Hwa-Young* works in China with women who fled North Korea or were abducted by people traffickers and taken across the border. Many of the women are tempted to leave behind a miserable life when they are told there are jobs waiting for them in China. But often they are sold on to brothels or into marriages with poor Chinese Korean men.
Source: ‘Like a jail without bars’: what it’s like working in China with women refugees from North Korea
Please rememer this in your prayers.
North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un had 80 people publicly executed on November 3, according to Korea’s Joongang Daily News. It’s the first known public executions since he took power after his father’s death.
In seven cities across North Korea, people who had watched South Korean videos, “pornography” or possessed Bibles were killed. The executions took place in Wonsan in Kangwon Province, Chongjin in North Hamgyong Province, Sariwon in North Hwanghae Province and Pyongsong in South Pyongan. According to the newspaper, about ten people were killed in each city.
The newspaper reported: Continue reading “Bible Treated as Pornography in North Korea”
Seeing Hope, Even in North Korea | Duke Divinity School.
This is a concise report of the recent trip that Chris Rice, from the Center for Reconciliation at Duke University in Durham, NC has made in North Korea.
You may also find, at the end of the article, a few relevant pictures from this trip.
From the blog of my friend Chris Rice, Duke Center for Reconciliation:
I just returned from 8 astonishing days in North Korea, based in Pyongyang and traveling across the southern countryside and cities. Many powerful moments of hope amidst the reality described in this photo in Time magazine. The caption reads: “October 5, 2011. A portrait of Kim Il Sung, founder of the communist regime in North Korea, beams from a government building at 6 a.m. in the pariah state’s capital, Pyongyang. Soon the entire city would be awakened by propaganda songs blaring from the loudspeakers.”
Day 7: North Koreans Will Declare God’s Glory to the Nations
I will set a sign among them and will send survivors from them to the nations…to the distant coastlands that have neither heard My fame nor seen My glory. And they will declare My glory among the nations. Isaiah 66:19
Open Doors supports North Korean Christians in secret with Bibles, books, education and relief aid. Often we receive thank you letters from North Korean underground church leaders. In each letter they thank the global Church for the support provided through Open Doors and for their love, and they ask for our prayers. In the words of one church leader, “I am very proud to see our believers’ faithful lives becoming more and more stabilized. Their lives are in danger every day and still they follow the Lord. This could have not been possible if it wasn’t for your endless effort and love towards our believers. Please continue to pray for us.”. Continue reading “Week of Prayer for North Korea – 7th Day”
Day 6: God Will Act on Behalf of His Servants and Restore Fruitfulness of Life in North Korea
“For they will be a people blessed by the Lord.” Isaiah 65:23
When Japan was defeated in 1945 during World War II, Korea was divided into North (under Soviet Union rule) and a South (under US rule). After the North established the Democratic People’s Republic (DPRK) in 1948 severe persecution began in this communist country. Before the North invaded South Korea and started the Korean War (1950-1953) already two-thirds of the Christians had fled to the South.
