Top NK Headlines - April 2023

NORTH KOREAN CHILDREN MARCH 216 MILES IN 15 DAYS

• North Korean state media released footage of elite school children walking 216 miles across the country to show loyalty to the state as part of a 15-day “study program.”

• Many textbooks say the country’s founder, Kim Il-sung, left his studies in Manchuria (northeast China today) and walked to his home in Mangyongdae (part of Pyongyang today) in 1923 when he was only 11 years old after learning that his father had been arrested by Japanese police.

• Every year since 1975, top pupils as young as 11 years old have been handpicked to retrace the alleged route walked by Kim.

• Students chanted loyalty slogans as they marched in the annual event to signal to the nation the level of sacrifices the state expects of them.

• One student told the media that, “The march was harder than I thought. But by making it through harsh valleys and mountains, I learned that I can overcome any difficulty.”

• However, defectors who joined the march as children told Daily NK that it was a “harrowing journey” as “At the end of each day, we would unpack at the lodging facilities and students would cry because of all the blisters on their feet. The next day, those blisters would burst, causing a lot of pain. But no one could say anything.”

Source:
https://www.nknews.org/pro/state-media-review-north-korean-kids-show-loyalty-to-state-by-walking-215-miles/ 
https://www.scmp.com/video/asia/3216807/north-korean-11-year-olds-among-children-marching-400km-footsteps-late-founder-kim-il-sung 

SOUTH KOREA FIRES WARNING SHOTS AT NORTH KOREAN PATROL VESSEL

• The South Korean military fired warning shots to repel a North Korean patrol boat that had crossed the countries’ disputed maritime border near the South’s Baekryeong Island while chasing a Chinese fishing boat.

• During the operation, the South Korean high-speed vessel collided with the Chinese boat due to poor visibility, causing minor injuries to some of the South Korean sailors.

• The poorly marked border has not been officially recognized by the North and has led to clashes over the years. Last year the North fired a ballistic missile across the maritime border, which prompted the South to fire three missiles, suspend flight routes and issue orders for island residents to take shelter in bunkers.

• South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a statement claiming that “Our military is prepared against various provocations and keeping a decisive combat posture while closely monitoring the enemy’s movements.”

Source:
https://apnews.com/article/north-korea-patrol-boat-sea-border-e100ee4e6663d62e474bbae988d4e6a5
https://gbcode.rthk.hk/TuniS/news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1696456-20230416.htm?spTabChangeable=0 

Kim Jong-un cuts the red tape during a dedication ceremony for 10,000 apartments in Pyongyang. (Yonhap)

PYONGYANG CELEBRATES BUILDING 10,000 APARTMENTS

• Kim Jong-un attended a ceremony on April 16 to celebrate the completion of 10,000 newly built homes in Pyongyang’s Hwasong District.

• The event was dedicated to the 111th birth anniversary of Kim Il-sung, called the Day of the Sun, on April 15.

• According to state media, the country’s leader reaffirmed the Workers’ Party of Korea’s goal to set the housing project as a “top priority” and make Pyongyang a “world-famous” city.

• Since Pyongyang pledged to build 50,000 new apartments by 2025 during the Eighth Party Congress in January 2021, thousands of young laborers have been mobilized to launch a series of construction projects amidst foreign suspicion of ongoing food shortages.

Source:
https://en.yna.co.kr/view/PYH20230417011700325?section=image/nk
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/north-korea-celebrates-building-10000-modern-homes-pyongyang-2023-04-16/ 
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/02/26/asia-pacific/north-korea-housing-project/ 

Kim Jong Un and his daughter watch a test launch of a new intercontinental ballistic missile. (KCNA)

NORTH KOREA’S NEW MISSILE TRIGGERS EVACUATION ORDER IN JAPAN

• North Korea’s launch of its new solid-fuel ICBM sparked fear over residents in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido after the government alerted millions of people to take cover.

• The missile flew for about 621 miles and landed in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

• Kim Jong-un, oversaw the test launch and said that the new missile would reform the country’s strategic deterrence components to enable it to more effectively respond with a nuclear counterattack.

• Experts described the new type of weapon as a significant upgrade to its existing technology. According to Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, “If successfully developed, solid-propellant ICBMs would complicate wartime planning for the U.S.-South Korea alliance as these missiles would be much more responsive in a crisis.”

• A South Korean military official added that there is a possibility that Pyongyang was testing a part of a reconnaissance satellite, such as a sensor.

