Messages from the Field: Crossing Borders Missionaries in China

The following is an excerpt from a report sent to us from dedicated Crossing Borders missionaries who were in China throughout 2019. While a few details have been changed or edited in this transcription, we hope it will encourage you to continue in prayers for our faithful workers and the North Korean women and children they serve.

“When visiting the refugees in their village, a few of the women asked us if North Korea and the United States will go to war. Knowing that the United States had a much larger military, they worried for their families in North Korea. We learned that there are secret channels online where North Korean refugees in China and defectors to South Korea share a forum together. Over 300 of them chat throughout all hours of the day. It is one of the primary ways that the refugee women learn about what is going on in the world.

The refugee women have shared news about North Korea with us. Back home in their country, families are being required to donate a pig to the government annually. The North Korean people have had a history of stifling complaints against their rulers, but their patience is thinning. Their frustration and discontent may be growing.

According to sanctions enacted by the United Nations, we are learning that North Korean workers are now legally required to leave China. However, North Korean workers sent by the government are still present. Some North Korean women sent by their government to run a North Korean restaurant are now pretending to be Chinese and speaking Mandarin when serving customers. On the river bordering China and North Korea, there is a great deal of smuggling now. Large trucks line up along the riverbank at night.

We were informed that providing ministry for children is now illegal in Chinese churches. In a Chinese-Korean church in one of the major cities, government officials from the Religious Bureau burst into a service and began to take pictures and video of the congregants. The church had to quickly hide its small children’s ministry on a different floor of the building space.

The pastor of the church told us that the government’s interference is growing more and more aggressive. This was their first time being interrupted in service, and churches throughout the region are being inspected regularly. We will be more careful and be wary of visiting any churches going forward.”

Beginning 2020: North Koreans Ask For Your Prayer

The fuel for Crossing Borders’ ongoing work in ministry is not grit, wisdom, or good work. While our staff and missionaries thoroughly believe that we must put forth maximal effort in serving North Korean refugees and their children, we are often faced with the reality that in circumstances outside of our control and the oppressive, overwhelming odds of working in places hostile to our ministry, we need help.

In this, Crossing Borders turns to prayer. Our prayers are often for grit, wisdom, and good work - but they extend further than these requests as well. We ask for guidance, for barriers to be overcome, for safety or protection, for hearts to be opened and lives to be transformed. Again and again, prayer has yielded in good fruit and understanding for our workers and our community. As we focus on sharing the gospel to the unreached again in 2020, our staff in the US and overseas continue to ask for your support through prayer.

This past year, Crossing Borders staff made an effort to better understand and pray for the refugees in our network. With the vast number of women and children who are being served, it is often tempting to lose track of how many are being cared for with personal ministry. As a part of this endeavor to serve more intentionally, Crossing Borders missionaries asked the North Korean women in China to share some answers to questions we had about their lives. Each of these answers were collected over the year in interviews and surveys.

We would like to share their thoughts and feelings with you, along with something very important: their prayer requests.

As you begin 2020, please join us in reflecting on these individuals. They are in desperate need of loving prayers on their behalf.

2020 Prayer Requests:

Lois (Age 48, When I remember my home in North Korea, I think of school days, living with my siblings.): To be used as an instrument of the Lord in serving missionally. For my family in North Korea to be healthy.

Victoria (Age 48, My health is affected by sciatica. Sometimes the right side of my body feels paralyzed.): For unity between North and South Korea for the sake of sharing the gospel. For my family - husband, son, daughter - to accept Christ. That I will lead a godly life.

Emily (Age 35, My favorite animals are deer.): Please pray that God would open the doors in North Korea for the gospel to save its people.

Esther (Age 43, I love the color lavender.): For my husband to become a Christian, for my children to grow healthy, for unity between North and South Korea.

Ellie (Age 50, When I remember my home in North Korea, I think of being a young woman, spending time by the sea.): Being a young woman, spending time by the sea): Please pray that my children will be able to go to college. Please also pray that the nightmares I have of North Korean detention centers would go away.

Zina (Age 52, I am sad when I am fighting with my husband and I see my daughter crying because we are arguing.): Please pray over my daughter’s headaches and stomach troubles. Husband’s left knee is infected. Please pray for family to be one in faith.

Miriam (Age 52, My favorite foods are noodles and octopus): Please pray for my husband’s health and that my son will be a child of God.

Carolyn (Age 50, My health is affected by bronchial asthma): I hope my family will learn to pray and to evangelize. Please pray that my husband would quit smoking and that my children will accept Christ.

Cindy (Age 51, When I remember my home in North Korea, I think of my mother’s 60th birthday with our family): For my family to accept faith, for my family to be harmonious. I pray that I would not become greedy and think of God first.

Elizabeth (Age 49, I am happiest when I see my family in harmony because of God’s grace): Please pray for our local church, for my children’s future and my husband’s health.

Begin Again

On December 31, 2002, the night before my best friend Mike Kim took a one-way flight to China, I stood on his porch to say goodbye to him, not knowing if or when I’d see him again. We had no aspirations of building an organization. We wouldn’t name our little project until a year or two later. All we knew was that we wanted to help North Koreans in peril.

It was a cold Chicago night and as I stood there, I didn’t know what to say. So I spoke from the heart.

“I’m proud of you,” I told him as we said our goodbyes.

Both our lives would never be the same when Mike stepped on that flight and Crossing Borders was born. We were 26-years-old and too naive to know what we didn’t know. We didn’t know how to run an organization. We didn’t know how to speak either Korean or Chinese. We didn’t know how to help people with trauma. We didn’t know Chinese culture. But for no reason at all, we were hopeful.

I wish I felt this childlike optimism about our plans for Elim House this year but, to be honest, I didn’t. I am excited to start a new chapter of our work and am elated at the response from our donors. However, I know all too well the difficulty of starting anew.

When I went to South Korea this year, I could feel the joys of a place to begin incredible new work. But I could also feel the impending challenges of beginning again.

Not all of the differences of working in a new country are negative. In South Korea, Elim House will be completely above ground - a legal nonprofit organization. For Crossing Borders’ entire existence, everything we have done in China has been secretive and underground. There was never any registration process. In South Korea, Crossing Borders will enjoy the benefits of having an officially recognized organization. Our money will be protected in South Korean banks. Any misconduct, neglect, or abuse from staff in South Korea will have a clear, legal consequences.

South Korea is also a country with an impressive standard of living. South Korea’s gross domestic product was ranked 12th in the world in 2018. It is an incredibly modernized and urban country with vast resources, extensive means of transportation, and one of the highest ranked internet speeds in the world.

But upon landing in Korea in 2018, our staff was met with piles of paperwork and administrative issues that we had to learn afresh. The sheer number of legal technicalities, governmental processes for nonprofits, meetings with partner organizations was overwhelming. Crossing Borders now has to follow rules and regulations outside of the ones we have set for ourselves.

It is also a reality that the wealth of South Korea and its living standard raises the costs and expenses for a small nonprofit working in the country. It is more expensive to work in South Korea than it is to work in China. Housing costs for Elim House will comprise the bulk of the project’s expenses. We will also have to pay our staff in South Korea a considerable amount more than our staff in China. For our staff in the US who worked around the clock to raise the funds for Crossing Borders’ first year in South Korea in addition to the money needed to keep ongoing work in China, the prospect of sustaining a second nonprofit’s activities are an immense source of pressure.

These are things that kept me up at night this year. I’ve woken up with my head full of worry, restless, exhausted, anxious. There have been moments when my hopes and aspirations for our new work in South Korea have been superseded by the fears that accompany this new venture.

But in such moments when I have felt my heart overburdened, I’ve been overtaken by comfort that isn't based on just accounting numbers and projections. This kind of rest is not broken by the great difficulties ahead. It is steadfast.

In the words of Tim Keller, “We need rest from the anxiety and strain of our overwork, which is really an attempt to justify ourselves—to gain the money or the status or the reputation we think we have to have.”

For Crossing Borders, the work is not always about the sum of our individual efforts and abilities. Our successes have never been measured by the talent of our staff or the wisdom of each of our leaders. We have been saved left and right, again and again, by miracles large and small. These miracles speak loudly to us. They remind us that we are not in control, that this work is something more than planning and numbers. This work is about healing. It is about deliverance. What has sustained our mission in a hostile country like China, which is eradicating faithful nonprofits left and right, is not simply our ability.

In the grand scheme of our work, our fate has never been in our hands. But we are still here. For this, we can’t claim the credit. We only have thanks.

So as much as we try to plan, prepare and work, we know that we are in God’s hands. These are, in the difficulties and challenges ahead, hands we trust. We may not have the same optimism of 2002, the bright eyes for things to come. But we have learned this incredible lesson again and again in the last 17 years of Crossing Borders.

Grief and Joy in the Unexpected: The Testimony of a North Korean Refugee

“My days were filled with sighs. I would wake up each morning thinking, ‘How will I live through today?’ I would make small amounts of money. And each time I looked at the money I made, I would consider how I could use it to return to North Korea. My stomach felt like it was tied in knots.”

