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OCTOBER 2016
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North Korea Hell Exposed: ICC Unpacks the Secrets of the Hermit Kingdom.
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NORTH KOREA: MODERN DYSTOPIA North Koreans are raised from birth being watched and surrounded by an oppressive regime bent on complete control.
By Sandra Elliot
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Ceremony during the Arirang Mass Games Creative Commons photo from flickr
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eople love dystopian novels and each decade, another one dances across the cultural stage. The genre has produced some captivating reads such as Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, as well as the recent entrants, The Hunger Games and Divergent. We love reading about scary dictators and oppressive societies. We love to see the hero triumph and evil systems crumble after hundreds of pages of impossibilities. There is just something about the injustice and defeat of it that is so appealing to the human spirit. But, as much as we immerse ourselves into these stories, we can always put down our book or pause our DVR and return to our comfortable freedoms and secure homes. Humans love these stories as stories only. The reality of living in them is unbearable and unfortunately all too real for a particular 25 million people, the citizens of The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), otherwise known as North Korea. North Korea has been the poster boy of the rogue state for approximately 70 years now. We know it as the instigator of the Korean War, responsible for two million plus deaths, its cyberattacks on Sony and its never-ending barrage of missiles, military flexing, and massive human rights abuses. It is the perennial bad boy of the State Department’s religious freedom report and has repeatedly been designated as a Country of Particular Concern by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). But there is so much we don’t know because we can’t see what goes on inside this prison state. North Korea, as we know it today, arose after the partition of Korea following WWII and the creation of the Communistaligned DPRK headed by leader, Kim Il Sung, a former guerilla fighter. Ironically enough, Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of modern day North Korea, grew up in a Christian home. His grandfather was a pastor and young Sung attended church on a weekly basis. While he eventually rejected the Christian faith, the future totalitarian dictator did keep the apparatus of worship intact in his life, though he applied it to himself as the savior of Korea. In some twisted way, Christianity as a concept played a part in the authoritarian setup of North Korea.
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Totalitarian Regime and Cult of Personality North Korea is a totalitarian regime, meaning that the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of society. This is a not a government for the people or by the people. In fact, the people are completely subordinate to the regime and autonomous thought, action, and religious belief are all threats to its existence. Article 68 in the North Korean constitution permits the freedom of religion so long as “religion [is not] used as a pretext for drawing in foreign forces or for harming the state of social order.” Religion poses a threat to the state of North Korea, because in North Korea, government theology is believed to sustain all aspects of life and order. The Kim family is the supreme authority and provider of all necessities, including spiritual serenity. The Kim family, in political terminology, is known as a ‘cult of personality.’ Each Kim ruler is a godfigure to society and all media and propaganda resources are utilized to legitimize this claim. Christianity, as you can see, poses a great threat to this ruling family. People of any faith in North Korea suffer arrests, torture, imprisonment and execution for their respective beliefs, but the cruelest of these are reserved for the Christian population, which is numbered at around 200,000 to 400,000, but these numbers are an educated guess at best. Persecution comes to those who propagate religion, possess religious items, carry out religious activities, or have any contact with religious persons. Citizens of North Korea are expected to adhere to ‘Juche’ or self-reliance, which is the ideological underpinning of the Kim government. It’s a form of civil religion which accepts and regards the Kim family as the supreme authority. There are approximately 100,000 Juche research centers in North Korea meant to indoctrinate the population into venerating the Kim family. Those who do not, or are even believed to dissent, face severe punishment.
Control North Korea uses its massive intelligence apparatus to arbitrarily enforce its power through the pervasive and intrusive surveillance of its citizens (see page 20). Security agencies are known to compete with one another in finding out ‘dissenters.’ Once arrested, political prisoners often face years in the notorious North Korean labor camps, also known as ‘gulags.’ There are believed to be tens of thousands
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of Christians serving sentences in labor and execution camps. Life within these gulags bears a striking resemblance to Adolf Hitler’s concentration camps during the Holocaust. Prisoners live in hellish conditions, dying of starvation, harsh labor, and torture. Reports from escapees tell gruesome tales. For example, according to the drawings of one defector, women are prohibited from being pregnant. If a woman is found to be with child, the fetus is cut from her body before she is executed. Such fates are not uncommon for North Koreans, especially those tiered in the bottom half of society (read more on page 26).