Source:
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/missile-04142023161051.html
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/12/north-korean-missile-prompts-evacuation-order-in-japan
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/12/asia/north-korea-missile-japan-intl-hnk/index.html

Next Steps: Planning for the future

Crossing Borders started Second Wave in September of 2004 to address the needs of children who were born to North Korean mothers and abandoned by them. This was in the wake of the Great North Korean Famine, which claimed millions of lives in North Korea and caused hundreds of thousands of refugees to spill over into China. When we started Second Wave, the average age of our children was about 5. This year the average age of the children in Second Wave entered into its teens at 13. Over the years our goal has always been to show the compassion of Christ to these children but this can take many forms. Is it enough to house them, feed them, educate them, and love them or do we need to do more?

As we look into the, now, very near future, we have set some priorities for our organization and our children. The skill we are focused on teaching these children is goal setting. We will know that we are achieving this organizational priority when more of the children in our network have clear career paths with short and mid term milestones to attain them.

This summer a team from the US traveled to Northeast China to address the spiritual and emotional needs of our children in a summer camp program, which lasted about a week. At this camp we had our first ever career seminar.

We had each of our children list their interests and talents and we had them map these on a matrix. From this matrix we were able to tell our children what types of jobs they were best suited for. Our intention was not to lock them into a specific career path but rather to get them thinking about what they might want to do when they finish their education.

We also had a seminar on how to set long term goals and then set short term goals on how to reach these long term goals. This winter we will host another seminar for these children where they will set a long term career goal for themselves and set smaller milestones on how to reach these goals. But, we are not under the delusion that this is our most important task. Most of us are parents and we know better.

Parenting is a grind. It is a selfless task that bears fruit -- good or bad -- decades later. As we raise these children, it is not our ultimate goal to have all of the children in our network employed by a certain date. It is also not our goal to only love them and nurture them for now. Raising children is challenging because parents have to think of both now and decades later.

What good is preparing someone for a good job if they lack character? How empty is a life filled with money and security if it lacks love?

Each day we carry our work forward with this in mind, asking God for grace for the things we might overlook.

Field Update: 8 North Korean Orphans

Recently, Crossing Borders took in eight new North Korean orphans into our Second Wave ministry, bringing the total number of children we help to 62. Through Second Wave, we help children of North Korean refugee women who have been sold as forced brides to Chinese men. The population of North Korean orphans is in the tens of thousands, according to experts.

Many of the children born into these forced marriages are separated from their mothers, making them orphans, according to the United Nations, who defines children who are missing one or both of their parents as orphans. Most of their mothers were captured by the Chinese police, sent back to North Korea, placed in concentration camps and never heard from again.

“Jung” is a 13-year-old boy we have recently taken in. He is the son of a North Korean refugee woman who had been sold to his father. His mother was captured by the Chinese police and sent back to North Korea when he was young. His father works far away in another region in China. Jung’s elderly grandmother is the only one able to take care of him but she is so old that she needs help with basic chores around their home. A neighborhood man comes to their home daily and helps.

Jung is autistic. He attends a school in the region for special needs children. He plays well by himself and has a keen interest in electronics and computers. He does not engage in conversations with other people but understands what is said when he is spoken to and can read out loud.

Jung was taken to church and his church laid hands on him to pray for him. He didn’t like this but over time he began to warm to the people there. Recently, he put his hand on a hymn and began to cry. Since that day, he enjoys being prayed for.

To find out how you can help children like Jung, go to our Child Sponsorship page.

Over the past two years, Crossing Borders has been able to nearly double the number of North Korean orphans we help because of the success of our Child Sponsorship program.

Prayer for North Korean Refugees: China's Human Trafficking

China was recently downgraded to the lowest rating by the Trafficking in Persons Office at the US State Department. This came as no surprise to us as we have been dealing with the human rights implications of China’s draconian policies toward North Korean refugees for over a decade. China was designated by the State Department as tier three, which is the lowest designation, putting the country in the same class as North Korea, Russia and Uzbekistan, among others.

Just as the State Department was releasing this report this year, we took in another North Korean orphan whose life has been affected by these policies.

“Meerae” was born to a Chinese father and a North Korean refugee mother. At the age of seven she witnessed her mother being hauled away by the Chinese police.

“I saw how my mom was captured in hand cuffs and was dragged away with the police,” Meerae said to our missionary. “I couldn’t say anything, couldn’t ask anything. My heart was hurting.”

Imagine being a child at the age of seven, witnessing your mother being hauled off by the police for a crime you couldn’t possibly understand at that age. This is the reality for not only Meerae but for tens of thousands of children with North Korean refugee mothers who have been born into this terrible situation.

