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North Korea
North Korea is a country of 23 million people, and has a literacy rate of 99%. However, in North Korea, the Bible is an illegal piece of property, and the followers of Jesus are regularly executed and tortured for their faith. In June of 2009 a North Korean woman, Ri Hyon Ok, was publicly executed. The day following her death, the government of North Korea condemned her parents, husband, and three children to a political prison camp. There are hundreds of thousands of people in such political prison camps, where the conditions are no better than Hitler’s well known concentration camps.
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North Korea, today, is mostly known for it’s nuclear weapons program and the terrible conditions of it’s general populous. It has, however, in the past been known for a more glorious cause. Many missionaries came to Korea in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s and many souls were converted to Christ at that time. In 1907, a spiritual revival broke out in Pyongyang, what is now the capital city of North Korea. The working of the Holy Spirit at that time caused thousands of Koreans to repent, making public confessions. Often, the people would travel over 100 miles by foot to come to Pyongyang to hear the gospel. And from Pyongyang, missionaries were sent out to China. Pyongyang became known as “Jerusalem of the east,” because of the peace that rested there, and because of the many missionaries being sent out. In the years following the revival, the church suffered severe persecution at the hand of the Japanese army. After the fall of Japan in WW2, the Korean peninsula was divided into two “occupation zones” with the Soviets in the north, and the Americans in the south. The Soviet government set up Kim Il Sung as a communist leader in northern Korea, and in 1950, they went to war against the south. During the Korean war, thousands of Christians fled south. Many of the large, famous churches in South Korea were actually founded by pastors from North Korea. In 1953 an armistice ended the fighting, and the DMZ border zone at the 38th parallel came to be the heaviest guarded border in the world, making any crossing virtually impossible. North Korea became the most secluded country in the world.
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In the late 1990’s North Korea experienced a severe famine in which an estimated 2 to 3 million people died of starvation. Many North Koreans were forced to flee to China and look for food. This was very dangerous for them because #1 it is illegal to leave North Korea and #2 China would not recognize North Koreans as refugees. Today there are approximately 400,000 North Korean refugees living in China, and yet only a handful of them have been able to go on to South Korea. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of NK refugees entering South Korea was 799. Between 2001 and 2008 the number was 13,241.
Click here to view a brief slideshow
For more information about North Korea, and North Korean refugees, please view the following videos:
Born and Raised in a Concentration Camp
1 hr. 6 min.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms4NIB6xroc&feature=email
The Crossing
(in 10 parts).A South Korean film w/English subtitles. Based on a true story. Parental discretion advised.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhahvxABPGQ
Unreached Villages supports the following North Korean ministries:
- Unreached Villages supports the following North Korean ministries:
- Providing shelter and evacuation for North Koreans in peril
- Training and discipleship for missionaries
- Food for the starving
- Bibles and other materials for evangelism
Prayer requests by North Korean Christians
(written and agreed upon by 10 North Korean Christians in July of 2009) |
- Our hope is unification between the Nort h and South.
- Our Holy Father, please stop the war that started on June 25 (1950), and with Your power, unite the Korean Peninsula.
- Please give us our daily bread. Father, our country has 7,000,000 people who are starving now. Please send us food to eat.
- Help our leaders Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un to repent. Cast Satan and all evil spirits away from the leaders and the military.
- Please open our country’s border. Father, with Your power, open our border with China. Please prevent the refugees from being repatriated.
- Father, with Your power, please open the gates of the North Korean political prison camps. Because Lord, You know if we go into the prison camps, we won’t come out alive.
Click here for a scriptural prayer guide for North Korea