In 1122 B.C. 5,000 subjects of Chinese rule rebelled and fled to the peninsula we now associate with Korea, organizing a new state, “Chosun”, land of morning calm. For the next 3,000 years this “hermit kingdom” suffered the abuses of Mongolians, Chinese, and Japanese until in 1876 a trade treaty was forced upon it by Japan. Korea was brought out of its shell, and over the next quarter of a century all of its ports were opened to the West.

Japan pushed even farther, however.From 1910 to 1945 it occupied Korea totally. What Christian witness had spread was slowly extinguished, not by the Koreans, but by their foreign “hosts.” At the end of World War II, the country was divided. More intruders came in, and in the North they still are there. Christians have been murdered en masse during the long occupation of Russian/Chinese style totalitarian Communism. 500 pastors were killed during the Korean War period alone.

Thousands to this day languish in a prison gulag, trusting Christ daily for their perseverance and deliverance. That is the rough outline. We go back now to fill in details.

It was in the early 1800’s that Korean diplomats in Peking, China, met members of the Catholic world system. Contacts were made, and secret entrances were attempted into Korea. Catholicism spread rapidly, but was countered by Buddhist priests as Rome, a foreign power, was a political threat to their authority over the lives of the Korean people.