An Unpredictable Threat to President Biden: North Korean Diplomacy

North Korea profoundly shaped Trump’s first year as president. Trump’s diplomacy has left a mixed legacy. Will relations with North Korea soil or solidify Biden’s presidential reputation?

It has been a tumultuous season of anticipation in the United States as for almost three months, the results of the American elections have been held in contention. Eagerly eyeing the results were not just the country’s own citizens but nations around the world. As President Joe Biden steps into office this month, analysts are setting their eyes on one of the biggest threats that shaped Donald Trump’s first year in office - North Korea.

Trump’s “Will They, Won’t They” Relationship with North Korea

At times, it seems unclear as to what exactly Trump’s oscillating diplomatic relationship with North Korea resulted in. Relations between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seemed to swing from one extreme to another.

In 2017, the first year of Trump’s presidency, the Nuclear Threat Initiative (or NTI) recorded 20 confirmed missile tests over the course of twelve months in North Korea, sixteen of which were successful launches. Some of these tests were aggressive displays of force, as recorded by CNBC. In early September of 2017, North Korea tested its most powerful nuclear bomb to date, according to seismic readings. Later in the same month, Japan placed its citizens on high alert as two missiles travelled over the country and into the sea. North Korea also displayed its largest and most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching anywhere in the US in November.

But 2018 diplomatic relations with North Korea transformed dramatically. As if a switch had been flipped, both leaders, Trump and Kim, began heralding promises of disarmament and peace. The newly turned page of diplomacy culminated in a historic meeting between the leaders of the United States and North Korea in the spring of 2018. Analysts, however, were concerned as North Korea never stopped production of fissile nuclear material. As former President Trump percolated over “love letters” and “falling in love” with Kim Jong Un in September of 2018, it was at times difficult to remember that the two leaders were goading one another with insults like “dotard” and “rocket man” almost exactly a year prior. 

The confrontational insults returned only two months later, in December of 2018. Relations between North Korea and the United States began to grow sour once again throughout 2019 and 2020. Though Trump and Kim met in Vietnam in February 2019, negotiations ended early and abruptly as neither party could reach agreement on disarmament. Representatives from North Korea who spoke with American diplomats later that year accused the United States of inflexibility in negotiation or diplomacy. North Korea began to rebuild the missile facilities it had torn down in 2017, seemingly digging up the very hatchet it had buried in agreements with the Trump administration. North Korea resumed missile launches, testing 27 rockets from January through December of 2019.

In 2020, even in the midst of a global pandemic, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon issued the following statement: “Never again will we provide the U.S. chief executive with another package to be used for achievements without receiving any returns… Nothing is more hypocritical than an empty promise.” After the destruction of the Inter-Korean Joint Liaison Office in June of 2020, Seong-hyon Lee, an analyst of the South Korean Sejong Institute remarked that North Korea’s ongoing destabilization of relations with South Korea was an attempt to escalate tensions with and demolish the diplomatic achievements of the Trump administration, throwing more chaos into an already restless year.

North Korea Prepares Unpredictable Challenges

As it became clearer that the Biden administration would take office in 2021, North Korea began a strategic sequence of events to set the table for an inevitable showdown with the incoming Biden administration. The position that North Korean leaders have prepared has mixed messages.

On January 8th, Kim Jong Un made a series of speeches in Pyongyang through Workers’ Party meetings over the course of eight days. “Our foreign political activities should be focused and redirected on subduing the U.S., our biggest enemy and main obstacle to our innovated development,” announced Kim. “No matter who is in power in the U.S., the true nature of the U.S. and its fundamental policies towards North Korea never change…”

Kim further promised to advance nuclear weaponry with more precise and powerful rockets in the upcoming year. The weapons, however, Kim stated, were designed to grow North Korea’s leverage in meetings with the United States and that he did not intend to “rule out diplomacy.” Instead, North Korea must “drive diplomacy in the right direction and guarantee its success,” according to Kim. John Deulury, a historian of the Yonsei University in Seoul, noted that Kim’s works were "not exactly an olive branch, but it's not slamming the door, by any stretch of the imagination, either.”

Days later, North Korea’s state television aired a national military exhibition in which the nation unveiled its newest models of submarine-launched missiles and solid-fuel weapons. Both types of weapons are designed to expand North Korea’s capability to strike foreign targets with nuclear missiles. Assessing the footage, Professor Leif-Eric Easley of the Ewha University in Seoul, stated that the feature content was very likely to be a provocation toward the new Biden administration.

Biden’s Burden

It is not yet clear what North Korea’s stance will be toward the new American president. Whether 2021 can expect more missile launches or willingness to take steps toward some form of limited diplomacy remains to be seen. The timing of Kim Jong Un’s hostile words against the US could seem coincidental. But before a global audience and in the early days of his presidency, it burdens Biden to make the right strategic response as North Korea continues to be a threat to both South Korea and the US.

Related Posts

Words, Weapons, and War

North Korea's End Game

North Korea: a Nation Built on Rhetoric

Hot and Cold: North Korea’s Shifting Diplomatic Tone in 2018

Could North Korea be Headed Towards Another Famine?

North Korea is in trouble again. And though this is not news to most people who follow the reclusive country, there are a few factors that make this situation uniquely alarming. Some believe North Korea is headed into another great famine.

Failed Five Year Plan

Five years since taking power, in May 2016, Kim Jong Un laid out a five year plan to create economic independence for North Korea. This plan came on the heels of the UN tightening sanctions in March following the North’s recent nuclear tests and focused largely on energy including the need to improve their electricity supply with higher coal output and develop domestic sources of energy, including nuclear power.

Kim Jong Un charged that the country must “solve the energy problem and place the basic industry section on the right track, and increase agricultural and light industry production to definitely improve the lives of the people.”

At a Worker’s Party meeting this January, Kim confessed that the five year plan “immensely underachieved in almost all sectors.” He laid out yet another plan to grow every industry, but like the former failed plan, it probably has no teeth.

www.kremlin.ru

Impact of COVID-19

Though Kim Jong Un’s claims of the entire nation being free of COVID-19 can’t be confirmed, the global pandemic has not left North Korea’s already fragile economy unscathed. Border closures have plummeted trade to an estimated 80-percent drop in the first 11 months of 2020 compared with the same period in 2019, according to Song Jaeguk, an analyst at the IBK Economic Research Institute in Seoul. And the suspension of international flights due to COVID-19 have completely erased the contribution of tourism revenue to the North Korean economy.

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported in December 2020 that “the entire public transportation system across the country has been suspended since the beginning of this month under the instruction of the central government to prevent COVID-19 infections.” This was a surprising move by a country claiming to be free of the Coronavirus.

Typhoon & Flood Damage

Three powerful typhoons, Maysak and Haishen made landfall on the Korean peninsula within two weeks last September, delivering heavy rain and widespread flooding to parts of both North and South Korea. 

38 North’s damage assessment from 2020’s typhoon season is that “while weather conditions were particularly dire this year, there is currently no evidence, based on currently available information, that the overall damage was unprecedented”.

Collective impact

On their own, the challenges confronting North Korea listed above may seem unfortunately normal for the hermit kingdom. However, with the confluence of tightened UN sanctions, COVID-19 and flood damage, many estimate that North Korea is facing the most challenging situation since the great famine of the 1990s.

Kim Jong Un’s recent pledge to enhance North Korea’s nuclear capabilities and missile program will continue to increase UN scrutiny and consequences. His rejection of South Korea’s olive branch in the form of pandemic relief will likely bring the country further down their economic spiral as the spread of COVID-19 worsens this winter.

God have mercy

North Korean winters are already long and brutally cold. Food shortages are imminent given decimated trade volume and recent typhoons and flood damage. While Kim Jong Un celebrates his new promotion, we can’t help but to worry about the potential of another North Korean famine this winter.

In what is one of the bleakest periods of recent North Korean history, we seek out God’s mercy for Kim Jong Un. Lord, please open his eyes and humble him before your glory, that he may turn from his ways. Please hear the prayers of the saints in North Korea and have mercy on them. Oh Lord, would you relent from disaster so that the world may know of who you are. Amen.