“Lydia,” a North Korean refugee living in China, wondered how she could go on with life. She had fled across the border from North Korea in 2005 to work for just one month before returning home. When Lydia was deceived and sold to a Chinese husband by traffickers, that one month stretched into many long years. In her first year in China, Lydia gave birth to a baby girl. Trapped in a country where she didn’t speak the language, where she didn’t know East from West, friend from foe, Lydia spent nine years in despair. She had left behind a twelve-year-old son in North Korea. A son who had expected her to come back in 30 days. She wonders about him even today. How much of his life he must have lived through now, how he must have become a man, how he did not have her by his side for so much of his struggles and triumphs. Lydia mourns the time that has passed.

Lydia pondered life in this well of despair as she travelled out of her small, rural village to meet another North Korean refugee in 2015. She and her friend, on a fateful afternoon in winter, encountered a Korean man in the backseat of a Chinese bus. It was rare to meet a Korean-speaking man in this back country region of China. Lydia had not seen a Korean man for almost a decade. The man was a pastor, a Korean-Chinese missionary working with Crossing Borders who was passing through her town. He had heard a few rumors that North Korean refugees were living in small villages. The chance meeting was the beginning of a new ministry that would expand over the next five years.

Since meeting Lydia, this missionary and Crossing Borders has planted small community churches with over 100 North Korean refugees in hiding just like Lydia. Lydia shared what it was like to meet Crossing Borders’ pastor. “It was amazing. I met our pastor on the bus and heard the gospel of God’s grace. I’d never imagined hearing about who Jesus was. I felt joy. I couldn’t understand why I felt happiness.”

Lydia had been drowning in sorrows of a life unplanned and unwanted. Suddenly, the unexpected arrival of grace, mercy and compassion changed her life forever. A ray of life and hope had burst into her soul.

“I used to like music in North Korea,” Lydia shared with Crossing Borders staff. “Praise songs moved my heart when I heard them for the first time. They gave me strength. They were blessings. A year after meeting our pastor, God’s Word began to speak to my heart.” Lydia had the opportunity to have services with Crossing Borders missionaries twice every month. She came to accept it by faith in early 2016. Today, Lydia is a leader of a small group of North Korean women who are learning about the Bible together. She is a loving and caring sister for many other women who has experienced the same depression and grief she survived. 

“I love Thessalonians 5:16,” Lydia says. “‘Be joyful always.’ I wrote it down on a piece of paper and hung it up on my wall.”

Other North Koreans are not the only recipients of Lydia’s sudden wealth of joy. Lydia has shared the gospel with her family. Her husband, once a stranger who had purchased her, is now a believer of the Christian faith. As Lydia prays in Korean, he prays in Chinese. The two of them share the gospel with other North Koreans they encounter. Lydia’s daughter, “Heidi,” has heard the gospel as well. Out of the many half-North Korean children in Crossing Borders’ network, Heidi is one of the most educated on the Bible and the gospel. Heidi has also learned about her mother’s tragic past. It was not an easy story for Lydia to share with her daughter.

“I used to regret coming to China,” Lydia reflected. “But I felt that it was right to tell my daughter that she has a brother in North Korea. I told her that I am a refugee, that I have no citizenship in China.”

Heidi and her mother do not always see eye to eye. The two of them are not only separated by culture, but the perspectives of mother and daughter. Lydia has often remarked on the difficulties of mothering and raising her child in a world so vastly different from the one she was raised in. Many parents around the world may share her same fears and frustrations. Nonetheless, there is a newfound gratefulness in Lydia’s own heart. Heidi carries her mother’s hopes.

When asked what she wants to grow up to be, Heidi’s answer was firm. “I want to be a missionary to North Korea. I want to meet my brother.” Heidi wants to share the gospel with her family one day.

This year, Crossing Borders raised funds to provide many of the North Korean children in our network with scholarships. Heidi is one of those recipients. We long to support her and her family with both the gospel and the means to build a life in China.

“I believe that God’s love cannot compare with anything else in the world,” Lydia remarked. Crossing Borders is grateful for stories like hers. They are testimonies to the incredible power of the gospel.

Sinicization and Security

It is needless to say that any email beginning with the lone header “Current Situation” in bold letters can be slightly unsettling. Crossing Borders staff received an email starting with these exact words not long ago from missionaries operating in China. Enclosed were details of an ongoing phenomenon in the country - a situation that has been unfolding since 2015.

In May 2015, Chinese government officials attended the Central United Front Work Conference. The meeting was held to discuss internal influences in China as well as the ongoing external influences that affected the Chinese people from beyond the country’s borders. Presiding over the conference was President Xi Jinping himself, in the second year of his presidency. It was, as reported by scholars of the Department of Religious Studies at Fudan University, at this conference that President Xi first began the discussion of “guiding religions in the direction of sinicization.”

Sinicization, as described by Bitter Winter, a publication focusing on human rights activism in China, is the process of coercing or establishing leaders of organized influences to “operate within a framework of strategies and objectives indicated by the [Communist Party of China].” Generally speaking, it is the effort of the Chinese government to hold authority over national, influential organizations and their corresponding influence on the Chinese people. One such influence that was and is regularly organized en masse throughout the country is religion. But controlling religious influence has posed a problem to the Communist Party.

The results of the Communist Party’s ongoing efforts to control religious influence and its organization have recently made headlines. In October 2019, an exposė in the New York Times revealed a collection of over 400 leaked pages documenting the Chinese government’s ongoing mass detention and imprisonment of over one million Uighur Muslims in Northwest China. The camps are aimed to indoctrinate government values on Muslims in the region. Family members of those detained, including their children who were left behind, were given documents to precisely explain why these “treatments” or “schools” could not be visited or expect release. Such camps and their processes, the Communist Party argued, were for the betterment of society.

It should be noted that the same region in which this internment is occurring today, Xinjiang, has seen a 93 percent increase in its internal security budget from 2017 to 2018 as these internment camps expanded. In fact, China’s domestic security spending, according to The Jamestown Foundation, has increased almost ten-fold in the last decade. The Chinese government is responding to its need to control and monitor its people more closely than ever. It was also from the region of Xinjiang that a leading Communist Party official, Zhang Chunxian, stated that the sinicization of religions was a necessity to prevent the infiltration of destructive social activities. The goal of increased security was to "immerse religions in the Chinese culture... in order that religions can develop in a normal and healthy way," noted Zhang in the South China Morning Post in 2015.

Readers should be cautioned to believe that this work of the Communist Party to control religious development and its core ideologies is illogical or simply oppressive without reason. The Central United Front Work Conference of 2015 was clear in the purpose of religious control within China. As spoken by President Xi, the efforts of the Communist Party are to “resolutely guard against the infiltration of Western ideology, and consciously resist the influence of extremist thought.” Religious control exerted by the Communist Party is a preventative measure against an influence that cannot be controlled or organized in a massive population of over one billion citizens. The unpredictability and potential subversion of core communist values through religion is not appealing to a government focused on action, order and prosperity. However, it is this same mentality that has resulted in religious human rights abuses that are taking place today in the nation.

The pressure on religion in China is not only limited to Northwest regions where there are large populations of Muslim believers. Reports from Beijing, according to the Washington Examiner in July 2019, have stated that Arabic symbols were forcibly removed from public spaces throughout the city. The effort, according to the Examiner, is for the enculturation of the Chinese language in the Arabic population. Such stringent control further extends to Christian churches. In 2016, the New York Times wrote about how churches had been “decapitated” as their steeples were forcibly removed. The Business Insider reports that many churches were ordered to install facial-recognition devices that monitored their congregants’ activities within their buildings in 2018. According to the Acton Institute, state-run Christian facilities were officially ordered to remove any displays of the Ten Commandments as of September 2019 and to replace them with quotes by President Xi upholding Communist values. The Professor of World Christianity at Duke Divinity School, Xi Lian, noted that in 2019, China is approaching a “reversal of the somewhat tolerant religious policy of the Deng Xiaoping era and a return to the Mao-era hostility toward all forms of organized religion.”

It is a tumultuous time for Chinese Christian believers. As reported by the Council on Foreign Relations, The number of Christian Protestants in China has increased by approximately 10 percent annually since 1979 and the nation will have the world’s largest population of Christians by 2030. Ironically, with the expansion of powers in the Communist Party, the nation is also approaching a time when religion will be greatly condemned.

Even state-sanctioned churches have begun to self-criticize the “Western” elements of Christianity, upholding nationalistic core values as primary objectives in religion. In a public speech recorded by the South China Morning Post in March 2019, Xu Xiaohong, chairman of a government-sanctioned and state-approved Protestant church, noted that “Christianity was spread widely to China along with the colonial invasion of Western powers… that’s why [Chinese nationals] have the saying: ‘one more Christian, one less Chinese.’”

In this past month, Crossing Borders staff received the email entitled “Current Situation” with grim faces and folded arms. The report enclosed detailed the ongoing closures of churches, the persecution and subsequent evacuation of missionaries, the ongoing fear present on the field for foreign and Chinese Christians alike. With ongoing research, the persecution of religion in China seems all the more likely as long as the nation continues to focus on the growth of nationalism. Concurrently, the tension and unavoidable fear that the difficulty of working in China will inhibit the spread of Crossing Borders’ refugee network is consistently palpable. Looking forward to 2020, it is very possible that the efforts of sharing the gospel to North Koreans in China will grow more difficult.