The DPRK leader Kim Il Sung understood the power of worship and set himself up to be the only one to be worshipped. Statues of him were erected everywhere and people were required to bow down before them; those who did not honor him were labelled as an enemy of the state and persecuted. Kim Il Sung created a monolithic belief system called Juche. This belief system twists the Holy Trinity of Christianity by teaching that Kim Il Sung is god, his son Kim Jong Il is the Christ figure, and the ideology of Juche replaces the Holy Spirit. Kim Jong Il refers to Juche as “Kimilsungism.” Continue reading “Week of Prayer for North Korea – 6th Day”
Day 5: God is Leading His People in North Korea to Make for Himself a Glorious Name
…So He became their Savior. In all their affection He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, and He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Isaiah 63:8-9b
North Korea is often described as one huge prison. North Koreans can be imprisoned for virtually any state-defined crime, such as being a Christian, making a negative comment about the regime, traveling to China to look for food, failing to have a picture of Kim Il-Sung in their house or even failure to keep it clean enough. Punishment is not limited to the offender, but also three generations of the offender’s family. What compounds these situations for citizens are the severe violations of human rights that occur throughout the North Korean penal system, including systematic use of torture, forced abortions, public and private executions, use of humans for chemical and biological testing and extreme starvation. Continue reading “Week of Prayer for North Korea – 5th Day”
Day 4: The Lord Will Make North Korea a Praise in the Earth
The Lord has made proclamation to the ends of the earth; “Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your Savior comes’! See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.'” They will be called the Holy People the Redeemed of the Lord; and you will be called Sought After, the City No Longer Deserted. Isaiah 62:11-12
North Korea is the most dangerous country in the world to be a Christian. Believers risk imprisonment and death just to own a Bible. And yet the Word of God continues to go out and to bring true freedom, especially in the cities near the Chinese border. Every year North Koreans risk their lives to cross over the border into China. Once they have crossed, the danger continues, but there are also opportunities to hear the Good News of Christ when they fall under the care of Christian safe houses. As they receive Christ and are discipled, many refugees return to North Korea at great personal risk to bring the Gospel message to their fellow citizens at home. Continue reading “Week of Prayer for North Korea – 4th Day”
Day 3: Pray that Children of North Korea Will be Known Among the Nations as Blessed of the Lord
Then their offspring will be known among the nations, and their descendents in the midst of peoples. All who see them will recognize them because they are the offspring whom the Lord has blessed! Isaiah 61:9
Can you imagine the sorrow of not being able to pass on your faith to your children? In North Korea this simple and natural act is dangerous for both believers and their children. Parents sometimes tell their children stories from the Bible as though they are fairy tales just so they can impart some of their faith to them. And they live out their lives as an example. But if caught overtly sharing their faith, they can be sent to prison…and their children with them. As soon as parents are arrested, their children are sent with them to the same prison camps where they then face an abysmal existence. They are forced into hard labor, and often their little bodies succumb to the physical toll. Not many children survive the prison camps, and any who do remain alive are severely traumatized. Continue reading “Week of Prayer for North Korea – 3rd Day”
Day 2: The Lord Will Glorify His Church in North Korea
And I shall glorify My glorious house. Isaiah 60:7b
In the midst of any crisis across the globe, Brother Andrew challenges us to ask the question “Is there a church?” In the midst of the current tension on the Korean peninsula, and in the wake of the announcement of heir-apparent Kim Jong-Un as the expected successor to the ailing current president, Kim Jong-Il, we ask, “Is there a church in North Korea?” Continue reading “Week of Prayer for the Persecuted Church in North Korea – 2nd Day”
The list of the states that are the worst persecutors of Christians in 2011 can be downloaded HERE.
Also, remember, today is the first day of the week of prayer for the persecuted Christians in North Korea.
North Korea is a dark country shrouded in mystery and silence. All that we know is what we have learned from defectors…or what the government of North Korea wants us to know. So much is uncertain. There are many questions with few answers.
One thing is certain…God is not silent.
Answers to many of our questions can be found in the book of Isaiah where God tells us through His Word some of His plans and promises for His people… including His people in North Korea…and how we can intercede for them. Continue reading “April 24-30 – North Korea Freedom Week 2011”
You may also watch this testimony HERE on the Lausanne III website.
Three leaders of an underground house church in North Korea have been executed and 20 of their Christian associates jailed. North Korean police raided a house in Kuwal-dong in Pyungsung county, Pyongan province, and arrested all 23 believers who had gathered for a “religious function.” Continue reading “Underground church leaders executed in North Korea”
The 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall passed with some fanfare on November 9. Speaking as someone born in the 1980s, I admit that it is difficult to remember much about the divided Europe that this wall symbolized. Stories of the oppressive Communist rule in East Germany strike me as far-removed, not the grim reality for millions as recently as 1989. I remember much more clearly the exultant speeches delivered by Western politicians as Communism collapsed elsewhere in the following years. Today, it is easy for all of us to forget that many millions live in worse conditions than even the East Germans endured. Indeed, the totalitarian government of North Korea imprisons an entire nation that once enjoyed the blessing of revival.
Read more HERE.
Săptămânalul Foreign Policy publica pe 2 iulie un remarcabil fotoreportaj intitulat “The Least Free Places on Earth”.
Vă invit să citiţi AICI textul scurt şi incisiv. Şi, mai ales, să vedeţi fotografiile extrem de relevante.
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