18 Facts about Crossing Borders on our 18th birthday

Happy New Year! We hope 2020 ended well and, like us, you’re excited for all that 2021 has in store.

With the turn of each new year Crossing Borders also celebrates a new birthday. 2021 is the year when we turn 18 and we thought it was a great opportunity to share the different ways God has grown us as an organization over the past eighteen years.

1. Crossing Borders turned 18 on Jan 1, 2021

2. After co-founder Mike Kim’s eye opening trip to China in 2001, Mike and Dan Chung decided to launch Crossing Borders in 2003

3. The name Crossing Borders was thought up by founders Mike Kim and Dan Chung at a Borders Bookstore

4. From 2003 to 2012, Crossing Borders was a 100% volunteer-led organization

5. Crossing Borders currently employs 6 field staff, 2 missionaries, 3 full-time staff in China and soon, our first social worker in South Korea

6. Crossing Borders has formally helped 432 North Korean refugees with direct support and hundreds more with indirect support such as one-time financial aid, sharing of the gospel or providing medical care

7. God brought 40 new refugees under our care in China during 2020 

8. Our missionaries have been on the field with Crossing Borders for 12 years

9. We’ve helped 6 refugees escape from China to South Korea during the 12 years our missionaries have been with us 

10. We've hosted 8 summer retreats in China for women & children

11. 3 refugee kids are currently being supported to receive college/vocational training

12. Crossing Borders currently works with 14 underground/house churches in China to find, onboard and care for refugees

13. Our missionaries fled China 2 times to avoid being arrested by the Chinese authorities

14. Elim House launched in July 2020 to provide shelter and care for North Korean women in South Korea

15. Elim House housed three women and two children in 2020

16. We have raised an estimated $4M to help North Korean refugees since 2003

17. Donors from across 28 different countries have financially supported our work

18. Despite COVID-19, 2020 was our biggest year for funds raised to help refugees. Thank you!

As we reflect, it is clear to see God’s unwavering love and faithfulness on us and the refugees we serve. Every milestone and accomplishment listed above is only by God’s grace and with support from our generous partners. How amazing our God is and His love for the marginalized.

We are so excited to see how God will move in 2021!

Happy New Year!

Looking Ahead to 2021

At the end of each year, my wife and I like to take stock of the past year. We jot down the good things, the bad, the funny and enjoyable. And we keep these yearly musings in a single folder for us to go back to. I have a feeling that our 2020 document will be full of unique challenges and blessings.

As I begin to reflect on 2020 and specifically with Crossing Borders, I’d like to share three prayer requests and three things that give me hope.

Three prayer requests for 2021: 

1. Continued growth - Crossing Borders has been growing despite the pandemic. We opened operations in South Korea this year and our China operations are slowly growing despite major restrictions on the movement of our missionaries and staff. We hope and pray that, as global restrictions lift, Crossing Borders will be able to help more and more North Korean refugees. 

2. Coronavirus restrictions to lift - This year has been difficult for us because of the hampered movement from country to country. South Korea requires that all incoming travelers quarantine for 14 days in a government facility. China requires the same and to travel anywhere within the country, an additional seven days is required. As these restrictions lift, we can resume ministering to our refugees face-to-face again.

3. A social worker for Elim House - If the COVID-19 vaccines are as promising as the studies show, movement in South Korea will no longer be hampered and as a result, we will likely have more residents in Elim House. This year our missionaries have been working around the clock at Elim House while managing our field operations in China remotely. This is a herculean task and is wearing on them. COVID-19 has restricted the number of job applications that we would have normally received for this position. Please pray that God provides a faithful and capable social worker for Elim House. 

Three things that make me hopeful: 

1. Time - December 31 will mark the passage of another year. This is painfully obvious but as difficult as 2020 has been, it has to end at the stroke of midnight on January 1. Time moves us forward. And as the days, months and years go on, we will be able to process what took place this year. In Psalm 90:12, Moses asks God to “teach us to number our days so that we might gain a heart of wisdom.” I am looking forward to a different year but I am also looking forward to the perspective that time will give me on this year. 

2. Resilience - Working with North Korean refugees has taught me that human beings are truly resilient. North Koreans are not by nature more resilient than other people. They have simply been put in a situation where their innate, God-given resilience is used. As humanity turns the chapter from COVID-19 to the future, I am confident that those of us who have been blessed to survive or avoid the pandemic will not only move forward but thrive in the years to come. 

3. God’s past faithfulness - January 1 will also mark Crossing Borders’ 18th birthday. We have seen many things as an organization (add a global pandemic to the list) and we have survived them all, by the grace of God. Sometimes it seemed as if the world was against us. We have had all kinds of conflict, internal and external. We have had to fire corrupt staff. We have seen other missionaries and organizations get kicked out of China. And yet here we are. The thing that has always been true about this work is that it is impossible to take credit for any of this. God has made it abundantly clear that it was Him. So whatever 2021 brings, for better or for worse, I can rest that He is in control.

From all of us at Crossing Borders, we wish you and your family a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year!

Adopting from North Korea

The situation in North Korea

Many orphans live on the markets and in train stations of North Korea, wandering about in the cold, searching for food and shelter. North Korean street orphans are called Kotjebi (꽃제비), which means “flower swallows”, a species of bird known to constantly search for food and shelter.

The number of orphaned North Korean children grew over the past three decades as many died during the famine from the 1990s and many women who were moms were trafficked to China. Many orphans were sent to North Korean state-run and private orphanages. Stories from both types of orphanages are equally treacherous, fraught with instances of forced labor, overcrowding and lack of food and supplies. Physical and sexual abuse is also a heartbreaking reality in North Korean orphanages.

Kim Jong Un wants the world to believe he cares for orphans. He has established orphanages for foreign delegates to see as evidence of his work, yet much of the aid sent is rifled through, leaving orphans with “almost nothing”. Many orphans run away to live with grandparents or relatives while those with no alternatives try to survive on their own. Like flower swallows, they wander the streets begging for food and looking for shelter.

It is unknown how many children are orphaned in North Korea today.

Adopting North Korean Orphans

In January 2012, President Obama signed into law the North Korean Child Welfare Act of 2012. This new law calls for the U.S. State Department to advocate for the "best interests" of North Korean children, which includes helping facilitate adoption of children living outside of North Korea lacking parental care. Unfortunately, there are no specifics on how to accomplish these goals nor is it able to help orphans still in North Korea. While the law showed promise, there has been little progress since this act was signed.

Adopting directly from North Korea would require the involvement of the North Korean court system, proper documentation of a search for the child’s birth parents and legal permission for that child to leave North Korea. All three of these requirements are impossibilities. Without seismic changes to Kim Jon Un’s rule, the best chance at helping orphaned North Korean children will be limited to those who have escaped their homeland and become “stateless”. Steve Morrison, founder of Mission to Promote the Adoption of Kids (MPAK) explains more in the following video.

North Korean Orphans in China

There are as many as 40,000 orphans who have escaped to China, according to Kim Yong-Hwa, founder of the North Korean Refugees Human Rights Association. These children are stateless and likely without proper care in China.

In our next piece, we will dive deeper into the Chinese adoption system and how North Korean refugees, including orphaned children, are impacted.

Related articles and videos:

• Article - North Korean Orphans

• Video - Is it possible to adopt a North Korean orphan?

Raise Them Up: Our Ministry that Empowers Through God's Love

It would be incomplete to address the safety of North Korean refugees on earth without addressing the state of their eternal security in heaven. Our help for North Korean refugees is always delivered with the Gospel message, which is a hope that will never disappoint (Rom 5:5). Refugees are not required to believe what we believe but many do in faith. In a recent 2020 survey, 93 percent of 89 North Korean refugees polled in China said they heard the gospel for the very first time through Crossing Borders. We thank God for this opportunity to provide both physical and spiritual food to refugees.