But simultaneously, there are incredible undercurrents to be noted. Crossing Borders is amazed at the dedication of field workers who are risking everything to minister to North Korean refugees and their children. Crossing Borders served the largest population of North Korean women and children to be gathered in China thus far, 92 North Korean women and children, at an annual retreat in 2019. It is incredible to see, furthermore, that the network of North Korean refugees in Crossing Borders’ care is growing faster than ever as persecuted, fearful women and children are more readily accepting the faith than ever. Over 140 North Korean women and children were served throughout 2019. These are clear indications that the need for the gospel is present in China, that Crossing Borders always has reasons to remain thankful and hopeful.

The possibility that 2020 will be more dangerous and that Crossing Borders will need more help to conduct its work in China is more than likely. But the hope and faith of Crossing Borders grows each time the gospel is shared. This is the heart of many Christian believers in China in an era of oppression. All of our work thus far has been more than a privilege. Crossing Borders will continue to serve, if only to reach one more person in this period of great change and persecution.

People Like Priscilla: North Korean Refugee Stories

When bringing new North Korean refugees into Crossing Borders’ community in China, missionaries conduct introductory surveys. The responses of women who complete these short paper forms are often succinct, lacking description or detail. It is rare to see North Korean women describe themselves in anything more than a few sentences. Their stories, when recorded in such small, syllabic blocks of Korean, narrow their entire lives into short, bullet point facts.

“Priscilla” is a North Korean refugee woman who shared her testimony with Crossing Borders through such surveys. Her story can be summarized quite quickly. 

Priscilla has lived in China for almost 15 years. Priscilla arrived in China in 2004, just a few days before her 34th birthday. She escaped North Korea to make money. Priscilla was deceived and trafficked to a Chinese husband who is unable to work. She gave birth to one daughter almost exactly a year after her arrival in China. Priscilla met Crossing Borders’ field pastor and accepted the Christian gospel in 2016. Priscilla attended the first Crossing Borders retreat for North Korean women and their children that same year and has returned to the annual gathering every year since.

Almost every week, Crossing Borders staff reads profiles like Priscilla’s.

Here are just a few short testimonies of refugees’ life-altering escapes from North Korea.

“Woman H" fled to China in 1998 not knowing that she would be trafficked. In 2019, she is 50 years old. She has lived in China for 21 years.

“Woman G" fled to China in 2000 knowing that she would be trafficked. In 2019, she is 35 years old. She has lived in China for 19 years.

“Woman C" fled to China in 2003 because her business had failed in North Korea. In 2019, she is 51 years old. She has lived in China for 16 years.

“Woman D" fled to China in 2004 to earn money and return home. She was deceived and sold. In 2019, she is 43 years old. She has lived in China for 15 years.

“Woman A" fled to China in 2005 to earn money and return home. In 2019, she is 54 years old. She has lived in China for 14 years.

“Woman E" fled to China in 2014 knowing that she would be trafficked. In 2019, she is 29 years old. She has lived in China for 5 years.

There are an estimated 200,000 North Korean refugees in China. Approximately 70 percent of them are women, 80 percent of these women have been trafficked. Even as Crossing Borders has collected over a thousand North Korean testimonies, it is nothing compared to the sheer scale of individual stories of struggle that have yet to be shared.

But even in the course of reading the concise, summarized facts of just a few refugee women’s lives, it is easy to become numbed by their tragedies. It is hard to convey the trauma, or even the perseverance and fortitude, in a person’s life when described in a few sentences. Encapsulated in the short, brief facts are entire lifetimes of fears, triumphs or struggles. Again and again, the staff at Crossing Borders must hold to reminders that these women do not exist on paper. They are people, flesh and blood, who are striving to find hope and peace.

This year, Crossing Borders missionaries spent time asking personal questions to women like Priscilla. Priscilla shared that her favorite food is fish. She loved the food at the 2019 retreat, where seafood was served almost daily. Priscilla’s favorite color is pink. Her favorite animals are puppies. When she reminisces about her hometown, she remembers being a happy, young, unmarried woman. Today, Priscilla is most joyful when she remembers that she is going to heaven.

Priscilla also spends time during retreats sharing about her family. Priscilla’s only daughter, “Julie” is a lot like her mother. Both of them have long, straight black hair that extends to their hips. Both braid their hair into intricate ropes that hang at their back as they sit with their peers at Crossing Borders’ retreats, listening to messages, participating in prayers, receiving counseling. Julie is only 14-years-old, but both mother and daughter have strands of clear, white hair that crisscross with the black - a small sign of the anxiety and difficulty they have endured living in China.

Since accepting the gospel, Priscilla has been praying for her daughter. This year, she asked for prayers that Julie would grow in self-esteem. She, at times, chooses to ask a friend to help speak to teachers on her behalf. Julie, though vibrant, is often shy and can be seen practicing dance by herself in a corner. Both she and her mother are excellent dancers, but while Priscilla is bold and confident in her talents, Julie is reserved and quiet. Julie, however, has learned much about the gospel and the Bible from her mom. Crossing Borders hopes that both of them will continue to grow together.

Crossing Borders is thankful for each and every life that has been touched by the ministry in China. Again and again, we find that their stories bear overwhelming burdens. We also find, however, that they are again and again greatly relieved, amazed and astounded by the hope of the gospel.

Fighting in the Dark: North Korean Defectors and the Mental Health Crisis

It may be surprising to discover that the government of North Korea has a very clear-cut definition of mental health. In the words of the Korean Neuropsychiatric Association’s (KNA) study on the question “What is it to be mentally healthy from the North Korean refugee’s perspective?” the answer is very simple. The definition is loyalty. Loyalty to the state, absolute obedience to the government, subservience to North Korea’s deified leaders.

“A mentally healthy person in North Korea is someone who is faithful to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Someone who is forever and ever faithful,” describes a North Korean defector in the KNA’s interviews.

Imagine then, the confusion of North Korean defectors arriving in South Korea, one of the most modern countries in the world. The South Korean government passed the Mental Health Act in 1995, a law that caused a five-fold increase in the number of facilities treating mental health from 2001 to 2015. Fleeing North Koreans arrive into a fast-paced world that does not only assess physical health, but mental and emotional well-being - entirely foreign concepts. The adjustment for North Koreans is far from simple, especially due the abuses they endured at the hands of their own government. 

According to research conducted by the KNA in 2017, “a longer amount of time in North Korea may be associated with greater instances of various types of trauma, such as political brainwashing, imprisonment, torture, and long-term famine, thus exacerbating the experience of mental illness.” The struggle of North Koreans with mental health and emotional well-being is unsurprising. According to Crossing Borders’ own surveys with medical experts, 100% of the North Korean refugees in Crossing Borders’ network in China suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

Recent research conducted in the population of North Koreans in South Korea suggests that there is a high correlation of PTSD with clinical depression and severe anxiety. There are various reasons for this phenomenon. Approximately 49.3 percent of defectors arriving from North Korea describe witnessing or undergoing traumatic events including but not limited to physical abuse, capture and arrest, or witnessing death. Fleeing North Koreans over the age of 20 have escaped one of the most devastating famines in recent history, a famine that is estimated to have claimed the lives of up to three million North Koreans. This is also a famine that was largely unrecognized by North Korea’s communist government, which relentlessly brainwashed its population with false history, propaganda and reasons for mistrust.

Defectors, specifically, have also risked imprisonment, abuse, torture and execution at the hands of authorities. Chronic feelings of helplessness can be compounded by the trauma of leaving or abandoning family members, as well as the constant anxiety of being spied upon or arrested by persecutors in police states like North Korea and China. In the population of over 33,000 North Korean defectors in South Korea, up to 49 percent of the population may suffer from depression without clinical aid.

The International Journal of Mental Health Systems assessed the condition of South Korea’s mental health support at the community level in 2018. Their conclusions, while supportive of the Korean mental health structure, make a number of critical comments on the weaknesses of South Korea’s current mental health model. While South Korea’s number of mental health facilities has expanded dramatically in the last 15 years, the number of in-patients in mental hospitals are ten times those of people accommodated in mental health facilities aimed toward rehabilitation. This focus on hospitalizing individuals has led to 1449 mental health hospitals which account for approximately 68 percent of all mental health institutions. Community-level facilities that can effectively respond to everyday services and help individuals without in-patient care are largely unavailable, a critical issue. “As a result, many patients become long-term residents at these facilities and lose their will to return to their own communities. The provision of mental health services also is neither sufficient nor well organized at the community level for the entire population,” writes the International Journal of Mental Health Systems.

It should be noted that hospitalization in mental health facilities has a particular connotation for North Koreans. Psychiatric hospitals in North Korea are referred to as “Ward No. 49” and largely built in secluded, rural regions of the country. No information on in-patients is made available once they are committed. According to one North Korean refugee, “As far as I know, it is almost certain death when you go there. Almost everyone thinks that is the case. If you do not do as you are told, they beat and torture you.” North Koreans may be more wary of approaching mental health facilities that require them to be hospitalized.

