22nd September, 2005

DAVID ADAMS

Kang Cheol Hwan says he was just nine-years-old when North Korean authorities arrested him along with other members of his family because of his grandfather’s alleged political crimes.

He says he spent the next 10 years in a prison camp where he witnessed some children being kicked and worked to death, others being publicly executed and yet others dying of malnourishment.

“In order to survive, I ate rats, cockroaches and snakes,” he says. “Children simply disappeared from the camp. I can’t understand how it’s still there and it’s a great shame on all mankind that these camps are still tolerated.”

Kang Cheol Hwan’s story is one of numerous accounts human rights group Christian Solidarity Worldwide have recorded coming out of North Korea.

“We know of no country in which state repression of Christianity is so thorough and violent,” says Mervyn Thomas, chief executive of CSW, in a statement issued earlier this month.

In an initiative launched by the organisation, Christians from all around the world have this week joined together in praying North Korea, a nation of almost 23 million people which some say is the most closed in the world.

CSW say that there is no freedom to preach the Gospel in North Korea and all those who live inside its boundaries are forced to revere the nation’s leaders in what the organisation says is a “form of idolatry that is reminiscent of that imposed by Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel’s time”.

“For decades the desperate need of the North Korean people has remained hidden and forgotten due to the isolation and severe repression against those who might speak out,” Thomas continues.

“However, now there is a chink in the wall and we are able to see something of the horrors that are taking place in the country, especially against Christians, and the wholesale repression of freedom to hear the Gospel.

“We therefore strongly urge the church to fervently pray until we see the forced imposition of idolatry and the violent suppression of faith fall and the walls of darkness and repression crumble. Now is a pivotal time to pray and we urge all Christians to take to heart the injunction in Hebrews 13:3 to ‘remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering’.

CSW say North Korea is one of the “most desperately needy and spiritually oppressed countries” and that as a result of harsh resistance to the Gospel, North Koreans generally have not heard of Jesus, have never seen a church or a Bible or met a Christian.

The organisation says people found to be Christians are usually imprisoned in camps and that there are a number of credible reports of Christians being executed.

While CSW say information is limited due to North Korea’s isolation, conditions in the camps are thought to be so bad that very few who are imprisoned come out alive with detainees subject to torture and inhumane living and working conditions.

Severe food shortages are also affecting those outside the camps with two million people already estimated to have died of starvation.

CSW have provided a list of prayer requests for people to pray about this week covering issues including the enforced idolatry of the nation’s leaders - particularly Kim Jong Il - as well as for the protection of those who follow Christ and their families, for those who are suffering as a result of famine and for those who become refugees and fled the nation into China or who are in hiding.

The prayer initiative came as North Korea reportedly expressed their agreement to give up its nuclear weapons program in return for aid, security guarantees and diplomatic recognition under a landmark deal with South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States announced earlier this week.

Doubt has since been cast on the deal however when North Korea said it required civilian nuclear reactors to be delivered before it would dismantle it’s nuclear weapons.