The Power of God

The majority of North Korean refugees in China are in need of financial aid, medical care and counseling.  But receiving material help doesn’t make their challenges disappear. Life in China is still difficult for North Korean refugees. And life in South Korea is often riddled with disillusionment. Placing hope in new circumstances or in our help may even disappoint when their quality of life doesn't dramatically improve.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  - Roman 1:16

Most of the refugees we meet have been abused, neglected and are often hopeless. This is why the gospel is so sweet: it is indeed the power of God for salvation! For a people who have lived through so much evil and abuse, only the power of God can reveal that Jesus is the one true hope that they have longed for. We want to bring relief to the suffering but it is only the power of God that can bring salvation.

Manna

Earthly provisions where rust and moth destroy are short lived. Hunger for more only increases over time. While money and material help may provide temporary relief, only God can provide sustenance that eternally satisfies. 

 “[God] fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. - Deuteronomy 8:3

The original word for “manna” translates to “what is it.” Manna was a new concept that God used to not just simply feed the Israelites but to teach them daily dependence on Him. God uses our team to deliver physical food to North Korean refugees. Our continual prayer is for refugees, their children and their families to live with complete dependence on our heavenly Father.

Intimate love

The need for self worth and belonging is innate to all of us; we all long to be valued and cherished. Many North Korean refugees struggle to find self worth because it was always defined for them by the North Korean state. Upon fleeing to China, their self worth often degrades because they are considered illegal migrants and fugitives.  This lack of self-worth is further exacerbated for women who have been trafficked.

Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you,

- Isaiah 43:4

God calls us precious, honored and loved. The God of this universe, our creator and loving Father looks to us and defines us as His precious and beloved. Our prayer is that God would allow every refugee to experience His intimate love and for all past versions of their self value to be overwhelmed by their true identity as God’s beloved.

Empower through God's love

Through education, we hope to raise up many refugees and their children out of poverty. By breaking the cycle of poverty, our hope is that the next generation will be empowered to be agents of change in China.

It is our mission to meet the wide range of needs North Korean refugees have in China. God continues to supply every need for us and our field workers through supporters around the world. Thank you for your love, prayer and generosity this year and this Giving Tuesday. We hope to provide far more than what we planned for over the next two years. Most importantly, we pray that refugees and their children be confronted by God’s love through the work we’ve been called to do.

Raise Them Up with Self-Worth: Breaking Free from Worthlessness

Lack of Agency

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) defines the sense of agency as “the feeling of control over actions and their consequences.”  In short, it is a feeling of being in the driver’s seat instead of things simply happening to you.

From the moment a trafficker takes control over a North Korean life, that person’s sense of agency is gone. Some carefully and patiently save up enough money to pay the broker’s fee to be taken across the border into China while others are unknowingly sold to brokers. No matter how it starts, North Koreans who flee into China are at the mercy of others as they enter into a foreign and hostile land.

Unable to work

In North Korea, most women are the primary breadwinners of the household while husbands typically hold low paying government jobs or serve in the North Korean military. Upon arrival in China, it is a drastic shift to go from the role of breadwinner to unable to work altogether. North Korean refugees living in China don’t have any government protection or rights, including the right to work. In fact, working in a public setting increases the likelihood of being caught by the Chinese police and sent back to North Korea.

Refugees also have very little control over their situation and surroundings. They escape to or sold into a foreign land with a foreign language, with no family or support. They flee North Korea for freedom and opportunity but are met with neither. Lacking agency and support often leaves North Korean refugees feeling vulnerable and hopeless.

Made for work

Have you ever considered why God took six days to create everything? He’s an all powerful God with limitless creativity. Why not do it all in a single instant? The account of creation in Genesis 1 is God’s example for us to work and to appreciate the work of our hands. To further affirm His point, in chapter 2, God appoints Adam to work:

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it”
Genesis 2:15

God created people to crave and enjoy work. It gives people a chance to put their talents on display for the good of others and for God’s glory. It is work that also gives the sense of agency: the ability to labor, earn a living and make decisions on how to spend the money.

Vocational training

Working legally is not an option for North Korean refugees in China. However, many refugees risk their safety to work at small restaurants or sell food and goods at local markets for cash. Vocational training would give these women more options to independently earn a living: a craft known to us as a “side hustle”. Not dissimilar from other parents around the world, refugees want to work hard and provide a brighter future for their children. Refugees under our care want to earn money to provide better education for their children, send money back to family in North Korea or pay for their passage out of China into South Korea. With assistance from Crossing Borders, many can have access to trusted vocational training resources to help reach their goals.

Hope for Refugee children

Life is hard for refugees but we are more hopeful for the next generation. Many refugee women choose to stay and struggle in China rather than risk getting caught while escaping through the Underground Railroad. Living in China, their children also experience first-hand the effects that abuse, neglect and poverty has on the mom and the family. However, providing financial support for these children’s education gives them a fighting chance to escape the same cycle.

We want to empower this next generation to break the cycle of abuse and poverty. If their awareness of the suffering they and their moms endured and the increased access gained through education pushes them to be agents of change, we are hopeful that they can and will do far more than we’ve ever been able to do as outsiders. And beyond providing worldly opportunity, we point these children to Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides, and Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals. Our prayer is that they will carry the torch forward into parts of China that we don’t even know about.

Raise Them Up from Isolation: Breaking Free from Social Confinement

Not Welcomed

Safety for refugees in China is to minimize contact. The majority do not have family in China. Neighbors can’t be trusted. The police are a threat to their livelihood. As a result, North Koreans in China stay confined to their homes.

North Koreans living in China not only bear the stigma of living as a refugee, they live in a country that is foreign and hostile to them. There is no protection by the Chinese government for refugees, even for those who fled an oppressive country like North Korea. Rather, the government encourages the reporting, arresting and repatriating of refugees back to Kim Jong Un’s regime. North Koreans in China are a stateless people and not welcomed.

Trafficked

Most escapees from North Korea are women who once served as the primary breadwinner of their households. They sought China as an opportunity to earn money to send back to their families to survive or pay for passage out of North Korea. But en route to their own escape, many fall victim to trafficking by opportunistic brokers at the Chinese border. North Korean women are deceived by would-be “good Samaritans” only to be trafficked to Chinese men and families. Many are abused during and after their sale. These women will bear these scars and shame for the rest of their lives. Social confinement is their means of hiding the past.

Impoverished

The other driving force behind their social isolation is poverty. As we covered in the first part of our education series, trafficked North Korean refugees alack access and opportunity in China and most live in poverty. Poverty is generally known to drive down confidence and participation, especially in women and girls. Those struggling with poverty self-isolate as a way to avoid judgement from others.

The confluence of these forces makes isolation the only option for many North Korean refugees.

Restoration

We seek the restoration of refugees and their children in our work.

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. - Galatians 6:2

The apostle Paul encourages those in the church to carry each other's burdens. Life is already taxing for North Korean refugees. Imagine how much greater the burden when they have to shoulder it on their own. 

Underground churches and field workers in our China network welcome refugees with refuge and rest. Most have been conned, abused or neglected. Many have lived completely void of social interaction. When introduced and integrated into communities of other North Koreans refugees who speak the same language and have walked a similar road, emotional healing begins in many refugees. Life is meant to be lived together and isolation can be a silent killer.

Self worth

One’s self esteem is sourced both from internal (abilities, performance of good deeds, independence) and external (peer approval, contribution to those around us) factors. Barred from access and opportunity, it is difficult for any person to maintain a sense of self worth. Unable to escape this stigma, many refugees and their children we encounter live each day burdened with guilt, shame and bouts of depression.

We may take for granted opportunities to work or access to education. These are privileges we wish we could provide for all of our refugees and their families. While turning that into a reality in China is generally difficult, we have seen refugees and their children thrive when given access to school and work opportunities.

Who you say I am

Access and community are both crucial to North Koreans living in China. As important as these may be for refugees to fight poverty and isolation, there is greater work to be done in their souls.

 ”Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; 
instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; 
therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; 
they shall have everlasting joy. 
Isaiah 61:7

These are promises God made to the Jews returning out of captivity. These same promises, through grace, extend to all followers of Jesus today. This is the greatest good we can pray for for North Korean refugees and their children. We pray that by calling upon the name of Jesus, He would replace their shame and dishonor with peace and everlasting joy! How great our God is and how true His promises.