The issue of mental health is particular to South Korea, which has the second largest suicide rate in the world and where only one in ten individuals will seek clinical help. But the problem is further complicated for North Korean defectors, whose adjustment to understanding and seeking help for mental health comes with monumental obstacles. According to The Journal of Preventive Medicine & Public Health, there is a substantial lack of literacy and knowledge regarding mental illnesses in the population of North Koreans in South Korea. While there are great improvements in their general understanding of mental health with re-education in Hanawon programs that help North Koreans resettle in South Korea, North Korean defectors do not have consistent follow-up in the information they are provided. According to researchers, more education and assistance is needed. Surveys conducted with North Koreans in South Korea indicate that 70 percent of North Korean defectors do not recognize the purpose behind of counseling centers or psychological counselors. Approximately 58 percent of them do not know the role of psychiatrists in their community.

Crossing Borders’ plan to open Elim House in 2020 is specifically to provide an answer to this ongoing mental health crisis in the North Korean population in South Korea. Embedded in the local community, Crossing Borders will staff a counselor to provide advice, information and clinical aid to North Korean defectors. The goal to establish a community of North Koreans who can share with one another and listen to one another is to respond to North Korean defectors’ present lack of social and emotional support. Crossing Borders hopes to be a resource of mental and emotional stability for this struggling population.

To learn more about Elim House or to support this project for North Koreans in South Korea, please visit

www.CrossingBordersNK.org/ElimHouse

Words, Weapons, and War

The sitting leaders of North Korea and the United States had never met face-to-face prior to June 12, 2018. The purpose of their first meeting in 2018 was to establish a long-term relationship to build lasting peace in East Asia. President Trump described the summit as a monumental success. He was not alone. President Trump was later nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by both Japanese Prime Minister Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in for his conduct at a historic summit.

George Stephanopoulos, sat with President Donald Trump moments after his historic meeting with Kim Jong Un. Stephanopoulos asked a series of questions focusing on North Korea’s weapons.

“Is [Kim Jong Un] going to stop testing,” Stephanopoulos referred to North Korean ballistic missile launches. The North Korean leader tested 10 missiles throughout 2017, a record for the country.

The President’s answer for Stephanopoulos was sure and confident. "He’s committed to not starting again. That won’t be happening. He means it."

But since Trump and Kim’s initial summit in Singapore, North Korea has been launching missiles and reviving old test sites that they destroyed. Accusations have been lobbed by both sides at each other’s negotiators. All while the US sanctions have choked North Korea of its resources. North Korea’s next move is unclear but the country seems to be shifting strategy.

When President Trump and Kim Jong Un held a second summit in Vietnam in February of 2019, both leaders left the negotiation table early without signing planned joint statements. Agreeable terms on denuclearization and sanctions could not be reached by either side. Disagreement seems to be cementing on both sides. North Korea, meanwhile seems to be restoring the very same rocket launch facilities it disarmed following recent discussions with the US. The production of fissile nuclear material, in addition, seems to have never stopped in 2018 or 2019.

As of October 2019, the North Korean government conducted 18 missile tests on nine separate occasions following the meeting between the leaders. The latest missile, launched in early October, showed signs of improving missile technology. Ankit Panda, a North Korean analyst, stated to the BBC, “North Korea's introduction of the Pukguksong-3 submarine-launched ballistic missile is a grave moment for North East Asian regional security - and a reminder of what has been lost over nearly two years of all-show-no-substance diplomacy.” The recent weapon tests and diplomatic failures have further launched a series of accusations and verbal conflicts between American and North Korean envoys not unlike the exchanges between Trump and Kim Jong Un in 2017.

As North’s chief nuclear negotiator Kim Myong Gil stated to the international community, “The US raised expectations by offering suggestions like a flexible approach... but they have disappointed us greatly and dampened our enthusiasm for negotiation by bringing nothing to the negotiation table.” According to Kim Myong Gil’s ominous frustrations, “the fate of the future [North Korea]-US dialogue depends on the US attitude, and the end of this year is its deadline.”

State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus claimed the contrary, stating that American representatives had attempted their best to begin the resolution to seven decades of conflict and disagreement. “The U.S. brought creative ideas and had good discussions,” he noted, following a failed meeting with North Korean officials.

Whether or not the claims of American diplomats’ regarding their willingness to negotiate are true or false, North Korean representatives abruptly left a summit held in Stockholm in the week following North Korea’s recent missile test expressing extreme and public frustration. North Korea's UN Ambassador Kim Song accused the United States of poisoning the United Nations Security Council with hostile attempts to usurp their sovereignty. Such attempts, he stated, would be met with “self-defensive measures.”

The immediate future of the diplomacy between North Korea and the United States remains unclear. Without having made any real concessions, North Korean leaders seem to have placed President Trump and United States leaders into a precarious position. Further refusal to give into North Korean demands could lead to more missile launches, even a nuclear test. American negotiators would be accused for their rigidity and lack of diplomacy. On the other hand, American willingness to concede sanctions or cancel military exercises due to threats and disagreement (as in May of 2018) may be perceived as weakness negotiation tactics, bent by North Korean displays of force.

On October 16th, Kim Jong Un rode a white horse to the snowy summit of Mount Paektu, a site of sacred significance to North Korea. The public and televised event was a symbolic act of power and self-reliance. The North Korean national news agency, KCNA, broadcasted the event with a promise there would be “a great operation to strike the world with wonder again and make a step forward in the Korean revolution."

The act could symbolize peace, as it did prior to Kim Jong Un’s wooing of President Trump on the international stage in 2018. It could also indicate the beginnings of North Korea’s intention to once more dedicate itself to launching more missiles, testing more nuclear explosives, as in 2017.

Watching the North Korean broadcast of Kim Jong Un, alone and surrounded by the icy mountains atop his horse, no one could know his plans, only guess and wait.

“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Mia Naps: North Korean Student in China

In a bustling city in China, a group of six young North Korean students and three American missionaries meandered to various corners of the small apartment to chat, play games and to rest. No one sat near the beams of warm sunlight that streamed in from large windows. The group laughed, chatted, whispered together as the apartment air clung to the walls, thick with heat. A single fan oscillated feebly on the floor, stirring hot air and nudging plastic wrappers from Chinese crackers, American chocolates, Korean candies across the floor, inches at a time. Summer break did not mean a break from the oppressive heat waves of Chinese summer. As drowsy eyes, bobbing heads and slumping shoulders struggled to stay adrift in the heat, the visiting missionaries from America realized some pauses were needed in their schedule for sharing about the Bible.

In the midst of the young men and women chuckling with their friends was “Mia,” an 18-year-old North Korean girl who had only just finished her second day of final exams. Mia’s was still in high school. The others, who were all involved in vocational school programs or preparing for university,  had completed their academic calendars almost a full week prior. They had come to the gathering with Crossing Borders’ missionaries after full nights of sleep and restful mornings. But Mia, wrapped in her final week of school and the only one with three-hour tests in the morning, lay exhausted on the floor of the apartment, fully asleep as the other students mingled.

Crossing Borders missionaries first met Mia in 2009, when she was only eight years old. Her enthusiasm and openness to the gospel led her to memorize the entire first chapter of the book of James when she learned that she would earn a prize from the missionaries. She made friends and showed a positive disposition toward others. But Mia’s own life and her reflections on family often wear on easy smile and laughter.

Mia’s mother’s whereabouts are unknown. Crossing Borders missionaries are unsure when she left Mia and her father, whether she made it safely to South Korea, whether she is alive today. Mia’s father is an elderly man who cannot work, both he and Mia’s grandparents are very ill. Mia finds herself very worried for them, nursing them and taking care of them when she visits home. Her family has never been healthy enough to care for her. When Mia was eight-years-old, she was sent to live with a caretaker in Crossing Borders’ network. Even in her dire situation, Mia was fortunate. An estimated 30,000 North Korean children live in China, many of them without access to basic needs or even citizenship. It is likely that orphaned children do not have anyone to care for them, protect them, raise them.

But Mia is quick to look for hope in difficult circumstances. She shared that she still finds time to pray and to depend on God as she studies during the school year. She shares that she has a good roommate in her high school dormitory, doesn’t mind living with others. But Mia isn’t really close friends with any of the kids she lives with. She is most likely the only half North Korean. Mandarin is not her first language, though she is fluent.

The Crossing Borders missionaries report that Mia is an excellent student. Her studies earned her a place in an upper tier high school, and with one more year of high school remaining, she will be on track to attend university - a feat that only two other North Korean children in Crossing Borders’ network have achieved. It goes without saying that Mia’s nap on the apartment floor, her flannel draped over her face to block out the light, was well earned. Mia is studying to become a doctor.

Crossing Borders missionaries bought dinner for Mia as they walked her home one evening. Mia had skipped a meal to join them on a hot summer day after her exam. She wanted to listen into the Bible studies. She longed for the community. The missionaries bought kimbap, a Korean seaweed roll with rice and tuna, for Mia. They also took her out to have a smoothie. Mia was overjoyed. The smoothie shop as a rare treat. As Mia headed home, one of the missionaries asked Mia why she studied so hard to become a doctor. Mia’s reply was simple. “So that I can help people like my family.”

