I wrote recently to a major player in North Korean ministry, a personal friend of mine who shall remain anonymous here, concerning the situation in North Korea today. I wanted to know if the Christians there are faring better or worse than in recent history. This was his reply, "doctored" a little by yours truly at his suggestion, so that certain names and facts are not sent out unwisely to the general public:
The situation of believers and the underground church at this specific moment has been intensified from its typically difficult state by two issues that have been reported much by Western media. The first is the crossing into North Korea of uninvited Americans. It goes without saying that crossings such as these can bring grave difficulties for missionaries to NK serving on the border of Northeast China and NK, since both the Chinese government and the NK government remain vigilant against future border crossings that might embarrass both countries. With the last six months more challenging than usual for China-based missionaries to NK, efforts to disciple and supply the NK church inside NK have become more difficult as well. This does not at all mean that the situation has become impossible, but it does mean that activities such as this make the work there more difficult for everyone. The second major impact on the NK underground church at present is the increasing tension between NK and SK. NK is presently doing a census from now through November 4 in order to discover who has defected. Since some of those who have defected come from covertly Christian families, the greater level of scrutiny becomes problematic. Communication with the underground church often happens through cell phone networks that are based in NE China. So-called “smart phones”—cell phones with email capability—are troubling to NK because they can send and receive email. NK is working to acquire American-made equipment for blocking these cell phone signals. We receive far more requests from the NK church for basic food items, as hunger continues to spread among greater and greater segments of the NK population. The population has been dependent upon external food aid since the famine in the mid-1990’s, and recent sanctions by the international community and especially South Korea against North Korea further limit the availability of food to most of the population. The situation was bad enough that Kim Jong Il himself even traveled to China to negotiate further aid, but such food becomes available to only the privileged few and the military, not the general population. So the NK underground church faces hunger, communications difficulties, and increased governmental detection efforts. Your readers/viewers may ask: What is the best way to respond and to provide help in addition to the efforts that are already underway? You know how I would answer: 20,000 NKs now live and work in SK. An estimated 15,000 of them send money back to their families through covert financial delivery networks. With that money goes information. Not only does that money enable the best and most targeted means of reaching the NK underground church (because family members know the exact condition and location of their relatives), but it also provides the best means of sharing the Gospel with NKs in general. When family members inside NK hear the Gospel from relatives they know, trust, and love who are living in SK, they are far more likely to listen than when they hear the message from strangers. That is why the NK defectors in SK remain the best hope for addressing both the physical and spiritual needs of their families inside NK. They are, however, as you know, the most overlooked group, as most ministries and SK churches fail to see and/or develop their full potential to impact the present situation. This is why we in this ministry undertake several efforts—from the missionary training program for NKs in SK to our new Underground Technology program to teach Christian NK defectors basic job skills to enable them to earn money to send back to their families along with the Gospel message—to build the potential of NK defectors to impact the precarious and worsening situation. The major new effort we have underway involves the printing and distribution of NK dialect Bibles to NKs in SK. This will be the first mass evangelism effort to reach the NK defector population in SK, and it is not only an effort to reach them but also to reach the families inside of NK that they represent and with whom they still connect.
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