Young-Mi from North Korea

Could you imagine sharing the slightest word of Jesus with your child and facing a life sentence for it? This is the danger many Christian parents in North Korea face – if they utter anything about Jesus, they could be purposefully denounced or accidentally exposed by their own children.

Young-Mi* is a Christian mother living in North Korea. Such a statement is almost miraculous in North Korea’s hyper-controlled environment, where the least word or act of kindness could be interpreted as foreign influence – and therefore, treason.

Field workers were able to meet with Young-Mi on a few occasions. At first, she seemed riddled with anxiety, a natural position to be in in her home country. But on the second visit, the change in Young-Mi was visible. One field worker recalls, “It seemed that her anxiety was gone. I asked her, ‘Do you believe in Christ?’ I wasn’t sure before, when we first met. This time, she answered, ‘Yes!’ It was such a precious confession of faith to hear, and I thanked God for her faith.”

Such a declaration is remarkable within the heavily surveyed life of North Korea. The ‘Ten Principles for the Establishment of the One-Ideology System’ force every aspect of citizen life to revolve around the ruling Kim family, rejecting and demonising any hint of foreign and religious influence. Stronger even than the country’s constitution, the ‘Principles’ promote the ideology of the Supreme Leader – one defector put it plainly: “There can be no other god in North Korea. Only Kim Jong-un.”

“In such a controlled and dangerous environment, Christian parents face heart-breaking choices,” Simon Lee*, an Open Doors field worker, says. “Most are too afraid to speak openly about their faith, even to their children. Instead, they focus on instilling Christian values like kindness and generosity, hoping that one day they will be able to share the gospel safely.”

And yet, that is precisely what Young-Mi did.

A daring act

When Young-Mi became a Christian, she was totally transformed – from the outside, she had to look the same for fear of being noticed by the authorities. Even within her own home, her words had to be weighed and pronounced with absolute caution. But that didn’t stop her from witnessing to her children.

“She couldn’t use the term ‘God’ at all,” an Open Doors field worker says. “But she made it clear to them that whenever they are in trouble, they can find help from the One who is in heaven. She added that she hoped her children would have genuine faith in Christ one day. Just as she has faith in God now and is His child.”

Young-Mi could face grave consequences for her faithfulness to Jesus. From the youngest age possible, children are engulfed in propaganda about the nation and the Supreme Leader through daily classes where they study the ‘great deeds’ of Kim Jong-un and his predecessors. In school, they are taught to hate Western, South Korean and Christian ideas, the latter especially through myths like missionaries poisoning children.

Beyond the classroom, every possible surface is covered with posters and slogans, whilst the media constantly reminds citizens of their duty to the state and its leaders. Tellingly, a North Korean saying goes, “There should be no empty space in the people’s brain for any forbidden ideology to penetrate.”

A tightening grip

In 2020, a trio of new laws has made it even easier for the government to sentence people to prison, labour camps or death.

The “Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Law” criminalises the consumption and distribution of foreign media. Watching a South Korean drama or listening to K-pop can lead to a death sentence.

The “Youth Education Guarantee Act” bans young people from speaking or writing in ‘odd speech patterns that are not our own.’

The “Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Act” aims to ‘completely eliminate the use of the puppet language’ (a reference to South Korean vocabulary).

Since the introduction of these laws, young people have been sentenced to labour camps or even publicly executed for enjoying South Korean drama or music. And the effect goes beyond the so-called perpetrators of these crimes – fear is the main tool of North Korea’s tightening grip around its people’s necks.

Your prayers needed

Behind such laws are individuals suffering in the hands of the regime. In their midst are undercover believers like Young-Mi, brothers and sisters who, despite their desperate circumstances, cling to hope in knowing Jesus as true Lord and Saviour.

Their faith holds to the truth that, though regimes rise, they will also fall – but the gospel will endure forever. As Jesus says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” (Matthew 24:35)