News

North Korea: propaganda video accuses Christians of being “spies”

September 17, 2019

North Korea is arguably the most dangerous place on earth for Christians. The U.S. State Department has placed North Korea on its list of countries that violate religious freedom every year since 2001.

Christians in North Korea are bearing an extraordinarily heavy burden. They are being called upon to have the faith and perseverance of the saints and martyrs. There is at least one Orthodox parish in North Korea, the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Pyongyang, but its present situation is unclear. Please continue to beseech our loving and merciful God for relief, peace and security for the Orthodox Christians and all the Christians of North Korea.

“North Korean propaganda video accuses Christians of being ‘spies,'” Christian Today, September 17, 2019:

A North Korean propaganda video obtained by Voice of the Martyrs portrays Christians as “religious fanatics” and spies” operating on behalf of the South Korean government.

Voice of the Martyrs believes the video was used in training for North Korean security agents to help them identify and root out anyone spreading religion within the hermit communist country.

The video tells the story of a woman called Cha Duksoon who flees to China to find her uncle after suffering from hunger during the Great Famine of the nineties, in which millions are believed to have died.

Arriving in China, she discovers that her uncle is dead but she finds instead the Suhtap Church where she hears the Gospel for the first time and gives her life to Christ.

She is described as “naively” believing a “superstitious” religion and “absurdly trying to establish the ‘kingdom of God'”.

“Suhtap Church is operated by disguised pastors from the puppet South Korea government’s secret service,” the narrator says.

“It harbors homeless illegal trespassers, providing anti-republic (anti-North Korean) religious study, effectively training them as spies.”

According to the video, Duksoon returns to North Korea, having been sent on a “spying mission” by “the enemy” to establish an underground church network.

“Being superstitious and unfaithful to the republic, Duksoon naively believed the sermons about a merciful God and became a religious fanatic,” the narrator says.

“She was completely fooled by the enemy.”

The narrator goes on to say that Cha worked as an evangelist and brought together underground Christians for a time of worship and prayer every Sunday.

She was eventually caught by the authorities after being betrayed by a “good and awakened North Korean citizen”.

Voice of the Martyrs believes she may have died in a labour camp or been executed by firing squad….

Christians in North Korea risk imprisonment in camps or prisons, and possibly execution….