by Paul F. Scotchmer, PhD,
senior editor at the Sentinel Group.

Richard Foster's modern classic, A Celebration of Discipline, describes
twelve disciplines of the Christian life.  To these, Christians in North
Korea would probably add a thirteenth - physical suffering.  It's different
in one sense: North Korean Christians don't look for ways to suffer, but
they do welcome suffering, according to a South Korean pastor who spoke at
a missions conference in Germany last March.

The pastor, as reported in the German evangelical news service Idea, said
that believers in North Korea's underground church recite five principles,
along with the Lord's Prayer, at their secret gatherings.  The special
place of suffering in the spiritual life of this church is striking:

1. Our persecution and suffering are our joy and honor.

2. We want to accept ridicule, scorn and disadvantages with joy in Jesus'
name.

3. As Christians, we want to wipe others' tears away and comfort the
suffering.

4. We want to be ready to risk our life because of our love for our
neighbor, so that they also become Christians.

5. We want to live our lives according to the standards set in God's Word.


Last April, in testimony given before the US Congress, the high cost of
these principles was vividly, if painfully, conveyed by a former prison
guard.  He said that Christian prisoners in North Korea are treated more
harshly than are other prisoners and regarded by authorities as insane.
"He recounted an instance," according to the State Department's Year 2000
Report on international religious freedom, "in which a woman was kicked
repeatedly and left with her injuries unattended for days because a guard
overheard her praying for a child who was being beaten."

Like everything else in North Korea, the standard for sanity is determined
by the communist ruler, Kim Jong Il.  Like his father, the "Great Leader"
Kim Il Sung, who held power from the end of the Korean War in July 1953
until his death in July 1994, "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il presents himself as
a god to be worshipped by all loyal (and by definition sane) Koreans.
Between the two of them, the Kims "have constructed an Orwellian system of
social controls," writes the British Economist magazine, "and have kept
pouring at least a quarter of a constantly shrinking GDP into their
1m-strong army.  Not surprisingly, their only saleable exports are missiles
and, potentially, weapons of mass destruction."  Meanwhile, the younger Kim
flaunts his reputation as a "cognac-swilling, playboy-terrorist," capable
of nearly anything in the pursuit of pleasure and the preservation of
personal power.

The human toll

Given the carefully controlled conditions of life north of the 38th
Parallel, the full measure of suffering experienced by North Korean
Christians is a matter of guesswork.  But it is doubtless grim.  "Religious
and human rights groups outside the country," reports the US State
Department, "have provided numerous, unconfirmed reports that members of
underground churches have been beaten, arrested, or killed because of their
religious beliefs... 400 Christians were executed in 1999...Reports of
executions, torture, and imprisonment of religious persons in the country
continue to emerge."

According to most estimates, there are around one million political
prisoners in North Korea, of which 100,000 are Christians.  Given an
overall population of 23 million people and a Christian population of
500,000 (the highest estimate we've seen), this means that one of every
five Christians is incarcerated in that country, compared to one of 23
North Koreans generally.  In other words, a Christian in North Korea is
four or five times more likely than the average North Korean to end up in
one of country's 200 labor camps.

Living conditions

By most standards, the entire country is a prison camp; cold, hunger and
death are everywhere.  During the past five years, at least two million
North Koreans have died of starvation.  After decades of communist rule,
the infrastructure is in ruins.  As night falls, the population lives in
darkness; in the winter months, without heat or running water.  In the
cities, people wait in line for hours at the public baths for a hot shower.
 Although millions of tons of grain have been brought in by relief
agencies, it is mostly hoarded by the military, police, and local
authorities.

As in Dante's Inferno, there are gradations of hell in North Korea.  In the
countryside, conditions are worse than in the cities.  Against a backdrop
of tumbledown shacks, women can be seen kneeling in the streets to sweep up
grains of rice that have fallen from passing ox-carts.  Aside from such
occasional treats, the usual diet is a concoction of ground-up twigs, tree
bark and leaves compressed into dried noodles.  Besides being low in
nutrition, this sorry excuse for a meal can cause internal bleeding,
dysentery and diarrhea.

