of people praying for North Korea.

When our VOM team arrived at the building and checked in at the security desk, one of the guards said, “It’s better to make an appointment with [the North Korean office].” He called up to tell the North Koreans they had visitors.

Ten or 12 minutes later a gentleman from North Korea came out of the elevator and into the lobby. He introduced himself. We shook hands. He didn’t invite us up to his office, so I presented him with an envelope right there in the lobby, with security watching and other building workers coming and going.

It wasn’t a long conversation. I told him that we’d come from Oklahoma on behalf of Christians across America and around the world who were praying for North Korea and were concerned about the treatment of Christians there. I handed him an envelope containing a copy of the Letter of Confession, a brief explanation of it, and a disk containing 93,000+ scanned letters and online signature names from all over the world (signors’ addresses were NOT shared).

He said that he would review the documents and gave me his card. The whole conversation took less than five minutes. He walked back into the secure area and got on the elevator. We walked out onto the busy New York sidewalk. I silently prayed that God would somehow use those signatures and our brief conversation to bless our brothers and sisters in North Korea.

 

I emailed him a thank you after we returned to Oklahoma; so far he hasn’t responded.

The in-person delivery of the digitized letters and names was the first part of our delivery plan. After all, an envelope, a letter and a CD are easy to ignore or even just toss in the trash. Part two of our plan was the actual printed and signed letters—more than 93,000 of them.

Getting 30 boxes of anything from a warehouse in Oklahoma to a 13^th-floor office in the heart of Manhattan is not an easy task. So for this stage of the delivery we called in the experts: UPS. Each box was carefully packed and sealed by our Operations team in Bartlesville. Each was weighed and labeled and ready for UPS pick-up. Because we wanted a way to show that the North Koreans had actually received the letters, we asked for signature from the recipient.

And we prayed, again, that somehow God would get these heavy boxes to New York and into the hands of someone who would care. Someone on whom the fact of 93,000 Christians praying for his or her country might make an impact. Might even plant a seed of Truth into their heart and mind.

Those boxes were delivered this week. They were signed for by a Mr. Kwon.

Thank you to all those who signed a “Letter of Confession” for North Korea. While this Letter of Confession effort by The Voice of the Martyrs is now over, the suffering of our brothers and sisters in North Korea is not. The need for our faithful and passionate prayer for them and their nation is as important now as it has ever been.

The book of Daniel tells us the story of a ruler who held himself up as God and demanded his subjects worship him, just as Kim Jong Un demands today in North Korea. We know the end of the story for those rulers: every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess who the real God is (Rom. 14:11).

Daniel also tells us the story of those who steadfastly refused to deny their faith in the True God. In spite of pressure. In spite of threats of death.

There are people like Daniel and his friends in North Korea right now. They refuse to bow to their evil ruler. They refuse to pray to Kim Jong Un or the dead “eternal president,” Kim Il Sung. Instead they pray to Jesus Christ, knowing such prayers might cost them their earthly life.

I confess that I don’t know the challenges they face. I confess that I can’t imagine the hardships they endure. And I confess that I will pray for God to sustain and bless them; to strengthen them for each day of their journey.

I hope you’ll join in that prayer.

Todd Nettleton has served with The Voice of the Martyrs for 17 years. He’s travelled to more than 20 restricted and hostile nations and interviewed hundreds of believers who’ve faced persecution for their Christian witness. As VOM’s principle media spokesperson, Todd has done more than 2,000 interviews with media outlets ranging from Moody Radio to the BBC and Los Angeles Times. He is the principle author of Restricted Nations: North Korea and was part of the writing team for four other VOM books.

Most-Read Posts of 2014: #4

This week, as we celebrate the birth of Christ, we will be looking back on the most-read posts on the Persecution Blog this year. Today we look back on the #4 most-read post. We will continue to count down until we unveil number 1 on Friday. Come back each day this week to learn which posts drew the most attention, readers and shares over the course of 2014.

