North Korea: Refugees Facing Crackdown

NORTH KOREA: REFUGEES FACING CRACKDOWN
Veteran minister says controls tightened on both sides of the border.

LOS ANGELES, July 31 (Compass Direct News) – Douglas Shin is a Korean-American pastor living in Los Angeles who has built “underground railroads” for North Korean refugees since 2000 as leader of the “Exodus 21” movement. Compass Direct News caught up with him by e-mail in Seoul, South Korea, where he discussed the communist country – run by reclusive dictator Kim Jong Il, whom North Koreans are taught to worship – that tops most religious persecution lists. The dictator is said to be the author of various atrocities, and under his regime refugees hunted down in China are often sent back to unspeakably harsh conditions in North Korean detention camps.

What is the best strategy for pressuring China to stop repatriating North Korean refugees?

Boycotting the Beijing Olympics.

What makes North Korea any worse a violator of religious rights, in comparison with, say, a country like Saudi Arabia?

The Saudis can come and go out of the country as they please, but North Koreans are all in captivity – a prisoner of Kim Jong Il. For that matter, the whole country is a gigantic gulag.

What are the most important items for prayer for North Korea?

The early demise of Kim Jong Il, whose health is obviously failing rapidly nowadays, and smooth transition of power to a less horrible tyrant or tyrants after that.

The Chinese government recently said there are about 50,000-70,000 North Koreans in China. Is it true that about 70 percent of them have accepted Christ?

70 percent is a fair estimate, but the number of refugees may be bigger.

It is said that about half of the North Korean refugees who have reached South Korea between 2000 and 2005 were Christians, but only 30 percent of them have maintained their Christian faith. Why?

It is true. It’s basically the pervasive fault of the Korean church, which emphasizes outwardness. They don’t give true choice to people before they come to the Lord, but almost force them to do so, dangling some carrot before the eyes of these poor refugees. It’s almost like, ‘Accept the Christ, or risk not being helped (or being helped last instead of first).’ That’s worse than being ‘saved’ by a Buddhist who says nothing before throwing the rope to the drowning man. We need to learn to be more still before the Lord and let Him do the work.

In general, how do South Koreans view U.S. policy toward North Korea?

The public generally has no particular view toward the U.S. policy for North Korea, because they don’t care enough. Those in the minority who do care are evenly split between pro-U.S. and anti-U.S./pro-Kim Jong Il in almost every way.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban has taken Korean aid workers hostage and killed two of them – how could South Korean media and others blame the victims for wanting to do good?

The reasons are two-fold: Korean Christians, while numbering less than 3 percent of the population early in their history during the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945), were the spiritual – as well as physical – leaders of Korean society. With the outward growth since 1970s concurrently with the economic growth of the country, our faith has become very corrupt, emulating the secular sector, not vice versa. We have shown many bad examples to the people, so they’ve come to hate us now.

These Sammul Church folks are the cream of the crop of Korean believers, and Koreans have very little for which to blame them — except for that picture they took at the Seoul airport [in front of a sign warning of the dangers of traveling to Afghanistan], and the tourist bus they chartered in Kabul — yet, they are vulnerable to the avalanche of criticism from the Netizens and the media because of the general social ethos here that is willing to shoot down any Christian at any time for anything whatsoever.

Also, the North Korean spy apparatus has infiltrated South Korean liberals and made them their tools for the propaganda war during critical times like this. I think the Internet agitators have as their ultimate goal a demonization of the Afghan/Iraqi wars and the withdrawal of Korean troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Then those who have been crying out for the withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Korea – a long-time priority on Kim Jong Il’s wish list from the days of his father [former dictator Kim Il Sung] – will gain a lot of wind under their wings. And these Internet agitators are very powerful opinion leaders in Korea now.

What word do you have on the case of Son Jung Nam, awaiting execution for preaching Christ in North Korea?