As the school year begins for children throughout America this fall, please keep the many young boys and girls in Crossing Borders’ network of North Korean orphans in your prayers and on your minds. As they struggle to overcome their obstacles and challenges alone, Crossing Borders hopes to share encouragement, boldness and strength into their lives through the gospel. Please remember kids like Mia.

Below are some ways you can consider supporting the young men and women in Crossing Borders’ network financially:

• The average tuition for a North Korean child in Crossing Borders’ network is $80.00 per month. 

• Just $100.00 can support new clothing for a North Korean child in Crossing Borders’ network for an entire year.

• The average rent and utilities for a North Korean child in Crossing Borders’ network is $225.00 per month.

Caretakers in Crossing Borders’ network in China who serve these children, sometimes raising them in their own homes, are supported with $150.00 per month for their ongoing efforts.

Strangers and Aliens - North Korean Defectors Struggle in Seoul

“Boa” lives about 90 minutes away from Seoul, South Korea by train. The small apartment Boa lives in is not her own. It was given to her after passing through an entry program in South Korea for North Korean defectors. Boa hasn’t been in North Korea since 2011, when she fled to China.

The apartment consists of a compact kitchen, a living space, narrow hall and a single bedroom shared between her South Korean husband, herself and their one-year-old baby. Though the space is cozy, Boa, like many North Korean refugees, is a small woman. She still has to stand on a chair to reach the top shelf of her kitchen cabinet. Boa did exactly this as she scrambled to find cups to serve her rare guest, “Diane.”

Diane is a Crossing Borders missionary who met Boa in China ten years ago, when life was difficult for Boa. When Boa made the decision to flee to South Korea in 2014, Diane, who was her mentor and friend, alongside Crossing Borders staff, connected Boa with the right people to see her through her journey on the Underground Railroad to Laos.

Half a decade later, sitting in the apartment, holding Boa’s baby boy in her arms as she laughed about old times, a stranger might mistake Diane to be Boa’s own mother. The two chatted about friends, old times, the difficulties and joys of raising children. The two ladies’ conversation, as it often did, settled on the topic of family. Boa’s parents and younger sister still live in North Korea.

“I’ve even thought about going back to China to meet them if they crossed [the border],” shared Boa. It was clear that she had considered so many possibilities, routes, plans to help her family. “But I couldn’t ask them to leave everything. I can’t even be sure if I can help them.”

Crossing Borders has met many professionals and advisors in South Korea who have reported that North Korean refugees in South Korea like Boa are in need. Many North Koreans long for a sense of stability that has eluded them for almost their entire lives. But not all of them have found community like Boa has in her church, which is mostly comprised of North Korean refugees. Not all of them have lost their North Korean accent, their feelings of loss. Like Boa, many of them continue to struggle with memories of home, fear, distant hopes of safety and security that seem impossible to attain.

The stark reality that life in South Korea can be a sharp, discouraging truth for a population of over 33,000 North Korean refugees in South Korea. In 2018, only 23.8 percent of North Korean defectors were provided settlement and livelihood benefits. According to sources who Crossing Borders has interviewed – professionals who serve North Korean refugees in nonprofits, churches and in government offices, many North Koreans who arrive in South Korea must simply wait in an unending queue for resettlement assistance.

 The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH), described North Korean defectors as a “mentally vulnerable population” in their study conducted with refugees in March 2018. According to the IJERPH, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression is incredibly high in frequency in the North Korean population in South Korea. The prevalence of depression ranges from 29 percent to 49 percent of North Koreans. Approximately 49 percent of North Koreans interviewed by the IJERPH had experienced or witnessed life-threatening events while 71 percent described traumatic events that involved death, arrest, or violent physical abuse that affected them personally or family members.

However, of North Korean refugees’ struggle with trauma do not simply come to an end with their arrival in South Korea. As the IJERPH describes, mental illnesses only worsen “when the refugees are faced with unexpected stressors after resettlement in South Korea, including acculturative stress, social discrimination, and isolation.” North Koreans, they wrote, were prone to face overwhelming feelings of helplessness and difficult adaptation to society.

Some North Koreans living in South Korea have gone as far as petitioning to the United Nations to return to their oppressive and impoverished homeland. Such refugees remarked that they could no longer stand to experience the isolation and racism in living in South Korea. In an article entitled “Forever Strangers” by The Guardian in April 2018, one North Korean refugee stated that “North Korean defectors are forever strangers in [South Korea], classified as second class citizens… North Korean defectors are treated like cigarette ashes thrown away on the streets.”

As Diane shared Crossing Borders’ plans to begin a safe house in South Korea in 2020, Boa nodded understandingly, quietly. Diane described Crossing Borders’ hopes of building community, of counseling, of caring for many North Koreans who have found themselves utterly lost in South Korea - the place they had longed to reach through strife and struggle. Boa only nodded, but did not comment. But later that evening, as the two women parted ways, Boa pulled Diane aside and said a few words. Crossing Borders staff asked Diane what Boa had said as they left.

“She said that she wished that our safe house had been here when she arrived in Korea,” Diane responded.

Click HERE to find out more about the Crossing Borders’ Elim House project for South Korea.

Dancing Through: North Korean Christians in China

When is the last time you danced?

Ecclesiastes 3:4 writes about

“a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance...”

All four are a part of Crossing Borders’ annual retreat for North Korean refugee women.

Murmurs of government oppression and tension surrounding Christianity have spread even to the remote, rural regions of China. Crossing Borders staff have exercised more caution than ever to continue efforts to minister to North Koreans in hiding in 2019. Missionaries on the field have shared that the persecution of Christians is growing each year. Reports from International Christian Concern state that in the Guizhou province, reporting “suspicious illegal religious sites and activities” to the police could be awarded with cash up to $1000 USD beginning in July. Articles from the Washington Post further verify that Christian churches in the same region are being closed and their congregants closely monitored.

It is not easy to be a faithful Christian believer in today’s China. But despite such heavy persecution, the number of North Korean women and children accepting faith is growing more than ever in Crossing Borders’ network.

This year, missionaries found themselves facing the largest attendance ever welcomed into Crossing Borders’ annual retreat. With much clamor and excitement, 41 North Korean women and 51 of their children flooded into the courtyard of a small motel in China where activities, song and conversation would fill four days and three nights. Crossing Borders staff are consistently astounded that the missionary network seems to expand rapidly every year alongside greater persecution. 

North Korean refugees are illegal defectors living in hiding in China. There seems to be little to gain from associating themselves with a body of people so persecuted in the country. But why are North Korean refugees, despite all odds, gathering more fervently in faith than ever before?

On the one hand, a painful truth for many North Korean women living in China is that there is nowhere for them to turn for the comfort and strength of community. As defectors from their homeland, the pain of rejection North Koreans endure as outsiders in hiding and the alienation they experience as illegal migrants goes unshared and uncommunicated for several years, sometimes decades. Sought out by the authorities and often treated like property, North Korean women become trapped in small towns or their very own homes, utterly alone.

The women in Crossing Borders’ network are desperate for a time and place to express themselves openly. Missionary staff can attest to the fact that the women in Crossing Borders’ retreats so often fall into weeping and reminiscing as they spend time together. The burden of the grievances committed against them has grown insurmountably between their time as citizens of North Korea and refugees in China. Their thoughts, recollections, stories are overflowing. They want to weep bitterly in the open. They want to mourn over lost family, lost time, lost children.

A missionary at the Crossing Borders retreat commented, “In our discussion groups, we asked the women about the Bible. But so often, they just ended up sharing about their lives.”

North Koreans need a place to open their hearts. They want to grieve. But the North Korena women in Crossing Borders’ network also want to laugh with sheer delight over the moments they find happiness with others. Joy can be rare. The women and children gathered each year want to express what is on their minds. But according to the accounts of Crossing Borders missionaries who have ministered to women and children in China, those gathered at Crossing Borders retreats do not only gather to share of themselves. They come to receive. 

The gospel that Crossing Borders shares is a terrifying and frightening thing for many who realize that persecution of faith is growing in China. Rejection to Christian claims and beliefs is being reinforced, even encouraged by government authorities. But the message of the Christian gospel is simultaneously deeply attractive. Under the intense and expanding pressure of rejection, Christianity somehow manages to be deeply desired, even welcoming. Why else would a religion that is largely rejected by China, an officially atheist state, have a rapidly expanding population between 93 million and 115 million Protestants, according to Purdue University’s Center on Religion and Chinese Society? For North Korean refugees, the gospel is an immense source of hope, encouragement and joy. It is the gospel that the women come to hear. It is the gospel that the North Korean women take home with them as they dive back into lives of hardship and toil. They continue to struggle, to endure.

Every year, the North Korean women who gather at Crossing Borders’ annual retreat do not only weep and laugh and mourn. They dance. Their expression of worship is a spectacle. It is a reminder of their resilience and persevering spirit. In the eye of the hurricane of doubt, pain and grief, they have found incredible hope.

