North Korea: The ultimate sacrifice

Pastor Lee

Lee Joo-Chung* is a North Korean pastor now living in South Korea. His face is full of expression - he appears to be very much alive. But Lee has seen more death and pain in his life than any 'normal' person could bear...

Lee was brought up in a big city in North Korea. Life was not hard in his youth. "We often had little food," says Lee, "and we were completely indoctrinated. But we didn't know better. We just took life as it came. My parents were party members and I believed 100 per cent in the leaders of my country. They were like gods to me.

"Still, when I look back on those days, I cannot say that I loved the leaders. I just obeyed them. There is a difference. I don't know if any North Korean really loves the leaders."

There was one big difference between Lee's parents and other people in their city. "My parents were known as 'Communist parents.' It's one of the most affectionate titles people can give you. They always took care of the sick, the poor and the hungry. My mother asked me questions like: 'What if your neighbour is starving? What do you do?' I knew the right answers: give food to the hungry, clothe people without clothes, and treat a sick person like he is your parent."

Lee was aware where his parents got their wisdom. "Every night they went to the garden, dug up a black book and read from it. Aloud, but whispering. They told us never to say anything about the book to other people. I knew they were not playing games with us, and that we would all be killed if other people found out about this forbidden book. Sometimes my mother would say that God was alive and that we had to obey Him. But she never mentioned Jesus. It would have been too dangerous."

After Lee turned 18 he went into the army. He served for three years and was dismissed after being injured in an accident. So he became a school teacher.

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Starving to death

In 1995 famine struck the country. People were dying everywhere.

"I still remember one of the first deaths in those days," says Lee. "A 12-year-old student in my class complained of stomach ache. He was crying and I asked his 17-year-old sister to take him home. A little while later I received a phone call from the hospital. Both children were found unconscious on the street. When I got to the hospital, the doctors said they had not long left to live. The brother and sister were in beds next to each other. I sat in the middle and held their hands. Suddenly, the girl squeezed my hand. Her eyes widened and she said: "Teacher!" She gave one last breath and closed her eyes. Her brother died a few minutes later. Hundreds of students passed away, many of them at school."

Lee survived, but he had to eat anything he could find, including porridge made of bark. "When you are starving, you see yellow. And when you sit down, you can't get up without giving everything you've got. Sometimes people just lay down and couldn't get up anymore. They died on the spot.

"I started to hate the Party. At one time I had a conflict with a party member responsible for the school. I threw books on the floor. But these books were written by Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il, and their photographs were on the cover. The official was furious. He screamed that he would report me and that I would be executed. I ran. I had to leave immediately. I couldn't even go home to tell my wife and 8-year-old son."

Crossing the border

"I went to the train station and boarded a coal transporter. It went straight to the border. When the train halted, I jumped from it. The Tumen river that borders China was very near. I waded through the snow, it came up to my waist. The river was frozen, and I experienced frostbite in my right foot and my left ear. I was not sure I was going to make it, but I managed to reach the other side."

About 80 meters from the river there was a Chinese village. "I approached a woman just outside the village. I had hardly any strength left to talk, but I told her I was a North Korean and that I was very hungry and exhausted. I cried, and she cried too. She helped me to get up and took me to her house. She laid me on the floor, which was heated, and cut my boots open. My right foot was all swollen. She rubbed my foot with snow and after a while the swelling subsided. When I came back to my senses, I just realized that I received life. I had already considered myself dead. I felt like I was resurrected."

China appeared to be a dream at first. The smell of food filled the streets. But the first time he ate, he had to vomit. He couldn't take real food. Slowly his body recovered. But he soon discovered the harsh reality of his new life. "I stayed in China for 5 years, but those were terrible years. I lived as a beggar, always on the run. Sometimes I worked illegally in a coal mine or as a woodchopper. I wanted to contact my family in North Korea or even go back, but I couldn't."

Family reunion

In 1998 Lee's mother crossed the border to look for Lee. After some time, they found each other. "It was a very emotional moment. For the first time she could tell me all these things she had kept secret from me for over 30 years. She told me how she became a Christian when she was nine, that her parents had been Christians too. She explained how Christ came to this world and died for us all. She told me everything I needed to know about our faith.