Please pray for North Koreans living in China under these conditions. Would you also pray about providing education for our refugees and their children through our upcoming Giving Tuesday campaign?

China’s Hukou System: Perpetuating the Cycle of Poverty

Without outside help, the hukou system locks North Korean refugees and their children in generational cycles of poverty. Learn more from the infographic below and see how you can help end this cycle on Giving Tuesday.

This Giving Tuesday, we want to help break the cycle of poverty for many North Korean refugees and their children in China.

Raise Them Up Through Education: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

Our hearts yearn to help North Korean refugees and their families. Some take the precarious journey to southeast Asia for a chance at asylum in South Korea. However, most will choose to stay and live in China, where access is limited. Through education, we want to empower refugees and their children to break out of poverty SO THAT the next generation might do far more and reach many more North Koreans than we are able to do as foreigners. 

Education is the focus of this Giving Tuesday

Cycle of poverty as described by World Vision:

“The cycle of poverty begins when a child is born into a poor family. These families often have limited or no resources to create opportunities to advance themselves, which leaves them stuck in the poverty trap.”

This is the unfortunate predicament many North Korean refugees find themselves in while surviving in China. The problem is both geographic and legal. It is almost impossible to break out of without outside intervention.

No rights, no access

Most refugees are women who have been trafficked and sold into Chinese families or to Chinese men as wives. They usually end up in rural areas married to men who work as farmers. Many refugees in Crossing Borders’ network are forced to marry men with significant disabilities. By law, refugees do not have the right to work, and more importantly, working in a public setting exposes them to arrest and repatriation into North Korea. But out of necessity, some women work for cash in small restaurants and farms. These are not people of financial means.

Geographic challenges

Rapid urbanization in China grew its urban population from 30% (of China’s total population) in 1994 to double that (60%) in 2019. Mass internal migration has caused income disparity that continues to grow today. While urban areas gain more access and advantages, rural areas of China receive diminishing education resources (ie. less qualified teachers) and offer fewer economic opportunities. As urban migration has grown in the past few decades, more and more rural primary schools have also been forced to close.

Hukou status

The hukou system is China’s governmental household registration system. Chinese citizens have either urban or rural hukou and, as expected, urban hukou generally provides more public service and welfare than rural hukou. According to the website China Briefing, “those holding rural hukou are distributed arable land for their livelihood while urban hukou holders have access to government jobs, subsidized housing, education, and healthcare.”

Hukou is also inherited, meaning the child of rural hukou parents will inherit the same status. One’s hukou status also determines access to schools. Parents who choose to move to cities for work often leave their children in their rural hometowns with relatives because urban schools prioritize children with urban hukou. This has long term implications into college and the future of their careers. The hukou system creates a massive chasm between the urban and the rural. 

See more on our Hukou system infographic

Teach young people

“to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth” - Proverbs 1:4

Proverbs speaks to the benefits of teaching and passing wisdom to the younger generation. They need knowledge, discipline and to become knowledgeable of both the divine things and worldly things. This is Crossing Borders’ desire for these  people and an integral part of our mission to sow into the children of North Korean refugees. We want to prepare them for better access in China through education and for eternity with the Gospel.

To have a fighting chance at a better education, Crossing Borders currently provides for children of refugees to get educated in cities with better schools, which is often far from their parents. We also provide access to tutors and school supplies for many others. By God’s grace and with your support, several kids are currently attending college in China.

Akin to many Asian education systems, the objective of pre-college education is to score well on the college entrance exam, known as gaokao in China. But rural students must far outperform their urban counterparts as urban universities heavily prioritize urban hukou students. Whether they stay in their rural hometowns or aspire for urban schools, these children face a constant uphill battle due to their rural hukou status.

Learning a trade

Technical training is another means for both refugees and their children to earn a living and become self sufficient. When college is not an option, children often desire to receive technical training at trade schools or via an apprenticeship. This, too, requires money, access to schools and mentors. We have heard from refugees who want to sell street food or make money cutting hair but don’t know where or how to receive the necessary training. Crossing Borders provides financial aid to give refugees and their children technical training from trusted resources.

The children of rural China already have a tall mountain to climb. At a greater disadvantage, the children of North Korean refugees with rural hukou are destined to continue the cycle of poverty they grow up in.  Without help, North Korean refugees are not able to provide opportunities for their children to break the cycle. And without ongoing support for their kids through college or trade school, the cycle of poverty will persist for generations.

This is why we feel like God placed education on our hearts for Giving Tuesday. We want to empower refugees to earn a living and their children to have the tools and opportunities to break out of the cycle of poverty. May God’s provision and grace give them that chance.

this campaign to financially support education will go live on Giving Tuesday, December 1 and run through December 31.

Our goal is to raise $24,000, which will fund education for the next two years.

Please pray for North Koreans living in China under these conditions. Would you also pray about providing education for our refugees and their children?

Learn more about the crippling effect of China’s hukou system in our latest infographic:

North Korean Refugees Now – Reason for Hope

Updated November 2, 2020

This was originally the fifth and final post of a series from 2015 called “North Korean Refugees Now”. Given the current state of our nation and the world, it felt timely to update this message of encouragement and hope.

North Korea has continued to make headlines in 2020

• Dec 2019 - ended the year with threats towards the US of an obscure “Christmas gift”

• March 2020 - launched yet another unidentified projectile into the sea near Japan

• Coronavirus outbreak in neighboring China created headlines as Kim Jong Un claimed zero cases in North Korea

• April 2020 - unconfirmed rumors of Kim Jong Un’s death

• June 2020 - North Korea destroyed a liaison office in Kaesong (north of the DMZ) in response to “hostile” anti-North Korean leaflet campaigns by defectors in the South.

• October - a new ICBM was unveiled at the 75th anniversary of North Korea’s ruling party

• Kim Jong Un was also shown to cry at the the same event expressing shame of not being able to provide his citizens with economic prosperity

At the time of this update, the global impact of COVID-19 virus is as follows:

• 44.9M cases

• 30.1M recovered

• 1.18M deaths

• “Twindemic” warning of dangerous overlap with the upcoming flu season

• 0 approved for full use but 6 vaccines approved for early/limited

And the 2020 US Presidential elections are tomorrow.

North Korea is as unpredictable and ruthless as ever, Coronavirus continues to have the upper hand and it is as though our country is being ripped apart.

Yet I am hopeful

What makes us at Crossing Borders the most optimistic has nothing to do with world leaders, policy decisions or the promise of a vaccine. Rather, our encounter with the hope and strength of North Korean refugees continues to amaze us; our hope in our loving Father steadies us.

One North Korean refugee who we helped early on, told us a story about his life and times in North Korean prison camps. He described the cramped cells he had to sleep in where people were packed in so tight that no one could move. They slept without mats or blankets on concrete floors and their bodies would develop sores every night from being in the same position for hours.

This young man said that during these times, he never laughed so much. The people he shared these cells with became his best friends and that there is a certain fondness he still holds for his time in what is known as the worst system of political prison camps in the world.

As we provide aid to people in our network, we also try to enjoy time together and play games with them. One very popular game we like to play is called “This is Fun.” It’s basically a staring contest where a group of people sit in a circle and try to make others laugh while not cracking a smile themselves. If you smile, you're out.

During a round of “This is Fun” with a group of refugees and orphans, one of our US staff members and a master at this game was left with one other refugee woman in the circle. This woman endured the famine, was sold, was placed in hard labor in North Korea’s prison camps, and was raising a daughter under China’s brutal zero tolerance policy for North Korean refugees. She is a strong woman.

During this round, her eyes became cold and she would not crack. The other staff members who saw the look in her eyes said it terrified them. The game ended in a draw and everyone who witnessed this was left mildly disturbed at the resilience and fortitude of this woman.