Ironically, one of the most important slogans of "Juche," the Kims'
variation of Stalinist ideology, is self-sufficiency.  According to the
official line, the country's problems have all resulted from floods and
drought in recent years.  But the truth is that government policies have
exacerbated the impact of these natural calamities.  "The country's
deepening economic slide," reports the CIA Factbook, "has been fueled by
acute energy shortages, poorly maintained and aging industrial facilities,
and a lack of new investment."  Timber cuts aimed at expanded arable land
have made the countryside more prone to flooding.

Weapons, weapons everywhere

Worse calamities may lie ahead, and not just in North Korea.  The world was
shocked in 1998 when this tiny rogue state, where everything else is
broken, launched a far-flying rocket over the Pacific.  Since then, the
government has maintained a dual-track trading policy: (a) selling missiles
to other third-world nations, such as Pakistan, Iran and Iraq, and (b)
offering to desist from such sales in return for generous paybacks from
western countries.  Kim Jong Il's latest proposal would cost the West
around a billion dollars a year for the next three years.

Blackmail is not a new enterprise for North Korea.  Since 1994, America has
been making intermittent fuel deliveries and building two nuclear reactors
in exchange for North Korea's pledge not to produce plutonium.  But Kim,
like Iraq's Saddam Hussein, has perfected the art of making it difficult,
if not impossible, for western observers to determine the extent of North
Korean compliance with the agreement.

The danger North Korea poses to world peace is underscored last December by
the brief post-election visit between then President Clinton and
President-elect George W. Bush.  Clinton noted that on assuming office,
following the 1992 elections, his first foreign policy challenge came from
North Korea, which was developing nuclear weapons.  Eight years later, as
he prepared to leave office, his most urgent foreign policy challenge came
once again from North Korea, now developing missiles for worldwide export.

Outlook

Another export is people.  In recent years, at least 100,000 starving or
persecuted North Koreans have escaped into northeastern China, where
approximately two million ethnic Koreans, dating back to the mid-1800s,
already live.  It's a dangerous venture, though.  Even after a perilous
border crossing, refugees face the constant fear of being caught and
deported by the Chinese.  Those who are returned - around 10,000 in 1999 -
face brutal treatment.

Remarkably, some refugees are now returning on their own in order to share
their new faith in Jesus Christ.  South Korean missionaries working in
China near the North Korean border have brought the gospel to a large
number of the refugees they have helped with physical needs.  Rather than
resettle and enjoy the material advantages outside North Korea, many of the
refugees have chosen to return home to bring the gospel to their
compatriots.

The exact size of the Christian community in North Korea is unknown, but is
clearly growing.  The latest edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia
(Oxford, 2001) puts the number at just over 500,000, more than three times
the number in 1970. There are three officially recognized churches, two
Protestant and one Catholic in Pyongyang, but these are intended to serve
the propaganda interests of the state.  Apparently, however, there are also
more than 500 authorized house churches, according to North Korean
government, a claim confirmed by visitors (US State Dept. Year 2000
Report), as well as some 50 underground churches, according to the
Economist (June 17, 2000).

Since the arrival of the first Protestant missionaries in 1885, Koreans
have been unusually receptive to the gospel.  In 1886, the first Korean
converts to Protestant Christianity were baptized.  By 1910, there were
nearly 30,000 communicants in the Presbyterian and Methodist churches and
an even greater number of believers.

Before the communist takeover in the North, the Christian church was
actually stronger there than in the South, where one-third of the
population now professes Christianity and maintains, arguably, the world's
most potent missionary force.  Whatever the current size of the North
Korean church, when the communist regime is eventually brought to an end, a
powerful revival of Christianity and a most marvelous transformation of
this suffering nation is almost certain to follow.   

Prayer points:

Pray for the spiritual and physical safety of North Korean Christians, many
of whom have lost their lives simply for owning a Bible, praying with
Christian friends, or affirming their faith in the presence of other
Koreans.

* For wisdom on the part of foreign governments in dialogue with North
Korean leaders over missiles, nuclear weapons, and relief efforts to help
those without food.

* For the success of evangelistic efforts by relief workers inside North
Korea, converted refugees returning to their homeland, and South Koreans
operating from bases in northeastern China.

* For spiritual reflection, conviction of sin and personal repentance by
President Kim Jong Il.


(C) 2001, The Sentinel Group

****************************

Paul F. Scotchmer, PhD, is senior editor at the Sentinel Group, a research
organization for Christian missions and community transformation.  He also
heads a study group on the family for WEF's Theological Commission.



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