This year, 92 North Korean women and children danced in the middle of a forgotten spot in China. And their faith grew.

SunYoung Against the World

As Crossing Borders’ missionaries waited in the spacious, Burger King on a busy street corner in Northeast China, their mobile phone buzzed. “SunYoung” was running late. Her apartment had flooded.

SunYoung, a North Korean orphan living alone in China, walks along bustling city streets.

SunYoung is an 18-year-old half North Korean girl living in one of the many densely populated cities of China. She does not remember much about her father, who left to work in South Korea and never returned. SunYoung’s mother was arrested and taken away when she was 11-years-old. Since the age of 11, SunYoung has been living between her relatives’ homes during school vacations and an orphanage supported by Crossing Borders. When the Crossing Borders orphanage closed at the end of 2018, SunYoung moved in with her aunt in a small one-bedroom apartment in the city. She is, however, still a recipient of Crossing Borders’ financial scholarships, receives regular counsel from missionaries, and attends small retreats with Crossing Borders staff.

This past summer marks the completion of SunYoung’s first year in a vocational school for future teachers.  SunYoung was happy to let the visiting missionaries know that her first year of school had gone very well. It was a major achievement for SunYoung, who has always been anxious about academics. 

SunYoung’s scholastic feat is particularly encouraging in light of how difficult this past year has been for her. SunYoung’s aunt, who had taken SunYoung in when the Crossing Borders orphanage closed so that she could continue her studies in the city, passed away only months after bringing SunYoung home. SunYoung’s aunt had been experiencing heart problems, visiting three different hospitals for treatment in the last two years. On the day she passed away, SunYoung’s aunt packed a lunch and sent SunYoung off to school. SunYoung’s aunt passed away while her niece was at school. SunYoung lives alone now  in her aunt’s apartment. She tells Crossing Borders’ missionaries that she spends time at night thinking about how she and her aunt used to sleep in the same room. The thought makes her afraid.

After their lunch at Burger King, the missionaries and the young men and women in Crossing Borders’ network visited SunYoung’s apartment. She had cleaned and tidied for their arrival. There were no signs of any flooding or water damage. The small space was immaculate. The group shared about the past few months, their comings and goings, work, school, and life. 

A number of the young adults discussed the difficulties of living in China, of feeling like there was no one to lean on when days grew difficult. It is not uncommon for the children in Crossing Borders’ network to feel isolation. 

“There’s no one to depend on,” commented one of the young women, sharing her struggles from the past year. “Friends are friends, but in life I feel like just have to get through it by myself.” These half North Korean youth have little to no family. One of the boys shared a story about how, late at night, with no ride home or a bus to take, he sat on a curb and scrolled through the list of contacts on his phone. He realized there was no one he could call for help. 

The children’s family members are, for the most part, struggling to make their own ends meet with debilitating illness or disabilities. Some of them shed tears as they shared how much their loved ones struggle to make ends meet. Visiting home is often more of a heartbreaking experience than a heartwarming one. Others have experienced so many moments in life where they felt as if people, sometimes even family members, were simply trying to use them or take advantage of their vulnerability. 

The group discussed their hardships. They shared why the hope of prayer and dependence on Christ might give encouragement in trying times. It was a necessary but trying reflection. Hearts needed mending and counsel. The missionaries shared scripture from the Bible.

And then, as the group prepared to leave, a pipe came loose under the sink. Water from the garbage disposal came flooding across the floor.

For a moment, the group of men and women simply watched in a mixture of awe and disgust. The smell was overwhelming. The water was almost black with compost and garbage. It spread across the linoleum matting and pooled beneath it, into layers of newspaper and paste that were hidden beneath the tiles. The flooding did not subside until the bare cement beneath it all was exposed. SunYoung’s effortful cleaning and tidying was washed away in an instant, in the wake of gushing grey water.

As the group stood stunned, SunYoung rolled up her pant legs, picked up a rag, and stepped into the mess. And with her squelching footsteps, the surrounding friends and missionaries snapped out of their trance and began to help in earnest. It took time and effort. The group had to take a break to buy more rags at a local convenience store, squeezing the contents of soaked, blackened cloths into the toilet in SunYoung’s small bathroom. The Crossing Borders missionaries balked at the realization that SunYoung had cleaned away the same stench and muck alone that same morning. It was no wonder that her eyes looked tired, her sprightly energy waned. But now, together, with many blackened hands and smelly, drenched feet, the mess was washed away once more. SunYoung was not alone.

This is the hope of Crossing Borders. 
Little can be done to erase the pain and difficulty in the lives of many North Korean children in China. In many ways, their circumstances stand against them. The challenges before them are often gargantuan, overwhelming, hurtful. But in the midst of struggle, the missionaries who serve these young men and women long to share the little compassion they can offer, to step into their lives to share encouragement, prayer and hope. For young adults like SunYoung, life is filled with looming obstacles. The helping hand offered by Crossing Borders, however, will be there nonetheless.

As the group departed, they made promises to meet again for the next two days, sharing prayer, eating meals, and spending their free time together. It was a short three days of ministry for the visiting missionaries. 

The apartment did not flood again.

The Question

Byung-woo at one of our retreats for North Korean children.

“Byung-woo” sat and thought about his question for several moments before he spoke with one of Crossing Borders’ missionaries two years ago.

“How can I be thankful to God,” Byung-woo asked, “ if he let my mom die?”

The question was not emotional but was posed with unwavering focus. Byung-woo wasn’t frustrated or upset. Byung-woo was curious if there was an answer.

In 2019, Byung-woo turned 19-years-old and graduated from high school. He is a hardworking young man. In the orphanage run by Crossing Borders’ Orphan Care Program, it was common to find Byung-woo studying at his desk with the other children. Even when the Crossing Borders orphanage closed this year and Byung-woo relocated to a dormitory, his efforts continued. Byung-woo dreams big. The young men and women around Byung-woo, even his teachers, see him as a rising star.

Byung-woo’s father is a disabled Chinese man who lives far away in the country. Byung-woo mentions him often and how much his father needs his son’s help. Byung-woo wants to care for his ailing dad. When Byung-woo was about 10-years-old, his father and mother saw how prodigiously determined he was. His parents, wanting to see him grow, sent him to a boarding school far from home. But not long after he was sent away, Byung-woo received a phone call from his father telling him to quickly return home. His mother was dying. He returned home and shortly after, she died.

Byung-woo says he misses his mom’s cooking. He remembers that she was a Christian, rare for a North Korean refugee living in hiding in China. Byung-woo’s mom would drag him to church, promising delicious treats after service. The two of them spent Sundays together. And Byung-woo thinks about his mom, his last moments with her, her passing.

Crossing Borders staff constantly applauds Byung-woo’s unwavering spirit, his grit and his endurance. But somewhere beneath Byung-woo’s great perseverance, there is fear. There is a fear of an obstacle he will not be able to traverse. With his father’s life on his shoulders and an endless series of hurdles he must cross, what if Byung-woo fails? Byung-woo thinks of his faithful and loving mom, he thinks about her death, and he thinks about whether or not he will find the strength to push through the difficulties in his way.

When seeing the lives of the North Korean children in the Orphan Care program, the temptation for hopeless acceptance is overbearing. Children who have been abused and abandoned by powers outside of their control do not have an answer to why they must suffer.

The truth that must be shared with Byung-woo and many children like him, time and time again, is that healing, compassion and love are real. In response to the overwhelming pressure on Byung-woo and the disorienting power of loss in the lives of so many North Korean children, Crossing Borders longs to share the same gift that Byung-woo’s mother clung to in her moments with her son. A North Korean woman who fled from home, living in fear and in poverty, Byung-woo’s mother longed to share the gospel.

We hope that even as Byung-woo relentlessly pursues victory over his circumstances, he will find peace in faith - even in failure. We hope that whether Byung-woo is in the depths of grief, or the pressures of work, he will find grace. In the gospel, we hope that Byung-woo finds many, innumerable reasons to be thankful.

Food Consumption in North Korea and the World

North Koreans have been suffering varying forms of food insecurity since the early 1990s. This continues to this day. This year the UN Food Program reported that four in ten North Koreans are chronically short of food. A bad harvest will make this situation even worse.

While it is true that North Korea has recovered from the famine, the country still struggles to feed its own people. Experts say that, though people are not starving to death en masse, they are going very hungry.

Some North Korea watchers say that there is actually less food than they did during the famine. The world has grown weary of giving the rogue nation food aid because North Korea refuses to let organizations like the UN Food Program track where the food is going. What has changed is the distribution system. North Korea has changed their distribution system. In the past, distributors would get paid whether they deliver food or not. Today, distributors get paid per delivery.

As the country continues to pursue its nuclear program, the people continue to suffer with no end in sight.

North Korea’s End Game

Peace talks that once appeared so promising between North Korea and the US seem to have stagnated while China’s President Xi Jinping is making history with a visit to North Korea in June 2019, reinserting China into the conversation. As waves of political discontent grow between the two countries, the path to peace seems all the more unclear.

To understand where US-North Korea peace talks are going, one must understand the motivations of the parties involved. Both countries, ultimately, want peace. But both parties also want to minimize the cost of peace. And the price tag for peace is very different for the US and North Korea.