But this strong, seemingly-callous exterior is symbolic of the millions of North Koreans and North Korean refugees who have survived the worst of conditions. These people may seem cold and hardened on the outside but this is because of their impervious will to survive. It comes from a heart that would not allow the worst of all evils to bring them to dismay. It comes from people who could laugh at the most desperate of circumstances and come out without losing their minds.

This gives us great hope. It’s not for a better political future. It is the hope of these people who have endured famine and death. It is for these North Korean defectors who have seen the very worst of humanity: lying, cheating, stealing, trafficking and even cannibalism. And yet many found a way to survive and uphold their dignity.

Regardless of the tragedies and horrors these people have endured in the past, present and may face in the future, they will not be broken. In this, we see the grace of God.

O God, be not far from me;

O my God, make haste to help me!

May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;

with scorn and disgrace may they be covered

who seek my hurt.

But I will hope continually

and will praise you yet more and more.

Psalm 71:12-14

Our faith that is at the core of our work inspires and motivates us to make our organization as impactful as it can be. The spirit of these marginalized people gives us great hope. It drives us to help more North Koreans, a people certainly worth helping.

Refugees in South Korea

Why do North Korean defectors choose to make South Korea their final destination?

When North Koreans receive refugee status in Southeast Asia, they have a choice to go to any number of countries, which includes the US, the UK, Australia and many others. The overwhelming majority of North Korean refugees choose South Korea for the following reasons:

1. Citizenship - they are granted immediate citizenship in South Korea because, according to the South Korean constitution, all North Koreans are South Korean citizens. 

2. A jump start - they receive a lump sum payout, which has been equivalent to $20,000 USD in the past, though this payout has decreased throughout the years. 

3. Language - the two Koreas share the same language. North Koreans do not need to learn a whole new language when they arrive in their new country.

North Korean refugees who land in South Korea from Southeast Asia often describe the experience as traveling to the future. South Korea is a technologically advanced nation. If you look at a satellite image of the Korean peninsula at night, you can see the stark difference in the way the two countries light up at night. Refrigerators have built-in computers with touch screen doors, groceries can be ordered and delivered from a smartphone and people now control their cars and homes with their voices.

North Koreans who are plunged into this futuristic world often find it disorienting. The lights, the language and the modern pressures to keep up can be overwhelming. Compounded by the severe traumas many North Korean defectors have endured, one can easily see why the North Korean population in South Korea is faring so poorly.

Resettling in South Korea

When North Koreans arrive in South Korea, they are subject to an interview process by the NIS (or the National Intelligence Service) to assure that the refugee is not a spy. They are then taken to Hanawon, a re-education facility where they must stay for 3 months. The refugees are taught how to adjust to life in South Korea. They learn basic skills such as riding the subway, using an elevator, paying bills, and using a remote control.

After leaving Hanawon, South Korea provides basic living expenses, subsidies, and housing for 5 years. While this support helps the refugees get on their feet, other challenges lay ahead of them.

The South Korean accent is a difficult transition for North Koreans. Since so many English words have become part of the language, even basic signs are hard to understand. Slang has changed the language much more drastically than in the North.

Old and New Trauma

Discrimination is also common toward North Koreans and the stigma of being an outsider follows them wherever they go. This makes it challenging to find jobs or make friends.

And for many, the trauma of life in North Korea and China can be too difficult to bear without support from others. The incessant brainwashing and life of hardship in North Korea followed by being sold in China by human traffickers imprints memories that can’t be erased.

Elim House

Thankfully, both government and ministry resources are available for North Koreans in South Korea. One example is Elim House, our safehouse for abused North Korean women that opened in July of 2020. Although having a normal life is very difficult for North Koreans, finding a support network can make a significant difference in reaching that sense of normalcy. 

At the time of this writing, we are grateful to announce the arrival of our first Elim House resident. Her life of only 28 years is marred with so much suffering and trauma and we’re praying for the steadfast, pursuing and healing love of Christ to mend what is broken.

Thank you for journeying with us through our Breaking Down North Korea video series. Please help by sharing these videos and let us pray together for the good and salvation of North Korea.

Watch the complete Breaking Down North Korea video series.

Elim House: Six Month Update

When our first North Korean defector, Cathy walked into Elim House earlier this month, our missionaries prepared and fed her dinner. They asked her if they could pray for the meal, she agreed. They held her hands and prayed. She began to cry. She said that this was the very first time she was served a dinner by someone’s hands other than her mom. She barely ate anything.

She fell asleep in the clothes she had on her back. Our missionaries described her sleeping on the warm floor saying, “she was like a wet bird who had finally found shelter.”

For North Korean refugee women in China, South Korea represents both a safe harbor and a trap. It is a safe haven because, once their plane touches down in South Korea, they have human rights. They can no longer be bartered like a commodity. If they are taken advantage of for labor with no pay, there is a legal process for them.

South Korea is also a trap. North Korean women see it as a place where they might meet their dream man, a man who will love them and provide for their every need, according to experts we have spoken to on the ground. When this does not come to pass, something changes within them. It’s as if their dream turns into a nightmare. Some become suicidal. Some turn to a finely tuned prostitution industry that preys on their disillusionment. Others turn to men who can neither provide emotional or financial security. Most become obsessed with money.

Elim House was intended to help women like these, women who experienced the hellscape of North Korea only to be turned over into human trafficking in China. And then once again preyed upon in South Korea. We officially opened our doors on July 3 of this year but because of COVID-19, potential residents have been wary of entering a living situation with strangers. So Crossing Borders has taken this time to make vital repairs, deepen our roots in the North Korean defector community and receive further training on how to care for abused women. Early in October, our first client walked through our doors.

Cathy was found on a bridge over a river about to commit suicide. But before she could take that final plunge, the authorities were able to stop her. Her story was typical, sold in China and hoping for a new life full of riches and security in South Korea. But what met her was an abusive relationship. Her husband’s family in South Korea mistreated her and took her life’s savings. She was also victimized by her family in China.

She was homeless, broke and had nothing when she stepped on that bridge. All she has known in life has been people who exploited her and took from her.  It will be different in Elim House. In the few short days of her stay, she heard the Gospel for the first time. For the first time, she heard about a man who covers her with His relentless love, a man her heart has been longing for.

In her first week at Elim House, Cathy accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.

Please pray for our first Elim House client, Cathy and for the many others who will enter its doors.

The Underground Railroad

South Korea reports that there have been 33,000 North Korean defections into South Korea to date. While defectors running across the DMZ occasionally make headlines, most North Koreans find their way to safety through what has become known as the Modern Day Underground Railroad.

Big Brother

Human traffickers have scattered North Korean refugees throughout China. Since 2003, Crossing Borders has encountered pockets of these refugees and has attempted to help them. We covered the various challenges refugees face to live in China in Episode 2 and how far they are from a life of liberty. Many risk everything on a daunting journey out of China to find freedom.

Imagine trying to leave a country when you don’t have a valid ID, which means you can’t take any form of transportation. Even in privately owned cars, China has routine checkpoints where all the IDs of everyone in the car are checked and documented. Cameras also watch people’s every move on the roads, in city squares and in every building.

With the Chinese government always monitoring, how does a North Korean escape? A patchwork of people with diverse backgrounds and motivations, collectively known as the Modern Day Underground Railroad, works to get North Koreans safely out of China.

The Modern Day Underground Railroad

An entire industry exists in China to help North Korean refugees in China escape. There are some great nonprofit organizations helping to facilitate this. But there are also some people who do this for profit, often referred to as “brokers.” With no access to transportation, defectors must find people who will help them escape from China and hope that they are trustworthy and good people. The problem is that many of the people who offer to help these women end up abusing them.

A refugee in Crossing Borders’ network once told us that she was raped along the way by the very people who said they would help her. There’s no recourse for this inhumane abuse as refugees can’t turn to the Chinese police for help. Involving the authorities would result in capture and punishment for refugees and the perpetrator would likely walk free.

Brokers take refugees from city to city, oftentimes using fake IDs. They have apartments along the way where the refugees can stay at night. The final stretch of the journey is an illegal border crossing out of China into several different southeast Asian countries. Unfortunately, all of these safe harbor countries do not share a direct border with China, which means refugees must sprint through either Myanmar or Laos first to gain their freedom. Once they reach their destination, they are granted refugee status with the South Korean government who ultimately bring them into South Korea.

