On April 25, 2020, North Korea put on its grandest night-time military parade to commemorate the 90th anniversary of their army. Thousands gathered to cheer on marching soldiers and a display of massive missiles. An estimated 20,000 North Koreans worked together over the past few months in preparation of the parade.

Then on May 12, Kim Jong Un ordered a nationwide lockdown and declared a "maximum emergency." He appeared for the first time in public with a mask.

Crossing Borders team members Dan and Jacob arrived in South Korea to visit our Elim House team on May 13. By the time they started meeting with North Korean pastors and people closer to the situation, the count of COVID-19 cases in North Korea had surpassed 2 million. Lacking proper medical testing equipment, cases of “mass fevers” is how the North Korean government and press (Korean Central News Agency) tabulated their counts. Most speculated that the military parade was a super-spreader event and responsible for the spike in COVID-19 “fever” cases. Experts also generally agreed that North Korea making this news public meant their situation was far more grievous and potentially much further along than they communicated.

At the time of this writing, North Korea has:

• Reported over 4.6 million cases of COVID-19 “fever”

• Reported just 72 deaths

• Rejected multiple offers for vaccines from the UN, China, South Korea, etc.

• Encountered another epidemic of an unspecified intestinal disease, which might be typhoid of cholera

• Declared a drought as they head into their peak rice planting season

• Fired eight short-range missiles just in the month of June

It truly does seem stranger than fiction. A North Korean pastor that came to visit Elim House said the situation was truly dire, that many feared for the worst and pointed to the famine of the 90s as an example. Dan and Jacob asked several contacts if there was anything they could do to help while in South Korea for the week. Not surprisingly, there wasn’t a direct way to send help and most of their contacts simply said “please pray.”

#PrayforNK

For the week starting July 10, 2022, Crossing Borders will be partnering with churches in multiple countries to seek God’s mercy for North Korea. The four areas we will focus on during this week of prayer are:

1. HELP - move North Korea to receive outside help

2. PRAY - unite the South Korean church to pray together

3. TRUST - faith to trust in God’s goodness through North Korea’s COVID outbreak

4. SEND - God to create opportunities and to send his workers to North Korea

HELP

The suffering in North Korea is senseless and cruel when there are multiple countries willing and waiting to help. We pray that God would move North Korea and Kim Jong-un to receive medicine and food aid.

PRAY

The topic of North Korea is a hot button issue in South Korea. While the South Korean church generally has a heart to help North Korea, this issue has become sensitive and often divisive in the South Korean church. We pray for God to unite the church to have one heart towards North Korea in prayer.

TRUST

Many of our contacts seemed to feel helpless in being relegated to watching from the sidelines while North Korea reported increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases. Our team felt the same way while being in close proximity to North Korea during their visit and yet being helpless to do anything. We pray for more faith to trust in God’s goodness and sovereignty, even in a time such as this.

SEND

North Korea’s borders are on strict lockdown and China has grown increasingly hostile to foreign missionaries in the past few years. It seems virtually impossible to send a team to either country. We pray that God would create opportunities for outsiders to be sent in, namely believers who carry the message of the gospel.

Prayer Campaign Details

1. The #prayforNK campaign will officially start on July 10, 2022 and end on July 17, 2022 with a short video message from Dan Chung on each Sunday.

2. If your church would like to join the prayer campaign, simply email us before June 30, 2022 at hello@crossingbordersnk.org with your church name, main contact name, email, address and phone.

3. Tell us how many participants your church estimates joining the prayer campaign and we will mail out bookmarks with prayer topics and hand made crosses for your church.

Thank you for praying with us. God have mercy on North Korea.