The following interview report came to my attention recently. It provides valuable insights as to the effect Christ's church is having in North Korea.

We [ the source of my information, a Christian group sending flyers into North Korea ] interviewed Brother John, a North Korean refugee who now lives in Los Angeles. While in North Korea, he encountered several flyers [we might call them "tracts"] launched from South Korea. (These are the same type of flyers as VOM now launches.) We asked him how he obtained them, what the contents were, and his thoughts on the effectiveness of flyers. His reply is below:

"The first time I saw a flyer from South Korea was in the early 1990's at xxx, where I had gone to do some business. Any flyers that land on the road or in villages are supposed to be brought to the National Security Agency (Bowiboo). Whenever I found a flyer, I of course went to a mountain or a quiet plain to read it.

"Flyers from South Korea containing messages against the North Korean political system are common. Anyone who finds one of these must not read them. They must crumble up the flyer and put it in their pocket immediately. If they read the flyer or spread any of its contents, they will be severely punished.

"At the time, I thought the contents of the flyer were stupid. One of the flyers I found told about South Korean people eating meat, and the amount of food a person would eat in a year in South Korea. Another flyer had a picture of some defectors' wedding in a splendid place in the South. I saw those and I thought it was futile because North Korean people already know about all of these things. Also, some North Korean people who read that flyer with me scolded the defector in the picture saying, ‘They are scum, because their family is still starving here while they have a feast and look like they are happy.' I took the flyer to the National Security Agency (Bowiboo).

"The people in South Korea sending these flyers may think these are great, but I think they are pathetic because we read them with a North Korean mindset. On the contrary, some flyers even seem to help communism."

We asked Brother John about the North's knowledge about reality in the South, and what he thinks about the flyer we are using in our balloon project. We sent the contents of our flyer. His answer is below:

"No North Korean I know of thinks that South Korea is poorer than North Korea. If there are, those people are really, really pathetic. On the contrary, NK people know about the reality in SK even if the stories have been exaggerated. I list here North Korean classes by how knowledgeable they are about South Korea's wealth (from most knowledge to least knowledge):

1. Communism Executives

2. Regional Government Officers

3. College students & Intellectuals

4. Wealthy class

5. Laborers

6. Farmers

"I will also talk about your flyer and what I honestly think of it.

"First, if the contents of a flyer are too long, it will not be effective. Second, the actual content of your flyer is really great! Lastly, I think it has the easiest and plainest explanation that I have ever seen compared to other religious flyers."

He also said: "Some missionaries who disciple North Korean people in China don't prepare them enough, but then give them some money so they can return to NK. I have never criticized this, but the problem is that money has a big influence on NK people. Almost all of the victims are poor North Korean people, especially homeless people. They want to earn money in order to live in NK. So when they hear about South Korean missionaries in China offering money, they spend time with these missionaries, pretending to be believers, in order to return to North Korea with some money. Many of these peoples' stories end with their execution by the NK government. Because of the execution of Christians in North Korea (due to their contact with missionaries in China), many NK people hate SK missionaries more than the North Korean government. So NK people (who are not Christian) think that Christians are fools because they think Christians don't consider this life as precious, instead choosing to focus on religious nonsense such as 'Eternal Life'. NK non-Christians think this is due to the 'ignorant' South Korean missionaries' teachings."