It’s a miracle that over 33,000 refugees have successfully made it to South Korea to date. 

Freedom

After making this treacherous journey to South Korea one of the refugee women Crossing Borders supported while in China said that the day she got her legal ID in South Korea, she clutched it to her chest all night and cried. The fact that China doesn’t acknowledge North Koreans isn’t just a matter of paperwork; it’s a matter of personhood. When you aren’t considered a person, you don’t feel like you matter. Once this woman had her ID, she realized something that was missing in her life: humanity. 

But once they gain their rights in South Korea and other countries, North Koreans face perhaps their biggest challenge: dealing with the trauma that they’ve experienced along their path to freedom. A lifetime of brainwashing propaganda, the scars of leaving loved ones behind, being trafficked and repeatedly abused and the shock of being injected to modern day living is more than any human should have to bear.  We will cover this in our fourth and final episode of Breaking Down North Korea so please be sure to tune in.

Thank you for following our video series. Please help socialize these heartbreaking issues and please continue to pray for North Korea.

WATCH THE COMPLETE BREAKING DOWN NORTH KOREA VIDEO SERIES.

Life in China

Why have so many North Korean women been sold in China? And what are the daily struggles these women face?

China’s One Child Policy

China’s One Child Policy was an attempt by the central government to stem the growth of the world’s most populous nation by limiting the number of children couples could have to one as China grew too large for the government to feed and control. The policy was successful in curbing growth, but according to a recent publication from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as a result, there are warning signs of population contraction that could begin as early as 2027. Many estimate contraction has already begun.

Dr. Yi Fuxian, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that among the wide range of reasons a country could experience declining birth rates, such as economic prosperity and improved career opportunities for women, the most significant cause in China’s case was the 1979 One Child Policy. 

Not Enough Women

The average gender ratio at birth is 105 boys to every 100 girls. China’s ratio has been as high as 130 boys to every 100 girls and consistently skews higher towards the culturally preferred male children. It is estimated that China now has 30 to 40 million more men than women.

To exacerbate matters further, women born following China's One Child Policy are close to or have already passed their peak fertility age. There are simply not enough women in that generation to sustain China’s population level and the new Two Child Policy passed nearly four decades later on January 1, 2016 may have come too late.

Bride Trafficking

Chinese traffickers sell brides from neighboring countries to address their shortage of women. According to Human Rights Watch, “For years, it was easy for China to ignore the issue. The women and girls being trafficked are often ethnic or religious minorities, from impoverished communities, or, in the case of North Korea, on the run from their own abusive regime.”

Women North Korean Defectors

The first video in our new series “Breaking Down North Korea” covered the common role of women as primary breadwinners in North Korea and why most defectors are women. This created the perfect opportunity for China to meet its gender disparity needs by trafficking women from North Korea.

Once sold into China, life is difficult for North Koreans as a people sold into households with no one they can trust at home and fear of capture and repatriation is constant and all around. Even as they live in China, they are anxious and desperately want freedom.

Because of this ever present threat, they constantly look over their shoulder to make sure they are not being watched or followed. In fact, it is not uncommon for the Chinese government to make public announcements that they will pay bounties to anyone that turns in North Korean refugees. This drives these women deep into isolation. The less people who know about their situations, the less likely they are to be reported to the police. But this isolation leads to depression and hopelessness.

We hear this heartbreaking story time and time again. And this is why I’ve said that tragedy and trauma besets these people wherever they go. Every step of the way is fear and sadness.

Finding Community & Hope

In July, we asked about 100 North Korean refugees under our care about changes to the quality of their lives after encountering Crossing Borders. Here’s what they told us:

I have a supportive community: 97.8%

My life has improved after receiving care from Crossing Borders: 98.9%

I have heard the gospel through Crossing Borders: 93.3%

I live in fear of repatriation to North Korea: 92.1%

Physical safety, emotional healing and salvation are our recurring prayers for North Korean refugees and their children in China and we praise God when we hear back results like this.

Breaking Free

Many of these women look to South Korea for their ultimate freedom. An average of 1100 North Koreans enter into South Korea each year and most escape from China through the Modern Day Underground Railroad, which we will cover in our next episode. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the first two episodes of our Breaking Down North Korea series. Please drop us a note at hello@crossingbordersnk.org and share your feedback with us.

Introducing Our New Video Series: Breaking Down North Korea

Missionaries and field workers for Crossing Borders in China are introduced to new pockets of North Korean defectors on a regular basis. There are an estimated 200,000 North Korean refugees living in China today but most are scattered throughout China. Though sparsely dispersed, most share common stories of escape from North Korea, hardships of life in China and also have never heard of the hope of Jesus.

God has allowed us to serve these oppressed people for almost two decades and they have taught us a tremendous amount about life in and out of North Korea. A new video series called “Breaking Down North Korea” was born out of our desire to share some of these learnings with our supporters.

Frequently Asked Questions

People interested in learning more about North Korean refugees often ask these questions:

• How do North Koreans escape?

• What is life like for them in China? 

• Do they all want to ultimately escape to South Korea?

Leaving Home

The first video in the Breaking Down North Korea series is called “Leaving Home”. We start our video series by covering the motivations that drive many to escape the hermit kingdom, such as persecution, starvation and utter hopelessness. “Difficult” doesn’t begin to capture the oppressive quality of life in North Korea. But most North Koreans choose to endure rather than risking their lives and putting their families in harm's way by attempting to escape.

As one of the world’s most persecuted peoples, many North Korean citizens are confronted with two impossible choices: stay and continue living under the tyranny of Kim Jong Un and his regime or attempt to escape and risk torture, imprisonment and in many cases, execution. We know many risk it all to flee North Korea based on South Korea’s Ministry of Reunification reported annual average of 1100 defectors entering into the South over the past several years. We wonder how many more are caught in the act and suffer inhumane consequences.

Porous Border

It may be hard to fathom that any person or goods can pass through one of the most ironclad borders in the world. While the DMZ is the world’s most dangerous border, North Korea’s border with China is known to be porous. Illegal activities take place across the border through the work of human agents on both sides of the border. This also seems like an impossibility but if you oppress a people to utter desperation, people find ways to survive, even if that means getting blood on their hands.

Black market activity across the border have imported cell phones connected to Chinese cell towers and have exported drugs like methamphetamines and opium out to China. It has also been the source of trafficked women into China where they are sold as servants and brides in a country still struggling with a shortage of females.

Staying Alive

Most men in North Korea are locked into state jobs with meager pay or serve in the North Korean army. This is the “duty” North Korean men serve, which puts the burden of providing for the family on women. Escaping North Korea is often driven by the selfless motivation of many women who aspire to earn money outside of North Korea in order to send money back to their struggling families.

However, those who successfully escape or are trafficked into China face an entirely new set of challenges where the land and language are foreign, the government deems them as enemies of the state and the threat of capture is ever present.

Breaking Down North Korea

We’re thankful for this opportunity to tell the collective stories of the North Korean refugees under our care. We look forward to answering your questions and uncovering the tragedies that occur behind the North Korean and Chinese veil and to show the redemptive work God has done to bring His light into their hearts and lives.

Please watch, like and share our video series: Breaking Down North Korea. Thank you.

WATCH THE COMPLETE BREAKING DOWN NORTH KOREA VIDEO SERIES.

Who is Kim Yo Jong?

Kim Jong Un is rumored to be in a coma and speculation swirls again about his younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, temporarily shifting to a ruling position for North Korea.

Kim Yo Jong is Kim Jong Il’s youngest child

Kim Jong Un is the youngest of three sons to Kim Jong Il. The eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, was assassinated in 2017 and middle son Kim Jong Chol was rejected as heir to rule North Korea, rumored to be due to his effeminate personality.