North Korea Infographic (June 16)

Using data compiled by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and the UN Commission of Inquiry, The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and The Bush Institute at the George W. Bush Presidential Center created this infographic to describe the plight of men, women, and children held captive in North Korea’s political prison camps without charges or trial.

VOM's June newsletter focuses on North Korea. VOM estimates that 30,000 Christians are held in prison camps.

Our hope today is that seeing these facts illustrated in this way will inspire you to pray more fervently for North Korea and for our Christian brothers and sisters there.

US Official Gets Rare Look Inside North Korea

Yesterday CBS News aired an interview with James Clapper, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, who recently returned from North Korea along with two American citizens who had been imprisoned there.

It is extremely rare for a currently-serving government official to visit North Korea, and while Clapper does not discuss North Korea's treatment of Christians in this interview, his comments offer insights into the nation where thousands of our brothers and sisters are currently held in political-prisoner camps:

 

We are thankful for the release of these two Americans and their chance to be reunited with their families. We pray this same blessing will be realized by our Christian brothers and sisters inside North Korea's prisons: that they may be released and reunited with their families as well. Pray with us for the nation of North Korea.

You can speak out on behalf of North Korea's Christians at www.letterofconfession.com. 

Exclusive Video from INSIDE North Korea

If you understand how completely closed North Korea is, you will find this video truly amazing!

In this exclusive, never-before-seen footage from inside North Korea, two men have just received a VOM-sponsored Ministry Pack. The Ministry Packs contain a New Testament, a USB thumb drive loaded with Christian material, and basics like socks, shampoo and noodles. The courageous Christian who smuggled the Ministry Pack into North Korea shot this short video of two North Koreans watching some of the material on the thumb drive for confirmation. The two men are also holding the New Testament provided by VOM.

 

More than 1,500 of these Ministry Packs will be distributed to North Koreans in and outside of North Korea this year. VOM workers find that even packs distributed outside the country often make their way back into North Korea, as North Koreans send them as gifts to family members. 

North Korea Balloon Launch Leads to Gunfire

For decades, The Voice of the Martyrs has launched balloons printed with the Scriptures into North Korea. In recent years we’ve even been able to attach entire New Testaments to balloons, and to track their flight and delivery via GPS signals. In this way we know we have landed New Testaments into the capital region of Pyongyang.

While many American Christians are fascinated by this creative gospel distribution, the North Korean government is NOT a fan. Last week North Korean soldiers fired on balloons launched by human rights activists in South Korea, and South Korean troops returned fire across the border.

The balloons launched on that particular day were NOT a part of VOM’s balloon project; reportedly they contained pro-democracy messages and other items rather than Scriptures or Christian materials.

VOM contacts working in South Korea said that the reason for gunfire in this case is that the North Koreans took particular exception to launching balloons on Friday, which was the anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s “Workers Party,” which rules the country. This is a national holiday in North Korea.

North Korea—famous for its bluster in talking about its enemies—called the launching of the leaflet balloons “little short of a declaration of war,” and promised that “the provokers will be wholly accountable for it.”

South Korea’s government says it cannot stop the balloon launches because of its constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech.

Please continue to pray for VOM efforts to launch balloons into North Korea, and especially for the safety of our contacts who are undertaking this work.

Read how North Korea controls and uses its “churches.”

Reading Hebrews 13:3 with Mosul in Mind

Today we share an excerpt from a post by Pastor Eric Foley, VOM’s project partner for North Korea, the CEO of Seoul-USA, and a regular speaker at VOM Regional Conferences. In his post Pastor Foley provides a careful and thoughtful exegesis of Hebrews 13:3 in light of the current situation that Christians are facing in Mosul under the domination or Islamic State (IS).

After sharing a careful look at the language of the verse and the challenge it presents (what does it really mean to “remember those in prison”?),and through his unique perspective as one intimately connected to our brothers and sisters facing equally-intense persecution inside North Korea, Pastor Foley ends with a very clear challenge to American believers:

What if, as we mourned the Christians of Mosul and followed their plight on the news, Jesus turned to us and said,

“Christians in the ‘free’ world, do not weep for the Christians of Mosul; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the Christians who were warned before they were evicted, given the chance to escape before they were put to death!’