China’s zero tolerance policy towards North Korean refugees has fed their sex trade industry. North Koreans are given no rights in China and because of this, they are prime targets for Chinese human trafficking rings.

Countries like China who share Tier 3 designation in the 2013 Trafficking in Persons Report do little to nothing change laws prohibiting human trafficking within their borders. Remember that China is the world’s largest country, home to 1.3 billion people. These are individuals who remain unprotected from human trafficking laws.

“... there are countless voiceless people, countless nameless people except to their families or perhaps a phony name by which they are being exploited, who look to us for their freedom and for the possibility of life itself,” Secretary of State, John Kerry said in a response to the Trafficking in Persons report this year.

As of last week, Meerae has been taken into the care of our ministry through our Second Wave program. She no longer has to worry where she will find her next meal or if she will be able to continue her education. But she still worries for her mother who she probably will never see again.

Please pray for Meerae. Please pray for the thousands of children like her. Please pray for the North Korean refugee women who are crushed under China’s policies. Please pray that God would move this nation to do what is just.

Prayer for North Korean Orphans: (Almost) Lost Generation

What happens when a generation of North Korean orphans – half Chinese, half North Korean – enter into a world of poverty, without love from a stable home, without proper identification and without a chance? Crossing Borders has had over 10 years to survey the human rights crisis impacting North Korean orphans and refugees in Northeast China. We have concluded that this population at a crossroads. One road is a path to poverty, instability and suffering. Another is the path to education and the gospel. It is a chance for this generation to become a bridge to North Korea.

The generation of North Korean orphans we support were born in the wake of the Great Famine of the 1990s and range in age from eight to 13. Their mothers fled from North Korea to search for food, medical assistance, or a better life. However, following their escape, many were captured and sold to poor Chinese men looking for wives. The orphans who we care for, born out of these forced marriages, have mothers who have left them behind. In some situations, these mothers were running for their lives from abusive husbands or Chinese authorities.

The North Korean orphans left behind have no access to education, medical care or, in the future, legal jobs. They were never granted legal identification.

There are tens of thousands of these children in the region. Estimations add up to over 40,000. Absolute statistics are impossible because they are not counted in any census. But evident to us, nonetheless, is that there seems to be an endless number of them. In each city we visit, we always find large pockets of them.

Upon entry into support from Crossing Borders in our Second Wave program, these children are given an education, raised in discipline and, most importantly, introduced to our faith. In our work, we have had the opportunity to take care of about 150 North Korean orphans. In their lives, we have witnessed stunning transformations. Children who were too scared to speak have become rambunctious and outgoing. Children who were living in filth have been given clean, quiet, orderly homes to live in with guardians who can provide and care for them.

We think it’s time for people around the world to rise up and take responsibility for a group of children, who, if left alone, might be on a road to destruction.

Please pray for these children that they would not be lost in the world cruelty, callousness, or suffering. Please pray that they might be found in Christ.

Prayer for North Korean Orphans: A Process of Healing

In the past two weeks, Crossing Borders has been in constant motion as we opened booths at the Glenview Farmers Market and the GKYM conference. Because of this opportunity, we were able to share and speak to many people about North Korean orphans and refugees we serve. In response, we are overwhelmed by the interest, support and generosity many of you have shown toward our ministry and thank everyone who took the time to speak with us. Thank you for making our booths a success and we hope to be connecting with you in person again soon. As you pray with us this week we ask that you lift up our North Korean orphans and refugees who have, over time, displayed a miraculous process in healing from their traumatic experiences. We know that this has only been possible with the work of God and every one of us at Crossing Borders can speak to witnessing God's hands in the lives of many of the refugees and orphans we help.

We recognize, however, that this transformation through healing is an ongoing process. It is also one that often takes much time to nurture and develop. As God works powerfully, quickly or slowly, in the lives of the North Korean orphans and refugees we support, we ask know that prayer is an essential and critical need for their building strength.

On this note, we would like to share with you an interview conducted with one of the resilient and growing North Korean orphans in our care in the Second Wave program. As you will read from his experiences, he is one of the many refugee children in China who have felt the hurt and pain present in this world's brokenness.

---

How was when you lived with your mom and dad together?

That was my happiest time. I liked that time.

Was your dad nice to you and your mom?

My dad loved me. He was very short and tiny and he liked me because I looked like him. He cooked fish for me. My dad and mom fought only one time.

What happened to him?

He died in a car accident when I was six. He drove a truck.

Then how did you and your mom live?

My uncle (dad’s big brother) took me and my mom to his house. My uncle hit my mom all the time, every day. My dad never hit my mom.

Were you scared?