Kim Jong Un also has two sisters: older sister Kim Sul Song, born in 1974, and younger sister Kim Yo Jong, born in 1989. Kim Sul Song was thought to be Kim Jong Il’s favorite child and was the likeliest, at one point, to take control in Kim Jong Un’s absence. But Sul Song’s name has not been seen much in recent years. Yo Jong may have also found favor in her father’s eyes according to the first hand accounts of former Kim family sushi chef who goes by pen name Kenji Fujimoto. Per Fujimoto, Kim Jong Il often referred to Yo Jong as "Princess Yo Jong"

Kim Yo Jong’s rise to power

Kim Yo Jong was appointed as Vice-Director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department (PAD) in 2014 where she was responsible for crafting her brother's public image and messages. In 2017, a year before she stepped into the international spotlight, Kim Yo Jong also joined the North’s Politburo, officially called the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK, as an alternate member.

Her public debut came during the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, when Kim Yo Jong served as a special envoy between the divided Koreas and met with the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in. An envoy’s role is similar to an ambassador, often tasked with resolving conflict between nations but Kim Yo Jong has been very vocal of her disdain for the South. Kim Yo Jong recently publicly threatened to destroy an inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong, North Korea. The building was obliterated a few days later.

Kim Yo Jong (far right) at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Kim Yo Jong today

Kim Yo Jong is 32 years old and currently serves as the First Vice Director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). Kim Jong Un is the Chairman of the WPK and the Central Committee is the main policymaking body of the WPK. If Kim Jong Un is indeed incapacitated, she is assumed to be the most likely temporary successor until one of Kim Jong Un’s sons are old enough to rule North Korea. Because North Korean leadership is fundamentally patriarchal, Kim Yo Jong’s rule would not be permanent.

North Korea under Kim Yo Jong

Since Kim Yo Jong’s role would not be permanent, she would most likely uphold the agenda and work of her brother, Kim Jong Un and, if her brother dies, would carry the core ideologies of the regime into the next generation until Kim Jong Un’s successor can take leadership. This is the best case scenario for North Korea. What remains unclear is a potential power struggle between Kim Jong Un’s heirs and his sister. There simply isn’t enough information to know which way this will go.

Kim Yo Jong followed her brother’s steps of foreign education and is thought to have shared an apartment with Kim Jong Un in Switzerland. There are speculations that they were very close and thus, her approach to ruling North Korea may be similar to her big brother.

It is not unlikely that Yo Jong will push beyond her brother’s dictatorial ways. Lee Seong-hyon, an analyst at the Sejong Institute, a research center in South Korea said  “As she leads the offense against South Korea like a general, it silences those old hard-liners in the Politburo who may think she cannot be the leader.” We believe she may overcompensate in the North patriarchal system by ruling with even more vitriol.

(The New York Post recently wrote something similar about a future under Kim Yo Jong here )

North Korean defectors
In a public statement issued on June 4, 2020, Kim Yo Jong portrayed North Korean defectors as, “Human scum little short of wild animals who betrayed their own homeland,” and described their campaigns against North Korea as “acts to imitate men” “bark[ing]... where they should not.” Defecting from North Korea is an act of treason and punishable by hard labor, torture and oftentimes death. Kim Yo Jong’s public statement is no surprise and should she take control of North Korea, we expect the same severity of punishment to continue for defectors who are caught and returned to the North.

A Strange Request from a North Korean Refugee: A Note from our Executive Director

There is collateral damage from the path North Koreans take to find freedom. North Korean women often leave their half North Korean, half Chinese children behind when they decide to take the Modern Day Underground Railroad. Many leave with the promise of inviting their children and “husbands” to their new country once their citizenship is won. The Korea Institute for National Reunification estimates that there are about 30,000 of these children in China. Crossing Borders has cared for hundreds of children who find themselves at the center of international custody tug-of-wars.

I was contacted by a North Korean refugee in such a predicament in the year 2012. She lived in the Chicago area. Though I usually don’t take these meetings, my mother pleaded with me to go and hear her out. At a suburban McDonalds, we sipped coffee and I heard her story. She had escaped China in the early 2000s and was sold in China as a bride to an abusive husband. She pleaded with her owner and husband to let her leave China. She promised him that, once she gained citizenship in America, she would call for both him and their daughter and they would all live happily in the United States. But things didn’t work out as planned.

When she arrived in America, she was far removed from her husband because of the freedoms she was afforded. For the first time in her life, her human rights were respected. If her husband beat her in America as he did in China, the police would be just a phone call away. She made the difficult choice to tell her husband that she would not be keeping her promise. She decided that she would not be calling for him. But this choice came with a heavy cost: her daughter. Her ex-husband and former owner then said to her that it would take a legal US visa or a pile of cash to see her daughter again. 

As we sat next to McDonald’s playland, this woman asked me if I could help her. She asked if I could coordinate the kidnapping of her daughter. I explained to this woman that, unfortunately, I would not be able to help her. She has not been reunited with her daughter to this day.

North Korean refugees in China have made it out of the most oppressive regime in the world. After leaving their country, they find themselves in a place with a seemingly endless supply of food but they are essentially slaves. At some point they must consider the risk of leaving China. The proposition is daunting in and of itself. It is almost impossible to think about the other consequences to their decisions.

This problem is not uncommon amongst the North Korean children in our Orphan Care program. As their parents fight about custody and visas, they entrust their children to our care. Crossing Borders has never seen a resolution to this type of situation.

This is why it is so imperative to continue to offer support to North Koreans who escape China. Even though they have freedoms and new lives, they often are dealing with issues from their journey to freedom. If they are not dealing with custody battles, they must wrestle with the trauma from all the years of suffering in North Korea and from being trafficked in China.

This year, we opened Elim House, a safehouse for abused North Korean women in South Korea. The climb is steep but is not impossible. Some refugees in our network have made it through the Modern Day Underground Railroad and have prospered in South Korea. One thing we have learned in ministering to these refugees for over 17 years is that we can offer no hope to these people outside of God. This hope is not of higher earning potential and medical care. It is the eternal hope that we have in the gospel.

North Korea in Uncertain Times

North Korea has gone from venomous hostility to playing nice on the international stage all within the past four years. This is very predictable. Sometimes it is unclear whether North Korea is trying to be a lion or a lamb and very little is known about the nation’s current plans or motives. In a time of increased uncertainty, the future of North Korea remains as inscrutable as ever. The following is a roundup of recent moves the country has made.

A Silent Economic Crisis

The year 2020 began with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, renewing claims that the nation would be prospering once more with revitalized efforts to make a “frontal breakthrough to foil the enemies’ sanctions.” The effort would include increased income for the country through illegal and legal means - sending North Korean workers across the border to work for China, bringing in Chinese tourists, and smuggling contraband in and out of North Korea. Just last year, North Korea’s trade with China grew by 15 percent. The North Korean government dabbles in everything from exporting illegal coal to multi-billion dollar cybertheft projects. 

But the coronavirus brought North Korea’s economic leap of enthusiasm to a screeching halt. According to The New York Times, by March, the nation’s exports to China had dropped by 96 percent in value. Behind a curtain of isolation and obscurity, the nation’s already crippled economy, which is heavily dependent on Chinese support to circumvent sanctions, is reeling. How North Korea’s government will prevent the nation from falling into a devastating crisis, whether the government will even attempt to prevent such an economic spiral in 2020, is unknowable.

A Loud Inter-Korean Explosion

On June 9, the KCNA, North Korea’s government-run news agency, reported that the nation would be cutting off all communication with South Korea in response to messenger balloons that had been sent across the border from the South for several years, many containing anti-North Korean leaflets written by North Korean defectors. The report called the leaders of South Korea “disgusting riff-raff” devoted to “hostile acts” that would “hurt the dignity of [North Korea’s] supreme leadership.” 

On June 13, North Korea’s rising spokeswoman Kim Yo Jong, sister to Kim Jong Un, released a threat via the KCNA. “By exercising my power authorised by the Supreme Leader… I gave an instruction to the arms of the department in charge of the affairs with the enemy to decisively carry out the next action.”