This does not in any way absolve us of prayers, tears, and advocacy on their behalf. After all, Jesus wasn’t shooing the women away. He was calling them to think even more deeply. And when we think even more deeply and scripturally we begin to recognize that prisoners of faith are not an aberration to be remedied by our advocacy and relieved by our gifts, as much as those actions are important. No, prisoners of faith are a regular and permanent feature of Christianity–a reminder until he comes again of the difficulties Christ promised would be attendant to all who follow him. We really are Nazarenes, in a way deeper than we can imagine. 

And interestingly, Nazarenes and other persecuted Christians are in their harrowing situations for the same reason he was in that situation: Because it turns out that Christianity really is a threat to Islam, a threat to the existing world order, and a threat to many aspects of the “American way of life” as well. Even if we generally mind our own business and carry out the commands of Christ in small and faithful ways that would seem to hurt no one, we should not be surprised when our countrymen turn on us as well one day, just as the countrymen of the Christians of Mosul are turning on them now. Trouble, says Jesus, is what you have in store when you follow me.

If this is true, then how are we to respond today to the situation facing the Christians in Mosul? Pray, yes. Give, yes. Advocate, yes. Cry, yes. But something more, deeper, and costlier is called for here than only our tears, our advocacy, and our material aid, and–yes–our Facebook posts.

What is called for is a decision to voluntarily take up the cross in our own nation and neighborhood, while the wood is still green. 

If you wonder what that would look like in your own life, you are not alone. I am renewing my own quest for an answer. Fortunately the author of Hebrews actually goes on to explain in detail to us some of the consequences of identifying with the Nazarene (and the Nazarenes) that we are likely to encounter. He says this identification will impact every dimension of our existence, from our marriages (13:4) to our Christmas wish lists (13:5) to our diets (13:9) to the people with whom we voluntarily associate (and “friend” on Facebook) and the places we frequent (13:13). But I’ll let you read those verses for yourself.

Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.

CLICK HERE to read Pastor Foley's entire post, "A Careful Exegesis of Hebrews 13:3, With Mosul In Mind." Thank you, Rev. Foley, for granting permission for us to excerpt it here.

Inside North Korea: a View from an “Admitted”

Recently Pastor Eric Foley, President of Seoul-USA and a key coordinator for VOM’s work to support the church in North Korea, recommended a couple of books to help me better understand life in North Korea. I finished the first book this week, and was blown away by the story of a top-level North Korean who lost faith in the Kim family and chose to flee his nation.

The book is “DEAR LEADER: Poet, Spy, Escapee—A Look Inside North Korea” by Jang Jin-Sung. Mr. Jang was a part of “The Admitted,” a tiny circle of elite North Koreans whose presence Kim Jong-Il personally requested and who have spent more than twenty minutes with him behind closed doors.

There is much in its pages that is eye-opening about life in North Korea, but in particular I want to share a section about religion inside the country, and especially the “Christians” we see in pictures and on TV whenever a big-name church leader is welcomed into the country.

Here are Mr. Jang’s insights:

As a former member of the UFD (United Front Department, which oversees inter-Korean espionage, policy-making and diplomacy), I thought I knew all about religion. Even in North Korea, there is such a thing. More specifically, North Korea has a number of religious institutions that are controlled by the United Front Department. But in practice, North Korea is a one-religion state, where only the worship of the Kim cult is allowed. The UFD’s religious institutions exist in order that North Korea may claim that it is a pluralistic society, and thereby appear to comply with the values of those who wish to give it aid or engage with the North through Track II or “informal” channels.

All of North Korea’s religious institutions are staffed by UFD “Track II Diplomacy” operatives and include the Chosun Buddhist Association, the Chosun Christian Association, The Chosun Catholic Association, and the Chosun Catholic Central Committee. I was aware that, in dealing with the outside world, the UFD used the names of the different religious institutions. Internally, it was illegal to use these, so they were referred to by numbers. Although a cadre might be a monk or priest as far as the outside world was concerned, in the UFD they were all faithful worshippers of the Kim cult.