"She started to pray. Aloud. Shouting even. She prayed for three hours and sweat covered her entire body. She prayed for me, for North Korea and the people of North Korea. She pleaded with the Lord to save her people."

Fatal decision

Lee and his mother tried to settle down. But in 2001 one of Lee's brothers came to China to look for his mother. "He stayed with us for four months and then persuaded my mother to go back with him. It turned out to be a fatal decision. My mother told the church she would return to North Korea. But a spy betrayed us."

One evening, Lee brought his mother and brother back to the Tumen river. A few meters from the water, Lee's mother stopped. She put her hands on his head and prayed for him. She told him: "You cannot die. You have to survive and become a pastor. Serve the people, especially the poor, the sick, the widows and the orphans. Serve Jesus always."

Lee watched his mother and brother cross the river. All of a sudden on the other side a car stopped and two armed men came out. "The men shouted at my mother and brother to come out of the water. When they came to the shore, my mother was hit by a rifle butt and died instantly. My brother was stabbed with bayonets. I couldn't do anything. They shouted at me to come to them. They wanted me to collect the bodies. I went crazy. It may sound weird, but I just wanted to give them a proper burial."

About 40 people from the nearby village helped Lee to get the bodies from the river. "The Chinese men could only collect the body of my mother. At least, I could give her a proper burial."

"But I was in shock for months. I asked God many questions. I was angry with Him, shouted at Him, but also prayed to Him. I decided to risk everything and reach South Korea."

Angel rescue

When Lee reached Vietnam something supernatural happened. "I was sleeping with two other people near the border with Cambodia. It was perhaps the most dangerous point in our journey. We needed to cross a border where many North Korean refugees are caught. In my dream a bright, white and big angel appeared. He told me to follow him. I woke up and the angel was still there! He said again that I should follow him. I woke the two other refugees and we went after the angel, up the mountain. The angel didn't say a word during the seven hours he led us. When the sun rose, we were in Cambodia. The angel turned and smiled. He said: "You are now free. There will be no more obstacles." Then he disappeared. I don't have any doubts that Jesus sent this angel to rescue me."

From Cambodia Lee was able to reach South Korea. Through an underground network, Lee learned information about his family in North Korea. It turned out that his father, brothers and sisters had been killed as well. His wife had been forced to divorce Lee in 1998 and had married another man.

Lee is now married and an ordained pastor. "It's a life calling to be a pastor. I still travel to China often to serve North Korean brothers and sisters. It's dangerous. I am often afraid. But my family has paid the ultimate sacrifice for God. I am a martyr's son, I'll never forget that. In honour of them, I serve the Lord Jesus with my whole heart. Even if it will cost my life, too. Jesus died for me first. He is worth every sacrifice."

Timothy's story

Lee's 8-year-old son, Timothy*, was left wandering the streets in North Korea. He was not allowed to go to school or to work, since his father was a traitor.

"My little boy lived as beggar," shares Lee. "He fed himself with grains he got from cow dung. He cried in the streets every day."

In 2004 Lee asked a Chinese-Korean to go into North Korea to find Timothy. He found him after several attempts. "Don't you miss your father?" the man had said. "He's dead," answered Timothy. "A security agent came to our village and said that my father had become a traitor and was shot when he tried to reach China."

"He is still alive," the man told Timothy. "Do you want to go to your father?"

The Chinese-Korean man managed to take Timothy to China. Lee, who had obtained a South Korean passport, met his son there for the first time in seven years. "He didn't even recognize me. I wanted to take him to South Korea as soon as possible. I arranged for him to be taken to Mongolia, where he could go to the South Korean embassy and apply for asylum. I would wait for him in South Korea.

A total of 18 people went to the border. But the broker dropped them a few hundred meters from the border. When they arrived at the border, there was no gate. They tried to find one, but then a Chinese border patrol arrived and began shooting at them. One boy was killed. The others were arrested and repatriated back to North Korea.

Timothy was put in jail, hung upside down without any clothes and beaten repeatedly with a wooden block. When he passed out, the interrogators woke him up with water. For three days they questioned him about his father. On the third day, Timothy was almost dead. They took him outside the prison and left him there. His grandmother was told to take him to hospital for treatment and warned that after a partial recovery, he would be re-arrested.