Songbun Another way in which the DPRK extends total control over society is through a system of ascribed status rankings given at birth to each North Korean. ‘Songbun’ at its core is based on loyalty to the ruling regime. Think of the old caste system which plagued India for centuries. There are three classes within songbun; the highest is the ‘core’ class, known as the loyal class. The second is the ‘wavering’ class and the lowest is the ‘hostile’ class, to which Christians are almost always relegated. Songbun is a systemic form of discrimination that determines your standing in society – from how trustworthy you are considered to how much food you receive throughout the course of your life. It means that your personal faith may cause the starvation of your grandchildren for the sole reason that they carry your same genes. If you have ever read Ayn Rand’s ‘Anthem’ you will recall the assignment ceremony, where citizens are assigned their life duty without any regard to their skills or preference. Rand’s dystopian take on communism
“Security agencies are known to compete with one another in finding out ‘dissenters.’ Once arrested, political prisoners face years in the notorious North Korean labor camps.” PERSECU ION.org
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has a very real face in North Korea. All these methods in which North Korea controls the social makeup of its people leave Christians in a particularly dangerous position. Christians often practice their faith in complete secrecy, even from their families. NonChristians can face persecution and severe consequences simply by having a Christian relative. Secret police are integrated into society and daily life—constantly spying to root out dissidents, namely Christians. Neighbors and friends spy on each other, ruining the most intimate of trusts and creating a culture of paranoia. Christians live an isolated life to a degree which we will never understand in the US.
Defectors What we know of North Korea largely comes from the testimonies of its defectors OCTOBER 2016
A propaganda painting of Kim Il-sung, the founder and supreme leader of North Korea.
and escapees (see page 23). Fifteen years ago, there were just a few stragglers coming out of North Korea, but this trickle has turned into a flood of defectors. Some make it to South Korea; this is not as easy as it sounds but if they arrive, they are immediately granted citizenship. Others stay in China, where they risk deportation and exploitation by human traffickers. Life for runaways from North Korea is far from settled as they have to shake the paranoia and established culture of fear in which they were reared. In North Korea, thievery is not frowned upon as it is seen as one of the only ways to survive starvation in the lower hostile class ranking. Integration into a new society after escaping the horrors of North Korea is especially hard for those who have endured the traumas of prison and labor camps. What we know from these people is only the tip of
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the iceberg regarding the truth behind the prison state.
The Hero of North Korea In our limited understanding of the dystopian reality of North Korea, there is one thing we know for certain: a hero is at work and will one day triumph. No it’s not an above average archer as in ‘The Hunger Games’ and it’s not a divergent teen. Rather, it’s the same Savior that died so that every person on earth may be free. Only Christ can ‘fix’ North Korea. No amount of diplomacy or war will cure the nation and its citizens, even its leaders. As ambassadors and followers of Christ, our contribution to the freedom of North Korea is first to pray for its citizens and for the downfall of its heinous regime. Prayers are not just a form of worship, but also the most powerful, earth-shattering words that
can possibly leave a Christian’s lips. Do you want to change North Korea? Do you want to help free the people bound in a nation that resembles a horror movie more than the actual world? Then drop to your knees and embrace the supernatural power that is prayer. As you read this month’s magazine and come face to face with the beastly truth that is North Korea, enter the throne room of God and plead with the Lord to break down impossible walls and bring salvation to the people of North Korea. Next, get involved in fighting the regime. Vote with your wallet for the downfall of North Korea by partnering with us to infiltrate this nation with the Gospel and rescue the broken victims that escape its prison walls. These methods work and as a result, many have made the journey from the ultimate prison state to a place of freedom in Christ, whether in or out of North Korea.
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North Korea’s Fiery Furnace As the world’s worst police state, North Korea crushes dissent and free expression by creating a web of control built with three threads: songbun, the police state, and gulags.
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OCTOBER 2016
The Grand Monument on Mansu Hill (Mansudae) Creative Commons photo from flickr.
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Feature Article
“Worshipping God...would make one a political criminal. Christianity is not allowed…” USCIRF Report on North Korea
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By Michelle King
orth Korea’s (DPRK) hatred of Christianity has condemned hundreds of thousands of Christians to death and left remaining believers fearful and hiding in the shadows. The DPRK’s treatment of Christians is only one part of a system of state control that “is not comparable to any other nation in the world,” according to Todd Krainin’s book “I Escaped a North Korean Prison Camp.” As the world’s worst police state, North Korea crushes dissent and free expression by creating a web of control fashioned with three cords: songbun, the police state, and gulags.
Songbun Songbun is a unique social classification system that the North Korean regime uses to segment society into three levels of loyalty to the regime: core, wavering, and hostile, based on a citizen’s ancestral and personal loyalty to the state. Any perceived disloyalty automatically eliminates the opportunity to reach the highest songbun known as core. Despite his personal loyalty, one man describes in a 2014 Telegraph article how he received a ‘hostile’ songbun because his father “unintentionally soiled an image of Kim Jongil.” As a result, his family would face “decades of harsh official discrimination” since hostiles are the lowest class. Due to the fact that the state is constantly propagating the message that its leaders are demigods, it is especially hostile towards Christianity as it offers a competing religious system and also exposes the citizenry to the religious source that the state has counterfeited. Of the many defectors and experts we interviewed, we heard that the majority of Christians are probably killed outright when captured with the percentage possibly as high as 70%. Those not killed outright are thrown into the fiery furnace (the gulag) never to return. To achieve a middle or high standard of living, North Koreans must be classified as ‘core’
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or ‘wavering.’ The state then determines what services and goods it provides to people based on their songbun. For example, employment opportunities, access to social welfare and food, housing, etc. are more plentiful for the core class, spotty for the wavering class, and virtually nonexistent for the hostile class. According to Jieun Baek, without government provisions, wavering and hostile class members only make $3-$5 per month “and must participate in criminalized market activity to survive.” Increased black market activity then increases the likelihood of arrest.