If you are in Pyongyang and go to Jangchun-dong in Dongdae-won Area, or Palgol-dong in the Mangyongdae area, you will see buildings with crosses on their roofs. The priests who worship in these buildings sing authentic Christian hymns, in the same way that people outside North Korea do in ordinary churches. But the congregations are composed exclusively of UFD operatives and their family members, who are obliged to attend out of duty to the party. No ordinary North Korean could even begin to consider worshipping in these buildings, as they are in operational zones where entry is restricted to UFD personnel and foreigners.

But, in 2000, the following incident occurred. Once, in order to welcome an international religious organization to North Korea, the UFD conspicuously opened the doors of the Jangchun church in Pyongyang to the public. An old man in his eighties walked in carrying a Bible that he had kept hidden all his life. He said that he had believed in Jesus before the Korean war, but after losing his family to an American bombardment, he had converted and become instead a fervent believer in the Supreme Leader, Kim Il-sung. He even explained that at his age, old memories became important, and he had come to the church because he’d been delighted to hear hymns from his childhood. Theold man was reported by the UFD operative in priestly garb and arrested on the spot by secret police.

That cadre was subsequently awarded a First Class medal, reserved for the most loyal to Kim, for the achievement of exposing a religious element who had succeeded in keeping his subversive beliefs secret until now. I was there sitting in the audience, applauding as the cadre received his medal. The old man was sent to a prison camp, and the very same Bible is used to this day by the UFD as a prop to baost about the history of North Korea’s religious tolerance.

These religious activities only helped UFD cadres enjoy more luxuries not available to ordinary North Koreans. North Korea is technically still at war with the United States, so internally, all humanitarian aid from outside is referred to as “spoils of war.” Because the North Koran system associates itself with the ideology of “Juche,” it prohibits the word “aid,” as this is regarded as a threat to “self-reliance.” As a result, gifts received every month by employees of the UFD included “spoils of war” donated by various South Korean and international religious organizations as humanitarian aid.

In spite of the fake Christians you may have seen in TV news reports or photos, VOM knows there are also real, genuine followers of Christ in the “Hermit Kingdom.” And we know they are paying a high price: of an estimated 100,000 Christians in North Korea, it is believed that 30,000 are currently held in the political-prisoner camps of the regime.

It is in honor of these brothers and sisters that VOM launched the Letter of Confession last month: an effort to get one million Christians to “confess” that they know what is happening to our spiritual family in North Korea, and further that they are praying for that nation. If you haven’t yet signed a letter of confession, do so today. And if you have already signed, make sure to share this effort with your Christian friends, your pastor and the members of your Sunday School class or small-group Bible study. You may also choose to give online to support VOM's ministry work to support the North Korean church.

I strongly encourage you to read “Dear Leader.” It will help you to better understand the North Korean regime, and pray more effectively for that nation.

Todd Nettleton has served with The Voice of the Martyrs for 16 years. He’s travelled to more than 20 restricted and hostile nations and interviewed hundreds of believers who’ve faced persecution for their Christian witness. As VOM’s principle media spokesperson, Todd has done more than 2,000 interviews with media outlets ranging from Moody Radio to the BBC and The Los Angeles Times. He is the principle author of Restricted Nations: North Korea and was part of the writing team for four other VOM books.

Disclosure: VOM is part of the Amazon Associates program. If you click on the links in this post and purchase the book from Amazon, VOM will receive a very small percentage of your purchase as a referral fee.

Persecution Update on Moody Radio

Last week VOM's Todd Nettleton was a guest on In the Market with Janet Parshall, aired nationwide on the Moody Radio Network.

In the 30 minute interview with Parshall, Nettleton shared updates about the persecuted church, focussing particularly on North Korea, the subject of VOM's June newsletter, and VOM's effort to get one million Christians to sign a "Letter of Confession" to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Please click here to listen to this interview (a new window will open; Nettleton's interview begins at about the 26:00 mark) and also thank you for praying for the persecuted church and making a difference.