I was scared of my uncle. He sometimes beat me too, for no reason. Oh, yeah, when he was drunk he got crazy and looked scary. My mom left me there and ran away by herself because my uncle hit her badly. I saw blood on her face.

So, you lived with your uncle? How long?

I lived at uncle’s house for long time. I didn’t like my mom because she left me there. He had a 20 years old son who was a disabled, he couldn’t walk, sitting all the time. I had three uncles and seven cousins, all were grown up boys. I liked 6th one who was a disabled. Everyone was mean to me except for that one. But I didn’t like my uncle he hit my mom all the time. I cried and hid behind old door and stayed there quietly. Sometimes I slept there and my mom looked for me everywhere.

Who do you miss the most?

I would hate to go back to my uncle’s house. I don’t miss anyone.

Do you miss your mom?

Sometimes. But, she is living with new dad and baby, my brother who is three years old and looks like my mom. I look like my dad.

Do you like to stay at your home home?

Yes, I like my home but when [my caretaker] gets upset I get scared.

Why does he get upset?

When we don’t clean our room or shower.

What would you like to be when you grew up?

A nice person, I don’t know.

---

Though we cannot share with you his name, we ask that you would pray for him and the many North Korean orphans like him. Sometimes the process of healing is slow. But we know that God is at work.

Prayer for North Korean Orphans: The Future

It’s always interesting to read reports from our missionaries in China about the North Korean orphans in Second Wave. The children have day-to-day lives and, like many children in the developed world, have simple dreams. A boy in Second Wave, "Jo Han", is one of the biggest troublemakers we have. His caretakers say that he lies a lot. He gets into the most fights and he is the most stubborn. But despite these flaws, he is determined to be a pastor. He reads the Bible everyday because, as he was told, that’s what pastors do. And he even tithes his allowance faithfully.

It is easy to forget that before he came to our group home just four years ago Jo Han had no dreams. He would dig in garbage cans for food or steal things from kids at school to sell. He had no dreams nor did anybody – his parents or relatives – have any dreams for him. They just hoped he would survive.

Dreams come when there is stability - food in the pantry and love in the home. They rarely come to those who are trying to survive the day. And for the North Korean orphans of Second Wave, these dreams are a sign of life.

As we pray this week, let us ask God to give us the wisdom on how best to honor the dreams God Himself is planting in each child’s heart. So that all of us, those who give, those who pray and those who do both, might be silent partners in each North Korean orphan's success.

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" -Jeremiah 29:11

Staff Notes: A Gift of Potential to North Korean Orphans

The following post was written by Crossing Borders volunteer staff: It seems that everywhere I turn lately, I'm running into reminders of our North Korean orphans. And it's usually in the unlikeliest of places. For example, a couple weeks ago I was reading Grace-Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel (which obviously has nothing to do with North Korea), and I came across this quote:

“There is a deep longing in the heart of every child to make a difference. They were hard-wired by God to want to do more than take up space…. That’s why tyrannical governments get so little out of their people. God didn’t create us to ignore our potential or abandon our dreams.”

Here I am, reading this book about parenting in hopes of finding some words of wisdom to help parent my two daughters, but the first thing that comes to my mind is each of the refugee children that Crossing Borders has supported over the years, and the individual dreams and potential that every North Korean orphan represents. In North Korea they would not have had a choice to pursue those dreams that God had planted in their hearts. They would be required to submit those dreams to the whims of a government that most certainly was not concerned with what was in their best interest.

But that is not the kind of God who created us. He created each of us, including every child that we serve, as individuals, with unique and purposeful longings and desires and dreams that are waiting to be fulfilled.

And then again, just this weekend, I attended a “Missional Moms” conference where it seemed God kept whispering to me, “Don’t forget about the orphans. Don’t forget about North Korea.”

One of the speakers, Shayne Moore, who wrote the book Global Soccer Mom after she was awakened from her own “suburbia stupor,” encouraged each one of us to go beyond our own small worlds and pursue the burdens that God has laid on our hearts. In her book she writes:

“I’m only one woman, who lives in one town, who goes to one church and who has one voice, but I have come to believe all our ones add up and together we can make a difference.”

At the end of her session, she told a beautiful story about meeting a little five-year old girl in Africa who had so much charisma and presence that she drew the attention of those around her simply by being who she was, and how this little African girl inspired her own fifth-grade daughter to come to the conclusion that “You’re never too small to make a difference.”