His younger brother, Son Jung Hun, said in Seoul before he left for Washington, D.C. – and just now, too, by phone – that the last time he heard from North Korea was last spring, and that there’s a strict blockade on any information leading to his brother’s whereabouts now. But Pyongyang is aware of the CNN coverage and the U.S. Congressmen’s letter to Kim Jong Il, etcetera, so I think he has not been and will not be executed.

I think Son Jung Nam is the Private Ryan of our day within Christendom. In 1998, he left North Korea for China and, in 1999, began studying with a South Korean pastor for about a year. He was ordained in China by the pastor who equipped him. After dedication, he carried Bibles and the gospel across the river into North Korea several times.

On January 20, 2000, he was arrested in China after another North Korean defector living in China, supported by the same South Korean pastor, had been arrested and told the Chinese authorities about him. At that time, the younger brother, having left North Korea in 1997, was also living in China at a nearby location. The 7-year-old daughter of Son Jung Nam, who was living with her dad, ran over barefoot to the South Korean pastor’s place and told him of her father’s arrest. (She now lives safely in China.)

In April 2000, Son Jung Nam was repatriated to North Korea with a record of working as a gospel/Bible runner attached to him. Due to that record, he had a tough time during his detention, and he also witnessed many fellow North Korean Christians who had received Jesus in China persecuted for their faith.

In April 2004, with the help of many relatives who were positioned at high places in the Workers’ Party, Son was released and again, with the help of relatives, was placed at the North Korean Army’s Rocket Research Institute with a de facto pledge not to defect again. But he defected again several times, before he was arrested in January 2006.

Has the number of refugees from North Korea increased in the past five years?

I don’t have any field information, but from what I read and hear, I think the number of crossings has decreased because of the beefed up security by North Korean border patrol. But corruption in North Korea has worsened, so it’s actually easier to get to China if you have the money. In China, crackdowns on North Korean refugees and on refugee workers have increased very much because of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Olympics may be a time of festivity for the Chinese economy, and the world that may be watching, but it definitely is a terrible menace to these people on the run.

The number of the entire North Korean refugee population in China may have actually grown because of the accumulation over the years. Many North Koreans have adapted to Chinese soil by now and are somewhat rooted their existence in China, albeit precariously. It’s been over a decade now since Exodus 21 – the 21st century-version of the biblical Exodus – has begun.

Where are refugees arriving?

They come to Thailand, Mongolia, Laos, and Vietnam, then on to South Korea – all through China first, because China is the only country that North Korea shares a land border with. The North Korean refugee population in South Korea reached the 10,000 mark around last December, and it is increasing steadily by a rate of 2,000 per year. There are virtual North Korean refugee camps – though no government, neither the United States nor South Korea, nor any host country, will call it by that name, due to political sensitivity – in Mongolia and Thailand holding far more than 1,000 and 500 North Koreans respectively.

Are most refugees fleeing mainly famine/economic failure, or human/religious rights violations?

Mostly economic failure, but more and more are fleeing for freedom in general, including very seldom the freedom of faith.

Is relief work within North Korea getting more difficult?

I think it will get easier soon, because North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Il, is thawing up. He has only a few months/years to live, according to what I hear. The six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is getting a lot done these days. This is because Kim Jong Il wants to take advantage of George W. Bush’s waning popularity and gain the maximum amount of carrots for its nukes – before he’s done in. In the end, I think North Korea will open up and accept more foreign aid and aid workers. Currently they want to convert the foreign relief aid to developmental aid by being accepted into the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. For that to be done, the U.S. government must drop North Korea from its terrorist-supporting countries list.

Is relief work in China and other border areas getting more difficult?

Because of the pre-Beijing Olympic crackdowns on any potential source of negative news on China, it’s getting really tough at the border.

What is your purpose is for being in South Korea now?

I’m just working as an assistant pastor teaching a Bible class in English at a Korean church. I’m not doing much of what I used to do now.

It is said that there are between 200,000 and 400,000 Christians in North Korea, and that about 50,000-70,000 of them are in labor camps – do those estimates seem accurate to you?

I think it could be true, but you never know anything for sure with North Korea.

END