The main concern of the US is its influence. The US Navy has bases in Japan and South Korea as well strategic locations throughout the Indian Ocean. American forces have been present in East Asia since World War II. Almost 78 years have been dedicated to maintaining the US military in East Asia - this includes its influence throughout and following the Cold War. Because the US maintains extensive peacekeeping forces half a world away, the US has a voice on the other side of the globe. The US also currently conducts a considerable amount of trade with China, South Korea and Japan, as well as many countries in South and Central Asia. If war were to break out in East Asia and a world power like China were to be involved, the US’s influence would be disrupted.

North Korea is in a different position altogether in its peace talks with the US. Although North Korea wants peace in East Asia, the regime knows its survival is entirely dependent on the regime holding onto power. With the UN Commission of Inquiry looming over their heads for human rights violations and abuses, the North Korean leadership knows that the only way to avoid international criminal courts for crimes against humanity is by maintaining absolute power in North Korea. This is ultimately what motivates the country’s seemingly erratic behavior, calculated displays of military force and weapon tests.

This motivation drives the North Korean dictatorship as it comes to the negotiating table with US officials. While North Korean leaders want peace and prosperity for their people, they certainly will not give their own power or lives in the process.

The fear that North Korean leaders have is understandable. Consider a scenario where North Korea becomes more like China. While prosperity in North Korea may skyrocket with trade and increased international influence, its citizens would be exposed to Western-style consumerism and some freedom to access outside information. This is a dangerous scenario for North Korea’s leadership. An influx of the very same foriegn investors and ideas that bring it more wealth and influence may spark realization, discontent, and violent upheaval.

In March 2018, North Korean officials drew a fascinating connection between themselves and the former leaders of Libya. It has been a source of contention between North Korea and the US after witnessing the events of Arab Spring. Muammar Gaddafi succumbed to international pressure in the years directly following 9/11 and gave up his nuclear program. This sparked a short-term peace for the country. But a little less than a decade later, US allegiance quickly shifted to the anti-Gaddafi contingency in the country. Gaddafi and his cadre died violent deaths at the hands of their own citizens.

The fear of losing their power and ultimately their lives is precisely why the country is so hesitant to give up its nuclear arsenal. This is all the more tragic for the North Korean people who are currently facing one of the worst food shortages in decades.

No one can predict what will happen between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. But understanding why these negotiations are so important for the parties involved will help us better pray for peace. We hope everyone will be praying with us.

The Violence and Flight of North Korean Women

In 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR) released a summary of accusations against the North Korean government for its ongoing and wide-ranging crimes against humanity. In this 400-page document, the UNHCR compiled a list of policies established within the North Korean government that allowed and enforced abuses leveled against its people. The detailed report is disturbing, revealing a glimpse into North Korea’s cold indifference and willingness to allow extreme suffering to human life.

North Korea is a seemingly dystopian world made real. It is a place filled with violence against those who cannot defend themselves.

North Korean women live in a patriarchal society. This is due to lingering influences of Confucian values that are an essential part of East Asian history. North Korea’s lack of enforcement of human rights and abusive system of law has twisted gender inequality into a violent and sadistic part of many women’s lives.

“Sexual violence in North Korea is an open, unaddressed, and widely tolerated secret,” remarks Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch. Following 54 interviews conducted with North Korean refugees who escaped from the state after Kim Jong Un’s rise to power, Human Rights Watch released an 86-page report on sexual violence against women in North Korea. In it, they detailed the brutal abuses endured by North Korean women in public, in their homes and in imprisonment. Quoting the 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry, the report states that “domestic violence is rife within DPRK society... violence against women is not limited to the home, and that it is common to see women being beaten and sexually assaulted in public.”

It is currently estimated that approximately 200,000 North Korean refugees may live in hiding in China. Over 70 percent of them are women. In Crossing Borders’ analysis of over a thousand refugees who have passed through our network, it is not difficult to believe that over 80 percent of these women have been trafficked. Some of those who are in Crossing Borders’ care have been sold multiple times after their escape from North Korea.

It is not entirely clear why such a large percentage of the North Korean refugee population is composed of women. Hypotheses vary many of them not exclusive of one another but North Koreans’ ongoing vulnerability in China is all the more abusive and impactful for women. According to a report on North Korean human trafficking published by Korea Future Initiative, the demand for North Korean women and the network for trafficking them is still expanding rapidly in China.

Studies reveal that North Koreans are not only be sold into forced marriages, but in to sex slavery - including prostitution and cybersex trafficking. According to the author of the report, Yoon Hee-Soon, “Historically, forced marriage was the most common form of sex trafficking... But after speaking with victims still in China and particularly with our rescue teams, we soon realized broker-led sales of North Koreans to brothels had overtaken sales into forced marriages.”

North Korean women are still fleeing. The most recent statistics state that 969 North Korean women found refuge in South Korea in 2018. This is one of the lowest numbers seen for refugees who have successfully fled to South Korea in the past decade. This may be due to the increasingly dangerous route for North Koreans through the modern day Underground Railroad in Southeast Asia through Thailand or Laos. China and North Korea are reported to be increasing security along their borders to arrest fleeing defectors.

Currently, --- North Korean women have found safety and community in Crossing Borders’ network in China. Together, we are hoping, in the face of growing darkness, to provide counseling, care, compassion for so many who have been hurt and broken for so long. Please help Crossing Borders to reach the downtrodden and burdened. Please help us to continue our work to bring many women together in encouragement and  support. With love and faith, even in fear, North Korean refugees can find freedom.

The True Purpose of Our Retreats

The ultimate goal of Crossing Borders’ mission teams has never been to provide job training, medicine or financial support. All resources are under the greater purpose to help North Korean refugees build communities. It is a pursuit to gather people focused on faith, hope and love.

North Korean refugees have survived disaster. Medical professionals who have worked with Crossing Borders have diagnosed many refugees with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Medicine, shelter, counseling - all of these tools are used to help refugees in Crossing Borders’ network. Crossing Borders has labored for over 16 years to practically change lives of North Korean refugees. But in response to individuals who have tangible needs, the primary objectives to create friendship or unity seem ephemeral or impractical. Crossing Borders missionaries could be helping North Korean refugees by helping labor on their farms, developing labor skills or distributing money. But instead, much of Crossing Borders’ work has gone into teaching refugees about the kindness and goodness of community.

Even volunteers on Crossing Borders’ mission teams, foreseeably, have asked a natural question when hearing this.

“Why retreats? Why community-building?”

1. Sustainability

As much as Crossing Borders is dedicated to providing job training, medicine, and counseling to the best of the organization’s ability, the work conducted by the organization is always going to be a drop in the bucket. Over a thousand refugees have been impacted by the work of the Crossing Borders missionaries on the field. But the fact remains that over 200,000 North Korean refugees are still in hiding in China.

It is also a stark reality that the conditions that allow Crossing Borders to continue its work are not controllable. The work to help refugees in China remains illegal. China does not recognize fleeing North Koreans as refugees. North Koreans have no rights protecting their lives. They are arrested. They are sent back to face further injustice in North Korea. Crossing Borders fights for justice but cannot deliver this justice in the face of China’s legal system. Missionaries can be blacklisted. Entire areas of the network to help North Koreans can become impossible to sustain at any moment.

What is the best, lasting work that Crossing Borders can do that will outlive the organization’s current resources, its longevity, or the capacity of current missionaries?

Crossing Borders works to help refugees to gain an understanding of their own agency. North Korean people, together, despite their circumstances, can build a life together. They are capable of helping, supporting, teaching one another with compassion for one another’s struggles. In this process, Crossing Borders will continue to support efforts to create a community of endurance and trust.

2. Life-giving

The mission of Crossing Borders has always been to share compassion for refugees in hardship. The organization has, over the past 12 years, used over $1.2 million toward placing resources in China that can serve North Korean refugees and their children. Whether it was prescription eyeglasses, transportation, vitamins, education, monetary stipends for households, counseling, job training, or caregiving, Crossing Borders has been committed to meet North Koreans’ physical and psychological needs.

But stability is greatly needed for refugees in their personal lives. Even as physical and emotional needs are being met, there must be a deeper fulfillment that gives individuals purpose and meaning. While intangible, goodness is richly found when refugees discover the inherent value of their existence. With this, they can fight to overcome their obstacles.

It is for this reason that Crossing Borders is focused on helping refugees discover faith, hope and love together. The applicable truth of the Christian gospel is necessary for them to find the purpose of caring, seeking joy, encouraging one another. Crossing Borders will continue to harbor North Koreans to meet their needs. The hope is that one day, the North Korean refugees in this network will not only receive the compassion of our missionaries and supporters, but be able to share the same compassion with many others.

North Korea: A Nation Built on Rhetoric

Diplomatic relations between the United States and North Korea in 2017 consisted of ten missile launches and an increasingly brash exchange of threats between the nations’ leaders.

From January through July of 2017, North Korea conducted an unprecedented number of weapons tests, launching six intermediate and intercontinental missiles in the span of seven months. In response to the growing undertones of aggression, President Donald Trump made a declaration regarding North Korea’s agitations.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States," President Trump warned on August 5, 2017. "They will be met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before."

