The Kim dynasty, which has ruled North Korea for three generations, are worshipped like gods, and any suggestion that there is a higher authority than the nation’s leader, Kim Jong-Un, is immediately crushed. Tens of thousands of Christians are incarcerated in labour camps. Thousands more keep their Christian faith a complete secret, even from their families. Imprisonment, torture, and death are the potential risks – not only to oneself, but to one’s family – of deciding to be a Christian in North Korea.
North Korean defectors share ordeals with Pence in Seoul
US Vice President Mike Pence, who travelled to Pyeongchang last week for the start of the Winter Olympic Games, met with North Korean defectors in Seoul on Friday (9 February), as reported on the White House website. Mr. Pence has been accompanied during his visit by the father of the […]
New report finds ‘flicker of hope’ in North Korea
A new report on North Korea finds that over the last decade there has been a shift in people’s attitudes away from being “passive recipients” serving the regime to being motivated “change-makers” shaping their own destiny. Movies, markets and mass surveillance: human rights in North Korea after a decade of […]
North Korea: A country with no Christian children
There are no Christian children in North Korea, a country where people are taught to worship only the ruling Kim dynasty and where believing or suggesting anything else is to sign a death warrant for one’s self and one’s children. Lee Joo-Chan only learned the ‘family secret’ – namely that […]
Christmas in North Korea: an inner celebration
How will Christians under pressure for their faith celebrate Christmas? The third instalment in our series focuses on North Korea. North Korea is the most difficult country in which to live as a Christian, according to the advocacy charity Open Doors, which has ranked it no. 1 in its World […]
‘Crimes against humanity’ in North Korea’s prison camps
North Korea’s president, Kim Jong-un, and top officials should be held accountable for committing “crimes against humanity” in prison camps in the country, three international jurists said earlier this week. They called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to establish a special tribunal to prosecute the country’s leaders. The jurists’ […]
Number of North Koreans fleeing to South Korea drops by 13%
The number of North Koreans who escaped to South Korea in the first half of this year dropped by 13 per cent compared to the same period last year, a government report shows. The report from South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said 780 North Koreans escaped between January and July […]
Escaping North Korea
A vast network of brokers help North Koreans escape Kim Jong-un’s regime through a well-oiled system. Some of their remarkable stories were revealed to The Washington Post during its recent visit to a Thai detention centre. The 11 interviewed were recovering from the last leg of their journey, which started […]
Family imprisoned, tortured for fleeing North Korea – and for their Christian faith
As North Korea’s missile testing focuses the world’s attention on Kim Jong-un’s regime, one woman’s story shows how harshly families are treated when they refuse to follow his authoritarian rules. Hannah Cho* was born just before the Korean War broke out in 1950. She remembered the air-raid sirens and holding […]
North Korea: freed pastor Hyeon Soo Lim welcomed home with ‘joyful crying’
The large congregation of Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Toronto, Canada was ecstatic on Sunday (13 August) in welcoming home their Senior Pastor, Hyeon Soo Lim, held for more than two years of a life sentence in a North Korean labour camp. The church was also crowded with media personnel […]
Released Canadian Christian describes ‘harsh’ conditions inside N Korean labour camp
Korean-Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim has spoken about his time in a North Korean labour camp, where he was detained for the last two and half years after being given a life sentence for charges including trying to overthrow the government. Lim, 62, appeared “slightly frail but in good spirits” when […]