Day: 14

A Living Nightmare

Jung Gwang Il (JGI) was a North Korean citizen and Communist loyalist; that is, until he ran afoul of the regime and was imprisoned in its infamous prison camps.

The guards brutally tortured him. Eventually he was able to escape, but not before suffering a level of physical and mental trauma that he didn’t know existed.

Years later, I interviewed Jung, he looked me in the eye and said, “to this day, the only way I can fall asleep is with loud music blaring through headphones to keep the demons at bay.”

Vast Prison System

Tragically, Jung’s story is anything but unique. As you read this devotion, hundreds of thousands of people like him are imprisoned in North Korea’s prison system. Most of them will die in prison.

Christians in North Korea are targeted with a special vengeance. This isn’t surprising, because the whole system of North Korea is satanic-only one object of veneration is tolerated in North Korea… the Kim dynasty.

While living in these hellish camps, prisoners experience forced labor, infanticide, rape, torture, deliberate starvation, medical experimentation, and executions. These camps have existed for decades, perpetuated by North Korea’s secret police and the Kim dynasty’s lust for power.

This satanic system developed and maintained by the successive Kim regimes is responsible for the deaths of between 600,000 and 2,500,000 people (not counting the Korean war). Nobody knows the number of Christians held in the camps, but estimates range from 13,000 to 300,000. I think it’s safe to say it’s in the tens of thousands.

Given the size of North Korea’s pre-Kim Christian population, it’s safe to assume that the Kim family has murdered hundreds of thousands of Christians, if not a million or more.

Infinitely Worse

One of the most disturbing yet life-changing books I’ve ever read was Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “Gulag Archipelago,” the seminal work detailing the lives and torture of the prisoners in the Soviet Gulag system under the Communists.

I asked Jung if he had read the book and if North Korea’s prison system compared to the Soviet’s.  He said he had read the book and that North Korea’s system was even worse.

Christians Past and Present

The truly amazing thing about North Korea is its past! As you read in the previous chapter, North Korea wasn’t always a prison state. Before Kim il Sung came to power in 1945, the country was the center of Christianity in East Asia. In fact, an estimated 25-30% of Pyongyang was Christian.

If you look at only the secular history of North Korea, you will see a very limited picture. You see a country that has been overrun, brutalized and occupied by one nation after another.

But if you look with spiritual eyes, you see something quite different. Here’s how I read Korea’s history:

In the 1700’s, God began to wake Korea by delivering messages and books about Himself. In the 1800’s, he called believers to North Korea; they were armed with the gospel, the Bible, and a special message.

What was that message? The Church is described as His bride in the Bible, so I envision the early missionaries as emissaries, bringing Korea a wedding proposal from the King.

In effect, God courted Korea, saying, “I’ve fallen in love with you. Prepare yourself for our wedding.”

For 30 years, his messengers spread this message. Then the wedding day came.

In 1907, God embraced Korea and poured out His love onto her. The Church exploded. In that one year alone, 50,000 Koreans come to Christ.

Over the next three years, millions more came to know Him. It was one of the greatest revivals in world history.

Counterattack

Now remember, we are in the middle of a war. The greatest, longest-running war in the history of the universe.

So if God pours out His love and His spirit into Korea, what do you think Satan did?

He attacked Korea in full measure, trying to thwart one of God’s greatest moves for his Kingdom. Satan has three tricks up his sleeve: steal, kill, and destroy! His plans are always going to revolve around those dynamics.

Satan’s first move was to bring in a Japanese invasion in 1910. The counter attack was so fast it was startling. Japan’s culture and religion at the time was built around worship of the emperor. So, how do you think the Japanese occupiers reacted when Christians wouldn’t worship the Japanese emperor? As you would expect, heavy persecution ensued, lasting decades.

Next, there was World War II. 450,000 to 500,000 people lost their lives, due to war, starvation, and disease.

Then the Korean War took place from 1950-1953, with millions of Korean casualties.

But Satan saved his worst for last. He brought Kim Il Sung and his sons to power. The rest is history.

So, in North Korea, what was once a great bonfire is now only an ember. But I want you to remember one thing.

We are only half way through the story. Let’s look at the end of the story.

Too Long Asleep

Satan has captured the Lord’s bride and is holding her in a high tower. He’s shaking his fist at God, saying, “She’s mine. You can’t have her.”

Now think for about a second. Who’s going to win that battle?

No wall, no tower, no weapon, no system can defeat God when He is ready to move. The Lord will have his bride.

Period.

For too long, the world and the Church (and myself) have been asleep to North Korea. We accept the status quo and kick the can down the road.

We must awake. We must believe that the seemingly impossible will happen: God will free North Korea.

Impossible?

If I could ask you to retain one thing from the stories I’ve shared about North Korea, it would be this: the fall of North Korea is not impossible; rather, it’s inevitable!

The human soul hungers insatiably for two things, the answer to the riddle of our spiritual eternity and for personal freedom.

Satan’s imprisonment of the Lord’s bride will lead to the eventual unraveling of the Kim regime of North Korea.

It may be tomorrow or it may be a number of years hence, but the year of jubilee for North Korea is coming. We must pray and work diligently to speed that day.