In the 30 days following President Trump’s statement, North Korea conducted two additional missile tests and tested its largest nuclear bomb to date.

President Trump continued his commentary on the administration’s position on North Korea in his first address before the United Nations on September 19. The President vowed to “totally destroy North Korea” if it continued to threaten the United States. "Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself," he stated.

The inflammatory remarks instigated a published response from the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un. “A frightened dog barks louder,” commented Kim. “I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.”

President Trump issued a bristling retort on Twitter in November 2017. “Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me ‘old,’ when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat?’”

For a time, the interchange of blatant mocking and intimidating language between the two leaders of nations with nuclear capabilities seemed as if it would find no diplomatic or peaceful end. The world watched and wondered if the two countries would stumble into war.

While the threat of a nuclear North Korea dominated headlines, what was harder to notice was North Korea’s masterful use of rhetoric to capture the world’s attention and further subjugate its own people. This is perhaps the greatest strength of the North Korean regime.

After the harsh exchanges, the two leaders met on June 12, 2018. President Trump and Kim Jong Un stood only a few feet from one another across a table in Singapore, exchanging pleasantries in front of the world. No sitting United States president had ever even shared a phone call with a North Korean leader. Yet President Trump had agreed to meet face-to-face with Kim - asking for nothing in return but a willing discussion on nuclear arms and peace.

President Trump walked away from the summit stating publicly that Kim Jong Un was a “great leader.” “We fell in love,” the President remarked.

The dramatic turnaround of rhetoric between the United States and North Korean leaders held centerstage in the eyes of the world for good reason. As Vipin Narang, an MIT professor on nuclear proliferation commented on CNBC, “One has to treat this like a soap opera… Every day brings a new, mostly predictable twist.”

Being seen in a meeting with a US President means that any picture or video can be used to say that the two are equal. North Korea trumpeted these meetings as a coming of age for the young North Korean dictator. A mere photo op can speak louder than the words exchanged between the two leaders.

But the power of rhetoric is a tool not only used by North Korea to take centerstage internationally. Rhetoric and the use of mythic fiction has always been a weapon that the North Korean government has employed against its own people.

North Koreans are regularly lied to by their government from birth. Everything from public broadcasts, to television news and school education is shaped to harbor undying loyalty to the Kim regime that has liberated North Korea from the evils of the world. Kim Jong Un’s nuclear “success” is seen as a successful strike against the tyranny of the outside world by an underdog, isolationist nation that has nothing to envy in the world.

As such, the past two years of rhetoric between the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Trump has revealed that North Korea is capable of manipulating its narrative worldwide. The rhetorical war of words between Kim Jong Un and President Trump was not a volley of insults and threats between the leader of the free world and a dictator. It was, in the eyes of North Koreans, a critical battle of a North Korean champion who refused to back down from a fight.

The summits, the war of words and the fact that North Korea has made few concessions, all bolsters the regime’s argument that they are powerful and not to be trifled with. The result of this is the suffering North Korean people are less likely to revolt. It means that the government can take even stronger measures to control the lives, even thoughts of its people.

Mrs. Jo’s Eulogy

For a meager price, Mrs. Jo was sold twice in China, first as a farmhand. She was worked so mercilessly that her back went out, making her completely useless to her owners. Then she was sold again.

Mrs. Jo’s life was riddled with oppression but, by her strength of will and faith, refused to be defined by it. Despite being sold twice and being stripped of all her rights, she proved herself as an integral part of our work over the course of the years that we have known her. Mrs. Jo died in March. Her life proved the God-given worth of people from any background or status.

Mrs. Jo fled North Korea immediately following the Great North Korean Famine, which lasted between 1995 and 1998. She watched her husband and three children starve to death. And as the youngest of Mrs. Jo’s boys lay starving and weak in her arms, he asked his mother for one bowl of rice to eat. Mrs. Jo told him that she would sell the shirt off her back and trade it for a final meal for him. He smiled, touched the button on her shirt and died.

Mrs. Jo had no one else.

With nothing left and at the brink of death herself, Mrs. Jo found the strength to walk to the border that separated North Korea and China. She was promised work in China but, like so many others, Mrs. Jo fell victim to the snare of human trafficking. She was subdued and prepped for sale. Mrs. Jo was older and was deemed undesirable to Chinese men looking for young brides. So for a discounted price, she was sold to a pig farmer. But her body gave way after a year on this farm. She was sold to an old Chinese man, but for the rest of her days, Mrs. Jo’s back was painfully, permanently deformed.

Mrs. Jo met Crossing Borders missionaries in China in 2012. They counseled her, brought her into an underground community with other North Korean refugees. It transformed her life.

Due to her back and ailing health, Mrs. Jo could not travel. Nonetheless, she began an outreach to other North Korean women in Crossing Borders’ network via long-distance phone calls in 2015. She became a mother to them, nurturing them with hope and faith. Her testimony blessed so many, both North Korean refugees and Crossing Borders staff. She did so much with so little and was joyful in the face of suffering.

Mrs. Jo’s body was cremated and her bones were buried. No death certificate was signed for her in China. She was never acknowledged as a person there. But we believe that she is somewhere better. We believe that she is in glory, her face is bright, shining as the sun. All of the wrongs done to her are made right and all of the tears she shed are wiped away.

Mrs. Jo was a prisoner with no ID and no personal rights. Her body was broken beyond repair. She was poor. She was barely able to walk. Her body was ravaged by harsh starvation, labor and illness. Her children died in a senseless famine. But the effect of the lives she touched will go on long past her life here on earth.

Anna Source of Strength: A North Korean refugee’s tale of hardship and hope

In our previous post, Where Will Anna Go?, Crossing Borders wrote about the strife in the life of “Anna,” a North Korean refugee. Anna faced what seemed an endless torrent of misfortune. Depression flooded her life and pulled her into depths of despair.

But as Anna lost all bearings, as she drowned in a cruel and unending weight of work that offered no solace, an invisible hand plucked Anna from seas of dismay. Her weeping was stopped by the warm embrace of unwarranted kindness. A community of sympathy and encouragement gathered around her. She realized for the first time that she was not alone. She was being watched over. As her faith revealed to her, she had always been watched over. Even in the cruelest isolation and pain. She was promised life, not in spite of despair, but even under its cruelest waves.

Anna’s fervent prayers for her missing children continued. Their loss weighed heavily upon her heart, even with the newfound joy in her own life. And with Anna’s prayers, a miracle occurred in a country with over 200,000 displaced North Koreans and almost 1.4 billion people.

In 2016, after 14 years of separation, Anna heard rumors that her second daughter, “Kate” lived in a distant village. Without hesitation, Anna went out to see the face of her lost daughter. By great grace, Anna found her. We cannot imagine the power of their reunion. After much reconciliation, Anna found a place in her daughter’s life. Despite the rift that had formed between them in over a decade spent apart, Anna and her daughter became a family again.

But Anna’s heart broke almost immediately again.

Kate made a desperate attempt to escape to South Korea and succeeded. But overwhelmed and defeated by the pressures of living in the modern world of South Korea, Kate returned to China broken and defeated.

Kate began to suffer from crippling anxiety and a parasitic illness in 2018. Anna, terrified, turned to her community of refugee women. Together, they desperately prayed for Kate. In response to Kate’s debilitating sickness, Crossing Borders staff found medication to help Kate, to relieve some of her symptoms. Our staff also searched and discovered doctors who could cure her condition. With medical attention, the decision came down to whether Kate would have to undergo serious surgery – an expensive surgery that Anna could never afford.

“They had put her fate in my hands.”

Anna reflected on the moment the doctors had placed the only option to help her suffering daughter at her feet. Her eyes were wide, helpless. But Anna, who had once described her life as a pit of despair broke into a smile as she reflected on this horrifying moment for any mother. For the first time in her life, she knew where to turn. “I prayed.”

Anna’s own summary of the story is astoundingly simple. “Our God answered.”

Anna’s family pooled their resources together. They found the money. And Anna’s daughter is alive and well.

But hope is not only a response to duress. With hope, we can seek greater things we had never dreamed of before. It is the firm ground under our feet when we fall, the helping hand that calls us to run with faith. With the great hope she discovered, Anna sought more.

At the end of 2018, Anna left her village to seek out safety and the possibility of a life in South Korea. Once more, she will be traveling vast distances on foot in hopes for a better life. This road is much longer than her trek to China over 16 years ago. It will not be hundreds of miles, but thousands. Anna will face challenges, obstacles, dangers along the way. The terrors stand tall.

But Crossing Borders staff holds fast to the same hope we shared with Anna. The fears are still present. But boldness is where faith is found. Anna, who had once felt so helpless, afraid, abandoned and unable has stepped out to face perhaps one of the most dangerous journeys in the modern world. Please pray for Anna to be safe, to remain steadfast.

“We came into this world with empty hands and we leave with empty hands. We do not know where to go in life. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow. We live without knowing tomorrow…While we are alive, let’s live sincerely and with pure hearts putting faith and trust in God and following Him.”
- Anna in 2018