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Labor Camp

The Truth of what is Happening in North Korea

by Greg Lancaster

We are looking at what is really happening in North Korea, which is the persecution of Christians. God is a just God, and He does not want this to happen to His children. The Christian Post reported that “human rights advocates with years of experience in dealing with North Korea outlined how the Kim regime has nearly wiped out Christianity in the closed-off, isolated nation.” Kim Jung-un is a third generation in leadership in North Korea, and the leaders set themselves up as a god which would be why they destroy anything to do with the one true God. At one point in history, there were so many Christians in North Korea that the capital was named, Jerusalem of the East. “Greg Scarlatoiu, the executive director of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, explained that it was in 1946 when the Provisional People’s Committee for North Korea forced the closure of churches with congregations that did not meet a predetermined required number of people. “The committee began to forbid Protestant and Catholic in-house assemblies and made Sunday a work day and Monday a rest day. And, this was just the beginning,” he added. “Under the pretext that the sound of religious songs disturbed public life, the same committee asked churches to relocate. Communist Party agitators were inserted into Christian communities and church assemblies. They began criticizing the sermons as being unprogressive.” This is a plan of the enemy to stop God’s Kingdom from advancing. As believers we should be aware of what is happening with our brothers and sisters in other countries and even in our own country, America, to know who the enemy really is.

We hear from those that were in a North Korean camp and how atrocious and evil their time was in the prison camp. Amnesty International UK reveals through interviews and testimonies, what is happening in North Korea. Kim Young-Soon spent nine years in the political prison camp, Yodok. “From sunrise to sunset, you work. There are no set working hours. You get up at 3:30 am to report for work at 4:30 am, and then you work until dark.” Jihyun Park was sent to a labor camp after she fled North Korea but was later caught in China. She shares how pregnant women are forced to work. “Pregnant women get sent to labor camps to carry loads up and down the hills which cause miscarriages.”

Amidst these extraneous conditions, prisoners are forced to work with little to no food. Joo-Il Kim was a former military captain, and he points out how lack of food not only affects civilians but also those in the military. “I saw piles of bodies, who have died from starvation in public places.” He continues to share horrifying details of how extreme malnutrition affects the human body.

In North Korea, it’s not just one person convicted of a crime that gets sent to a prison camp, but multiple members of the same family. This is North Korea’s ‘guilt by association.’ Kim Young-Soon further explains, “I may be the culprit, but the other six members of my family are forced to go with me to the prison camp without knowing the charge.”

“Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel,who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life(ESV).” As believers, we need to be aware of what is going on in North Korea and pray for God’s justice to come into that country and set the people free! Also shared in this segment: Vice President Mike Pence, human rights, human rights violations, Kim Jong-un, South China Sea, North Korea, persecution, gulags, prophecy, Roman Emperor Nero, oppressive leadership, political labor camp, and the U.S.S. Reagan. Greg and John shared in this segment.

Image courtesy of Michael Gaida from Pixabay