Three days later, North Korean officials demolished the Inter-Korean Joint Liaison Office in Kaesong, North Korea. In 2003, the structure sitting at the North-South border oversaw over a hundred factories, employed more than 100 South Korean employees and 50,000 North Koreans. While far from its former glory, the empty building remained a shell of former hopes for cooperation.

A Spotlight on a Vocal New Leader

Kim Yo Jong has taken the center stage for many analysts of North Korea’s government leadership. As the Professor of Korean Studies at Tufts University, Sung-Yoon Lee describes her, in a country of enigmatic leaders, Kim Yo Jong is “less visible but no less significant.”

Over the past two years, Kim Yo Jong accompanied her brother in summit meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae In, in meetings with President Xi Jinping of China and even at the historic conference with President Trump. Kim Yo Jong is currently the head of the Department of Organization and Guidance, the department of the North Korean government through which key personnel are determined for both the military and bureaucracy. Earlier this year, in the mysterious disappearance of Kim Jong Un, she became North Korea’s international spokeswoman.

Today, she is the voice of North Korea amidst international tensions. Following the recent rejection of US diplomacy with North Korea, Kim Yo Jong stated, "We have no intention of threatening the United States … if they don't touch us and hurt us, everything will flow normally.”

It is unclear whether the veiled statement is a warning or a challenge.

According to Lee Seong-hyon, an analyst at the South Korean Sejong Institute, North Korea has revived its efforts to act as a destabilizer for the United States. In the US, the coronavirus, its economic impacts, civil unrest, and an impending election has given North Korea an opportunity to throw a wrench into President Trump’s most visible foreign policy achievement - his diplomacy with North Korea. The efforts, according to analysts, may be in an effort to force President Trump to de-escalate North Korean sanctions before the US election.

The Suffering and Silenced

Caught between shaming insults from North Korea and growing disdain from the people of South Korea are North Korean defectors in South Korea. As recently reported by The Korea Times, North Koreans in South Korea are swiftly becoming “enemies of the state” in both the North and the South.

North Korean defectors are publicly referred to as “human scum” and “mongrel dogs” who have betrayed their country in the North. Public figures and propagandists organize massive rallies decrying their lack of patriotism and reverence for their homeland. Families of North Koreans who have fled to the South face more dire consequences.

In the South, government support for North Koreans is dwindling. The growth of North-South tensions due to leaflets sent across the border by North Korean activists in the South has resulted in a surprising backlash. The South Korean government has recently begun to dismantle two major defectors' groups that have sent leaflets across the border via balloons. Police action is being taken against these organizations for transferring goods to North Korea without permits. Vocal organizations led by North Koreans are being silenced as a response to their anti-North Korean views.

"Since the beginning of the Moon Jae In administration in May 2017, government support has nearly stopped for defectors' groups that are critical of the Kim regime,” noted the head of the World Institute for North Korea Studies in South Korea, An Chan Il who is himself a North Korean defector.

Serving the Unseen

Clouded uncertainties have pervaded the work of Crossing Borders since its beginning in 2003. Helping refugees half a world away has always been in the midst of uncontrollable and unpredictable circumstances that are outside of our control. But our hopes to share compassion with North Koreans who need help have not changed.

While the future still remains unknown, Crossing Borders is continuing its efforts to serve North Korean refugees and defectors in China and in South Korea. Most recently, Crossing Borders officially completed its opening ceremony to officially establish Elim House, a safe house for North Korean defectors in South Korea. There have been so many challenges in 2020, but we have faith that very soon, the doors of this shelter will open to those who need it most.

Please help Crossing Borders, even in the midst of these difficult times, to offer constant and unchanging grace and kindness with North Koreans.

Crash Landing on You Review

Written by Yoon (Intern for Crossing Borders)

It would be an understatement to say that Netflix’s Crash Landing On You has been one of 2020’s biggest television hits. According to Nielsen Korea, ratings peaked at 24.1 percent as the show quickly became the second-highest-rated Korean cable drama in history. With its first episode airing in December of 2019 and the series finale in February of 2020, the show seemed to be a perfect package delivered just in time for the quarantine bingefests. The show tells a tale of two star-crossed lovers, which becomes a vehicle to highlight the show’s true appeal: a rare glimpse into North Korea.

Mostly shot in South Korea and Switzerland, the romantic comedy follows the love story of chaebol (a member of South Korea’s economic elite) Yoon Se-Ri, heiress to her family’s powerful conglomerate, who accidentally paraglides across the DMZ into North Korea and literally falls into the arms of Ri Jeong-Hyeok, a captain of the North Korean army and son of one of the highest political figures in the regime. Se-Ri, whose unpowered paraglide managed to slide by the border undetected, must now remain hidden in Jeong-Hyeok’s nearby rural village and find a way to re-enter South Korea, all the while falling in love with Captain Ri and facing the consequences that ensue. 

As endearingly unrealistic as this may already sound, the show also features a number of additional k-drama tropes that are all too familiar: a crew of goofy side characters, a council of village ahjummas (middle-aged women), a play of money politics by the Korean elite and a threatening villain from whom the protagonists must protect one another. The spin this time, however, is that much of the story takes place on the other side of the Korean border, in a country so inaccessible on television and even less so in real life.

What I, along with many others, found most interesting about the show was the peek into mundane life in North Korea. Much of what is depicted in Crash Landing is like a slightly distorted mirror of what we see in South Korea— certain aspects of society seem like a carbon copy while others are dramatically different. One of the features my parents, in particular, enjoyed while watching this show was hearing the dialects of the North Korean villagers and seeing the slight nuances in commonly used Korean phrases that are highlighted in the subtitles. Following this, the ambience of the marketplaces and rural village neighborhoods somehow seem reminiscent of a South Korea from the distant past. My mom even mentioned to me that her friend, who grew up in rural South Korea, remembers taking part in the morning village exercises before school that the show’s North Korean children participate in. 

On the other hand, the series also features elements of North Korea that are less recognizable to those from the South: frequent blackouts due to the electricity shortage, propaganda-projecting bullhorns perched throughout the village and hungry orphans hiding under marketplace tents. The series also includes the two countries’ primary divergence— namely, North Korea’s extremely oppressive communist government. Although the Kim dynasty is rarely mentioned in the show explicitly, the drama portrays the brutal prison camps and secret political tactics that we know are present within the country. More than anything, however, what I find the show captures most powerfully is simply what it must feel like to live under a regime as ruthless and silencing as that of North Korea. The government-mandated house checks, microphone bugs, and underground network of eavesdroppers make even the viewers feel as if they are a vulnerable threat. 

It is very likely that the show is not an entirely accurate portrayal of life in North Korea. Although the creators recruited a North Korean defector to help write the script and piece together his knowledge of this secret country, many have noted that the show depicts North Korea as more pleasant than it really is. Still other details are certainly questionable as well, such as the super-rich Pyongyang family who sends their daughter off to study abroad in Switzerland and the young North Korean soldier who secretly watches k-dramas from the south. 

Despite the myths that may need to be verified, however, one thing that is undeniable is that Crash Landing on You paints a picture of North Korea that has not been envisioned before. No matter how inaccurate or dramaticized it may be, this portrait is perhaps one of the only forms of media that offers an alternative narrative to the cold, mechanistic headlines of North Korea we see too often; rather, it is a human story that draws on more than just a paranoid dictator and his obsession with nuclear weapons. For the first time, this show dares to imagine, if even just a caricature, what daily life for North Korean people may or may not look like. 

After watching the series and noting its viral impact, the one thing I took away from Crash Landing on You is this: people are curious about North Korea. Without even knowing it ourselves, we are itching to know and to see what lies behind the walls of the world’s most reclusive country— even if we have to imagine it. When you think about it this way, the connection between a lighthearted k-drama and an organization like Crossing Borders is more closely tied than it may seem. Evidently, there is a side of us that wants to imagine North Korea in all its humanity, to hear stories of real people and to match them with their actual faces and names— perhaps of those like the refugees and orphans Crossing Borders ministers to today. And if we can channel this kind of curiosity and interest in the North Korean people towards a compassion to genuinely serve and pray for them, well, we may just be on the right track.