Police State The undergirding of songbun, is a massive state intelligence operation that constantly monitors all citizens according to David Hawk, an expert on human rights in North Korea. Hawk
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told ICC, “[The DPRK] was always watching what we were saying, watching what we were doing,” bemoaned several witnesses. Another defector ICC interviewed mentioned the phrase used by citizens to sum up living under the eyes of the police state: “The walls have ears and the fields have eyes.” Public safety police watch and respond to criminal behavior while the state security police monitor political behavior, similar to the Gestapo, according to Hawk. Citizens are “in constant fear and anxiety” of being arrested. What’s worse, the DPRK forces citizens to spy on each other and report suspicious behavior to police. Citizens must join in-min-ban neighborhood watch teams that regularly report their neighborhood’s political culture to state leaders, including details like spending patterns and the number of “chopsticks and spoons in every house” according to North Korea News. OCTOBER 2016
“The DPRK’s treatment of Christians is only one part of a system of state control that ‘is not comparable to any other nation in the world.’” Top Left A North
Korean official checks documents at the Sunan Airport. Creative Commons photo from flickr.
Bottom Left North
Korea propaganda surrounds citizens throughout their entire lives. Creative Commons photo from flickr.
Top Right Since 1993, military service is mandatory for all men for 10 years. Creative Commons photo from flickr. Bottom Right
Two men move a cart made from old car tires in Sariwon, North Korea. Creative Commons photo from flickr.
Thanks to the police state and in-min-ban, many Christians hide their faith from family and friends and avoid worship with any other Christians. Because Christians are terrified of arrest, and a USCIRF report states that most North Koreans “have never witnessed any religious activity.” According to one North Korean, “There are churches...(but they are) built only for foreigners to attend.”
Gulags “I was within hours of death; sick, malnourished and frozen from the deplorable conditions of the prison cell,” recalls former prisoner Hea Woo. “I didn’t think I would ever see the outside of the prison cell.” Woo and others who are arrested are sentenced to the gulags, massive labor camps loosely based on Stalin’s prison system, where
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prisoners suffer horrific treatment. While the DPRK denies their existence, satellite images and former prisoners’ testimonies have lifted the veil over the camps to unveil a hellish world. North Korea operates four types of gulags. The kwan-li-so, similar to Nazi concentration camps, holds political prisoners without a “charge, let alone a trial, many of them for knowing someone who has fallen out of favor,” Amnesty International reports. The kyo-hwaso camp is a long-term prison for convicted felons who have committed criminal acts and gone through the judicial process. A jip-kyulso camp is a short-term, hard labor gulag with high death rates for misdemeanor political and criminal offenders. Finally, the ro-dong-ryondae gulag is a mobile labor brigade reserved primarily for repatriated North Koreans sent back from China. Torture and starvation define North Korean
gulags. Located in remote mountains with extremely tight security, escape is almost impossible. Prisoners live on the edge of starvation, yet the system demands that prisoners farm, manufacture, raise animals, and do heavy mining and lumber harvesting. In an Amnesty International report, a former guard named Mr. Lee described how women regularly “servic[ed]” prison officials and then “disappeared...because the secret could not get out.” Within the gulag, no one is protected from brutality. Not even children. A CNN article tells of a woman near starvation, who gave birth to her baby in prison despite the rules against pregnancy. A guard heard the baby’s cries and beat the mother. She begged the guard to let her keep the newborn, but he continued to beat her…and then he forced her to hold her new baby facedown underwater until it died. Eventually, prisoners become desensitized to death. In the same CNN article one prison camp survivor said, “Because we saw so many people die, we became so used to it. I’m sorry to say that we became so used to it that we didn’t feel anything.”
Tinsel Statue DPRK’s web of control would make Stalin, Hitler, and Mao envious. One defector and former prisoner of a DPRK gulag, in speaking with ICC’s president, was asked if he had read “The Gulag Archipelago” by Alexander Solzenitzyn (the seminal and horrifying history of the Soviet gulag system); he told him that he had, but that DPRK’s system was infinitely worse! The totally insular culture of DPRK, its people density, and the fact that all citizens share the same culture and language magnify the efficiency and effectiveness of the police state. The state uses the songbun system, the intelligence agencies, and the gulags, to spy on, arrest, torture, and strangle any threat to its ideology or supremacy. Much like Nebuchadnezzar and all false tyrannical systems that listen to and mimic the beast, the state demands that all its citizens, but especially Christians, must bow before its tinsel statue. Those that won’t are thrown into the fiery furnace. But unlike Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, precious few escape the state’s wrath.
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A North Korean girl is startled by the photographer. Keep the next generation of North Koreans in prayer. Creative Commons photo from flickr.
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