When I think about my own daughters, and when I think of each of the North Korean orphans in our Second Wave shelters, it reminds me that even they are not too small to make a difference. These are the children that will be the next generation that God is raising up, children that already say they want to grow up to be pastors and missionaries and teachers, and return to the country that their mothers and fathers fled, in hopes of bringing the good news of God’s love to a people that so desperately need to hear it. I suppose this is part of the mysterious way that God works, bringing salvation and hope, one individual, one soul at a time. To our Heavenly Father, each person matters. And no one, no child, is too small to be forgotten.

Prayer for North Korean Orphans: Abandonment

Crossing Borders staff and leaders spend a significant part of their time on the field with the refugee children in our Second Wave program. On the surface, the North Korean orphans in our care are adorable. Many of them could simply pass as one of the many Chinese and Korean children who live throughout China. But as our team members have had the opportunity to get to know some of these boys and girls, they have noticed that the differences between the North Korean orphans in China and the other children around them widen from a simple difference of nationality to a great vast gulf of pain and heartache. One of our staff members even described the hearts of the children in our care as "old, deserted houses." A majority of North Korean refugees who cross the border from North Korea and into China are women. Exposed and vulnerable, they are often captured or manipulated into trafficking rings who will sell them into marriages with Chinese men. The gender disparity in China due to the One-Child Policy has given way to a colossal, illegal trade of North Korean refugee women. Children are born into these forced unions.

As North Korean mothers are captured by Chinese authorities or as mothers attempt escape for South Korea, sometimes having no choice but to flee for safety from the police or their own husbands, their children are left behind. This is a case for a most of the refugee children in our program, Second Wave.

One of the children in our care was abandoned the day she received heart surgery. Her mother stole away as her father remained distracted. Another child watched his mother try desperately to wrestle away from the Chinese police as they dragged her away.

Jo Han (12) had a hard time adjusting to his new surroundings in one of Crossing Borders’ group homes. At first his caretaker was unable to handle him because he was always stealing things from other kids at school.

Kleptomania has been a common a symptom of abandonment, according to our field missionaries who are actively involved in the lives of each of our children. The more hurt children are, they say, the more they want to steal. This is a problem for a number of North Korean orphans who we take into our group homes. Some kids search through the garbage for items to take home. Fo others, the deep pain of abandonment comes out when they fight with the other children at home. These fights can turn vicious if nobody is there to stop them.

We encouraged and advised Jo Han’s caretakers as they became a source of love and discipline in his life. With their patient and compassionate efforts, we have seen a dramatic turnaround in his life.

“My parents forsook me but God did not forsake me.  He sent me to [our caretaker] to raise me as a faithful person.  I give thanks to God.  I will praise Him and go to heaven,” wrote Jo Han in his journal.

Whether this was genuine or just to impress his caretakers, we cannot know. But we do know that the stealing has stopped and young Jo Han is behaving much better at home. As we go about our week, let’s remember to pray for Jo Han and the North Korean orphans like him who feel the pain and loneliness of abandonment.

An Inside Look: Our Work with North Korean Refugees

Welcome to the new and improved Crossing Borders website and blog! We are an organization with the mission to share the compassion of Christ with North Korean refugees and their children in China.

It has been over 5 years since we’ve had a blog and for good reason: security.

There is a line we must walk as a missionary organization. We must share stories about the North Korean refugees we encounter and their plight.  Telling stories about the people we help can spread awareness about our mission but in so doing, we can run the risk of compromising the security of the very people we support. Since we’ve been on the mission field now for seven years, we feel like we have developed a firm grasp on what we can and cannot share and the precautions we must take in security.

We understand that we ask of our partner churches, donors and supports for an incredible amount of trust in participating in our work. In order for you to donate to us or even take time to read our emails, tweets and now, blog entries, you must first believe that we do in fact help North Korean refugees in Northeast China. You have to trust that we aren’t just pocketing your money and using it for ourselves.

There is a leap of faith that so many of you make when you write your checks and send them so faithfully to our PO Box.

We believe the trust factor is one reason why so many people don’t support us. If this is you, we hope this blog will help you change your mind.

Although we can never share the names of our refugees, tell you where they live or show their faces, we hope that this blog will give you the information necessary to trust that we are in fact on the difficult mission to restore the lives of North Korean refugees and their children.

We will share stories of our refugees and orphans, give you a behind-the-scenes look at our work, recommend and review books that might help you understand what we’re doing better, and share updates in the world of North Korean refugee work. We will try to pack as much information and news into our posts as possible. We warn you that some of our stories will be heartbreaking, dispiriting, depressing. But we guarantee that there will also be stories of light, joy and hope.

Through it all, we hope that you will be more engaged and motivated to help us share compassion and love to a people in need.